Professor Pincushion: Hello and welcome to Professor Pincushion. In this tutorial I'm
going to show you how you can take your measurements. Accurate measurements are one of the most
important parts of sewing, for getting well fitted clothes. Never assume that you are
ready to wear clothing size is the same as pattern sizes because it's not. Pattern
companies have their own system of sizing. What you are going to need is you are going
to need a flexible tape measure, you are going to need a measurement chart like this one
which you can get on the back of the pattern look book, you can get it on the website.
Or you can also get it on the pattern envelope. This one has it on the flap or sometimes it's
just on the back. You are also going to need a friend to help you, you shouldn't be taking
the measurements yourself because you need to stand nice and tall and no bending over.
We are going to be going over measurements for men and women and children but let's
start with women first.
When taking your measurements make sure that you are not wearing any bulky clothes. We
don't want to add any unnecessary inches. So for women you are going to be taking the
measurement of the circumference of your body of three major areas. This is going to be
your bust line so it's going to be the fullest part of your bust line. The waist line and
this is your natural waist line. So if you were to bend the top portion of your body
it's going to be where you get a crease in your side and it should be just right above
your belly button. And the last area is going to be the hip line. So this is going to be
the fullest part of the hip area. The last measurement you are going to get is from the
back so you can see I turned my mannequin around and you are going to start at the base
of the neck line, take your tape measure and measure down to your waist line. So that's
why I like to use either ribbon or string or elastic to tie around the major points
so that way I'm always staying consistent on where I'm measuring from. So this is
my waist line the same place where I am taking the circumference.
Most measurement charts give you the option of either measuring in inches or centimeters.
I normally always do it in inches, when you are taking the circumference of something
you are going to go around the whole body. So this is a side view of my mannequin and
we are going to do an example of the bust line. So I'm going around the whole thing,
the back, front and sides. And you can see I have the end of my tape measure here starting
at one and then I'm bringing the other side so I can get an accurate measurement of what
this is. So it's about under my tape measure. It's meeting at about 34 inches. Now I just
want to make sure that my tape measure is even all the way around the body. So it's
going straight across the back, the side and the front that's why I also have my ribbon
because then it gives me a guideline to look at to make sure that I'm doing it even.
And you want it to pull it tight but still be able to fit a couple of fingers underneath.
We don't want it too tight and no holding your breath; we don't need any cheating
because we want your clothes to feel comfortable.
Once you have all your measurements you can then try to figure out what pattern size you
are going to be. And you can see the pattern sizes in this chart are listed right here
on this side, and I just again want to point out that your retail sizing is not going to
match your pattern sizes. So if for example you normally always purchase a size four when
you go to stores, chances are, your pattern size may be a size 10 it's always larger
so there is no reason to worry that is perfectly normal. So you can see up here at the top
we have our measurements you have bust, waist, hip and then the back waist length which is
from the back of the neck, down to the natural waist line. And it's in inches and it's
also in centimeters. And all you are trying to do is take your measurements, line them
up in a row and then that row is going to be your size. Now I'm just using the Misses
as an example here. So these are sizes four through 26 and if I go down here there is
also women's and these sizes are larger and these are the sizes right here. But it's
the same sort of set up so I'm just using this one as an example.
Now sometimes what happens is we can't always fit neatly in a box and you won't be able
to decide on a size perfectly. They have this little diagram down here at the bottom and
what they are telling you is for jackets and shirts and tops and vests, they say it's
better to fit according to your bust line. So what this means is if you are making let's
say a shirt, you really want to make sure that you find the size for the bust line,
let me just move this down so that we can see that again so bust is number one. So maybe
my bust line is a 36 so I'm going to go ahead and do a size 14. That way we can make
sure that not only the bust line fits but also the shoulders and arms and everything
else is going to fit as well. But maybe my waist line is a 29, so it's a little bit
big bigger than what they say that your waist line should be for a size 14. There are ways
to alter your patterns in order to get them to fit for you without doing a huge thing
after the garment is already made you can do it before hand. We strongly recommend that
you watch our tutorials on increasing or decreasing your waist line and we also have one for hip
and bust line.
