Measurements of different sizes

"Sally Holmes" wrote in message
...
Will wrote:
Hi Everyone

I wonder if anyone here can help? My friend really enjoys making
clothes for friends and family and is considering making some articles
for sale. What she would like to do is make clothes "off the rack"
without having to measure the person beforehand. What I would like is
to buy her a book with all the measurements for the standard sizes
(i.e. a size 12 dress is x cm around the waist y cm long, etc). Does
anyone know of a good source for such information?

Commercial clothing patterns have tables showing the measurements for each
size. Burda used to be particularly good as they had a booklet that listed
things like shoulder length and nape-to-waist as well as the standard
bust,
waist, hip. I haven't seen one over here recently so I don't know if
they've
stopped producing them or if they're just not available in the UK. Also,
every patternmaking book (a good one is Winifred Aldrich's Metric Pattern
Making, ISBN 0632036125, available from www.amazon.co.uk) I've seen has a
table of standard sizes. The books are much more detailed than patterns.

However, your friend needs to be aware that many RTW designers use "vanity
sizing". This means that a garment labelled size 8 is really a 12. Someone
who's size 12, it is reasoned, will buy the size 8 because - hey! if this
fits me, I'm a size 8, right? So your friend really needs to take account
of
this or possibly lose customers who won't buy a size 12, even though it
fits, because they want the label to say 8.

HTH

--
Sally Holmes
Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England


I use vanity measuring for my customers. ; ) Very few seem to comprehend
centimetres, even the young ones I see for bridesmaids and prom dresses, so
thats what I measure them in!. Myself I measure in inches if I really have
to : ( buy metres length of 45 or 60" width, use fahrenheit for when its
warm and centigrade for when its cold and can only cope with cooking on gas
'coz oven temperatures leave me bamboozled.
Liz.

On Tue, 2 Sep 2003 16:19:21 +0000 (UTC), Liz Cork
wrote:


"Sally Holmes" wrote in message
...
Will wrote:
Hi Everyone

I wonder if anyone here can help? My friend really enjoys making
clothes for friends and family and is considering making some articles
for sale. What she would like to do is make clothes "off the rack"
without having to measure the person beforehand. What I would like is
to buy her a book with all the measurements for the standard sizes
(i.e. a size 12 dress is x cm around the waist y cm long, etc). Does
anyone know of a good source for such information?

Commercial clothing patterns have tables showing the measurements for
each
size. Burda used to be particularly good as they had a booklet that
listed
things like shoulder length and nape-to-waist as well as the standard
bust,
waist, hip. I haven't seen one over here recently so I don't know if
they've
stopped producing them or if they're just not available in the UK. Also,
every patternmaking book (a good one is Winifred Aldrich's Metric
Pattern
Making, ISBN 0632036125, available from www.amazon.co.uk) I've seen has
a
table of standard sizes. The books are much more detailed than patterns.

However, your friend needs to be aware that many RTW designers use
"vanity
sizing". This means that a garment labelled size 8 is really a 12.
Someone
who's size 12, it is reasoned, will buy the size 8 because - hey! if
this
fits me, I'm a size 8, right? So your friend really needs to take
account
of
this or possibly lose customers who won't buy a size 12, even though it
fits, because they want the label to say 8.

HTH

--
Sally Holmes
Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England


I use vanity measuring for my customers. ; ) Very few seem to comprehend
centimetres, even the young ones I see for bridesmaids and prom dresses,
so
thats what I measure them in!. Myself I measure in inches if I really
have
to : ( buy metres length of 45 or 60" width, use fahrenheit for when its
warm and centigrade for when its cold and can only cope with cooking on
gas
'coz oven temperatures leave me bamboozled.
Liz.




Thanks so much for your advice everyone! This is a very friendly group
I'm chasing up all of your links-very much appreciated. I have decided to
put together a bundle of as much information as possible so that she has
everything she might need (it's her birthday coming up). If anyone else has
any book recommendations or sources of info they find helpful I'd be very
interested.

Thanks again

Will



--
Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/

I use the measurement charts from ready-to-wear catalogs as a
guideline to RTW sizes/measurements - for example the JC Penney
catalog is pretty standard for middle-of-the road price clothes. High
end clothes do tend to be less uniform (see replies regarding vanity
sizing),
I'm sure you can find the measurement charts for these catalogs
online. Another source would be the Landsend.com catalog site as
another comparison.

hth
Nancy

On 2 Sep 2003 03:29:57 -0700, (Will) wrote:

Hi Everyone

I wonder if anyone here can help? My friend really enjoys making
clothes for friends and family and is considering making some articles
for sale. What she would like to do is make clothes "off the rack"
without having to measure the person beforehand. What I would like is
to buy her a book with all the measurements for the standard sizes
(i.e. a size 12 dress is x cm around the waist y cm long, etc). Does
anyone know of a good source for such information? I would be really
grateful if anyone could help- I'd really like to encourage her to
make a go of it!

Thanks in advance

Will

Tom and Nancy Teigen wrote:
I use the measurement charts from ready-to-wear catalogs as a
guideline to RTW sizes/measurements - for example the JC Penney
catalog is pretty standard for middle-of-the road price clothes. High
end clothes do tend to be less uniform (see replies regarding vanity
sizing),

JCPenney has had vanity sizing for at least 5 years -- it's a one-size
differential. I think Sears (pre-Land's End) had more standard sizing
than JCPenney.

--
I know God will not give me anything I can't handle.
I just wish that He didn't trust me so much. - Mother Teresa