Everyone loves wearing clothes that fit your body to every inch. It doesn’t matter if you wear readymade clothes or stitched clothes, you must know the measurement of your body. Since online shopping is in trend these days, the number of online shoppers has increased a lot. Before buying apparel online, one thing that everyone must know about is the measurements of the body. If you don’t know what size fits you best then you can end up buying some wrong sized clothes. Remember that size measurements like small, medium, and large are not perfect measurements because every company and website has different denominations for the sizes.

Here in this post, we are going to tell you how you can take accurate body measurements for clothing. One thing that determines perfect measurement is the clothes you are wearing during the measurement. While doing a measurement of your body parts, make sure you are wearing close-fitting garments and not heavy things like jackets, jeans, or a coat. The best thing about doing a body measurement is that even a single person can do that without needing any additional help. Just stand in front of the mirror and ensure that the measuring tape is in the right position. Don’t forget to write down every measurement so you can have a complete overview of your body measurement.

Also Read: How To Buy Sewing Machines

How To Measure For Women’s Clothing

Bust

When it comes to measuring the bust, there are a few things that a female must keep in mind before taking the measurements. The first thing you need to ensure that you are not wearing a padded bra or thick top. If possible, then you can remove every clothing before taking the measurements. It will help you in getting the right measurement of your bust.

Place one end of the measuring tape in the middle of your bust and then scroll the tape from round of your back to the starting point. Make sure the tape is horizontal and aligned parallel to the floor else there can be a misjudgment. If there is someone to help you, then you can take help from them for accurate measurement.

Waist

Next comes to the waist and to measure it you don’t need to take help from anyone. Measuring waist is one of the easiest things a person can do, either man or woman. You need to wrap the measuring tape around your waistline which is said to be about 2 inches above your belly button. Though it depends on the body structure and size of a person.

To get accurate measurements, we will recommend you to place the measuring tape where the body bends. Do not suck in your stomach else you will get wrong measurements. Waist must not be measured from where your pants start because some people prefer wearing it higher, while some lower. The correct way is to measure 2 inches above your belly button.

Hip

If you are able to measure your waist, then you can measure your hips too. To get the best measurements, wrap the measuring tape around the largest part of your hips and not where they start from. If you are comfortable, then you can remove your undergarments too so you can get the best possible measurement of your hips.

If not, then take out your pants at least and then take the measurement. Just for the information let us tell you that hips must be measured 8 inches below where you have measured your waist. But it completely depends on your height and the posture of your body. If you are taking it yourself, then stand in front of a mirror to check if the tape is in level.

Inseam

Inseam is the distance from the top-most point of your inner thigh to the bottom of your ankle. The length of inseam depends on the clothes you are going to buy with this measurement. For full-length pants and trousers, you must take the measurement till the bottom of your ankle, while for something shorter like pants you can keep it 1-2 inch lesser.

While measuring the inseam you must stand straight against a wall. If you don’t have someone to help you with measuring them, then you can take another pair of pants and trousers to measure them. If you wear heels, then we recommend keeping the measurement 2 inches less than what you have got till the bottom of your ankle from the crotch.

How To Measure For Men’s Clothing

Neck

Taking measurement of the neck is one of the easiest work. Wrap the measuring tape around your neck but make sure you have placed it in the middle. Take the tape from behind to the front side of your neck and make sure the tape ends just above the collar bone. You don’t have to look down, up, right, or left to keep your neck straight.

If you are taking the measurements yourself, then consider using a mirror. It doesn’t matter what types of stitches in your clothes, you are going to buy with this measurement, but always put one finger in between the measuring tape and your neck to get clothing that is not too tight on your neck. For women, the deepness of neck can be adjusted according to clothing.

Chest

The measurement of the men’s chest is taken the same just like women’s bust measurement. Take the measuring tape and measure the inner part of your armpits covering the widest part of your chest. If you are taking the measurement for formal clothing like blazer, coats, and shirts, then add 1-2 inches to the final measurement for better fitting.

If you are taking help from someone while measuring it, then you must stand straight in a relaxed position. If not, then you can take the help of a mirror to ensure that the tape is straight. Taking measurement of the chest is one of the easiest measurements to take in men’s bodies.

Waist

By keeping the measuring tape just above your belly button you will be able to take the measurement of a men’s waist. If you are fat and not sure where to measure your waist, then you can bend on one side and locate the natural waistline on the other side. You can keep on finger on that location and then place measuring tape on it.

You must keep the measuring tape straight and parallel to the ground to get exact waist measurement in men. Also, for best results, we will recommend you to keep 1 finder in between your body and the inch tape. This will help you in getting clothes that are neither too tight nor too loose for your body and you will feel relaxed.

Hip & Inseam

Both men and women have the same procedure of measuring the inseam and hip size. There is absolutely no difference between the two. If you have not read how to take the hip measurement above, then we will tell you about it now too. For best results, stand straight and wrap the measuring tape around your largest hip part.

For inseam measurement, you must take the top-most point on your inner thigs and bottom of your ankle as the part to be measured. If you want to get fit clothing, then you can also take measurement of your things by wrapping the measurement tape around your things. Make sure you are taking the largest part measurement.

Shoulder Width

Mark a straight line going upwards from each side of your armpits to the shoulders. The distance between those two points will be called as your shoulder width. Well, many people might not consider it as necessary measurement but if you are going to buy clothes with perfect fitting, then you must know about this length too.

If you are going to do stitching at home using home sewing machines, then this measurement will come really handy. You can combine the chest measurement with this measurement to get a perfect fitting shirt or t-shirt. A lot of websites and offline stores have started listing shoulder width in men’s clothing so people can buy accordingly.

Sleeve Length

This measurement is also known as arm length measurement and this measurement is taken only when you are buying a full-sleeved shirt, coat, jacket, or a t-shirt. If you are taking the sleeve length then take the starting point from where you have started taking the shoulder measurement. That is, right above the armpit to your shoulders.

Then you need to measure down to the starting point of your arm, i.e. your wrist. Remember that sleeve or arm length is measurement is taken of the entire hand even if you are looking for 3/4 or half-sleeve clothes. While taking this measurement, you can bend down your hand a little bit as it helps in getting perfect sleeve length.

Final Words

So this is all about how to take body measurements for clothing male and female. We hope you have got an idea of how the measurements must be taken. Men and women both have different body structure and that is why we have mentioned the steps to measure both of them. You must use an inch tap for the measurement and if you don’t know how to do it properly, then take the help of someone.

We will keep this post updated with more information about how to measure clothes size, so keep visiting Quilted Sewing blog to know about it. By using the same methods mentioned above, you will be able to take body measurements for fitness too. If you are using any other method or you know some different methods like how to take body measurements for clothing, then let us know about it too.