A simple, repeatable way to take the measurements that actually matter, with the drafting chart we cut from.
Measure over the undergarments you will actually wear with the finished garment. This sounds obvious and is the single most common reason a pattern that was drafted correctly still does not fit.
Keep the tape snug but not tight — you should be able to slip one finger under it comfortably. Stand relaxed, breathe normally, and do not hold your stomach in. A measurement taken while braced produces a garment you cannot sit down in.
Get someone else to take your back measurements if you possibly can. Reaching around yourself changes the position of your shoulder blades, and the back width comes out short every time.
Blouse measurement chart
This is our drafting chart, not a garment size guide. Each row is an upper chest measurement — the frame measurement taken above the bust, across the top of the ribcage — and each cell is the span we can draft for it, in inches. Upper chest is not the same as a garment size, and it is the figure that decides the neckline, the shoulder and the armhole.
Centre chest, back and front neck height, dart point and hand round are asked for on the order form as well. Waist loose is left out of the table on purpose: it is set by the centre chest you pick rather than by the upper chest, so printing it here would put a number beside a size that does not decide it.
Your measurement not in the chart? Nothing here is interpolated — if a combination falls outside it we call you rather than guess a size the workshop cannot cut. Pick a pattern and enter your own figures, and we draft to those.