So you can still do the size 14 but then alter the pattern so you can increase the waist
line on your pattern piece. It's the same thing with the bottom so they are saying here
if you are doing pants, shorts or skirt, it's more important that you fit your hip line
and then if you need to make adjustments to the waist line you can do that as well. You
can also find a measurement chart usually on the pattern envelope this one is located
on the top flap. And I just want to point out that not all patterns carry all sizes.
This one right here only shows sizes 6 through 22 because that's all the sizes that this
particular pattern is carried in.
If you are curious if a pattern comes in your size, you can always find this information
on the product page in the pattern company's look book. And you can see that in this box
right here where it says size. This one is for European size and French sizes. So you
just look at the top one and you can see it comes in sizes 8 through 16 and 18W through
24W. This parenthesis mean that this is an envelope so one envelope is going to carry
these sizes 8 through 16 and another envelope is going to be sizes 18W through 24W.
Let's go ahead and go over the men's measurements. Now with men it's a little bit similar to
the women in that you are taking some of the same measurements. So the first one instead
of bust line you are going to be taking the chest measurements. So this is a circumference
around the widest part of your chest and this is going to be right underneath your arm pit
area. Then you are going to do the waist line and the hip line. The ones that are new for
men is going to be a circumference of the neck measurement, and then you are going to
be doing the sleeve measurement which is this one right here. So we are going to show you
how to do those two measurements in a minute. Let's take a look at this chart. So it has
the same sort of layout you have it in inches and you have it in centimeters and you'll
see we have chest waist, hip, shirt sleeve and the neck measurement or the band. The
sizes are here to the left and again you are trying to line up your measurements in a row
and then that's going to be your size. But they have a little cheat sheet down here.
So they are saying if you are doing a jacket or a vest, you should use your chest measurement
to get your size. If it's a shirt they are saying you should use the neck measurement.
And then for pants or shorts you should focus on the waist measurement. So if for example
if I'm doing a vest for a man, I would find his chest measurement let's say its 40 and
then use size 40 for my pattern. And don't forget if you pick up a men's style pattern,
you can also look at the measurement chart on the pattern as well.
To take the men's neck measurement, what you are going to do is you are going to have
the base of the neck and you can feel the collar bone and if you are going to go about
a couple of inches above that, right about over the Adam's Apple, since it's a circumference
measurement you are going to go around the whole thing. I have the front of my tape measure
and I'm going to bring it to meet with the other side of the measurement. So let me just
turn this around just a little bit. So it's going to be about 14 inches again you'd
want to make sure it's not too tight you can at least fit a finger under there because
you definitely don't want to choke the person you are taking the measurement of.
To take the sleeve measurement, I usually have the person that I'm taking the measurement
of bend their arms almost at a 90 degree angle and they can just rest their hand comfortably
on their waist. We are actually going to start on the back of the base of the neck. So we
are looking at the back side here and you are going to start in the middle of the neck,
somewhere about you can feel the spine. You grab my tape measure here so this is where
I'm going to start. You are going to come across the shoulder over the elbow and then
about where you want the sleeve to end. So in this case I'm just going to stop a little
bit past the wrist.
Let's go ahead and look at children's measurements. So the smaller the child the
less measurements you have to take. Let's take our first example here which is for the
infant. And you can see they are just taking in measurements of the height or the length
and then also the weight of the child. And you can see the size is over here but once
we get over to toddlers, now we are starting to add to that. So you still have the height
but now you are adding the waist and the chest. We have our sizes right here. Once you get
to children and girls and boys you are adding even more to it and this time they are going
to be the same for both children and then for girls and boys. I'm just going to go
ahead and use this one as the example. So you have the chest so this is going to be
the area underneath the armpit you are going to have waist, hip and to this we are going
to also add the back waist line. So this is at the base of the neck to the waist and then
you have your sizes listed right here in the chart. So once you know your correct pattern
size then you can go ahead, pick out your patterns and start sewing.
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