No matter what your reason for measuring clothing, there is a certain way to do it. Since you probably didn’t go to design school, here we’ll discuss the proper ways to measure. To measure a garment manually, you’ll need basic knowledge of clothes measuring and a proper measuring tape. In this post we’ll show you how to measure bottoms, specifically a pair of jeans.
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Preparation
You’ll want to make sure you have a flat surface to work on. So get setup at your kitchen table or at a desk. Make sure you have your jeans, measuring tape and a piece of paper to record your measurements on. We find it useful to use a digital notepad or a spreadsheet if you’ll be sharing these measurements with someone.
How To Measure The Waist On Your Jeans
Perhaps the most important area on any bottoms, the waist can be measured in two ways. Though for the purpose of this article we’ll show you how to measure the same way clothing designers do. To measure, lay your garment flat and align the front and rear waistbands to form a straight line. Place your measure tape at one edge of the waistband and measure across to the other edge. Double this measurement.
How To Measure The Hip On Your Jeans
For many out there, the hip measurement is actually the most important with regard to fit. Being pear shaped, or having an athletic lower half, will cause your hips to be wider than your waist. Finding a good fit at the hips is important, because you can always have the waist taken in if need be. Not so much for the hip area.
To measure, locate the widest part of the hip area as best you can. Most of the time it lies between the top of the pocket and bottom of the zipper. Measure from edge to edge, straight across the garment. Double this measurement. Be sure not to stretch the garment too much as you perform your measurements. This can easily change a measurement by an inch or more, thus throwing off your accuracy.
How To Measure Front Rise
When learning how to measure bottoms, the front rise is the area that determines how high a garment sits on ones waist. As all of us has our own unique height, weight an torso length, this measurement is highly preference based with regard to fit. If you’re overly short or tall, you’ll want to get a handle on what this measurement is for most of your bottoms. It will help during your online shopping in the future.
To measure, spread the legs on your garment and find the crotch seam. Measure from here to the top of the waist band along the zipper seam. As shown in the photo, fashion designers will do their best to position the garment so the front rise is a straight line measurement. This makes it much easier, and less error prone, than simply folding the leg over and measuring along the “J” shaped line.
How To Measure Thigh
This measurement tends to be more personal preference than anything. It will determine if you like your bottoms to be snug or loose on your upper leg. Again, depending on the look you’re going for, you’ll want this to be a little larger than the jeans you measuring, or a little smaller. Lucky for us, today most garments are made with stretchy material and most garments.
To measure the thigh, locate a point 1-3 inches below the crotch seam (or the widest part of the thigh), measure from edge to edge parallel to the leg opening. Double this measurement. If you’re interested in another measurement on this section of the garment, you could measure the knee. Depending on the garment shape (skinny, straight or flared leg), the knee should be just a few more inches down from the thigh. Anywhere from 5-12 inches down depending on the inseam length.
If you’re measuring a pair of shorts, the thigh measurement can either be the same as the leg opening or at some point halfway between the leg opening and the crotch point.
How To Measure Inseam On Your Jeans
To measure, with the legs slightly apart, locate the crotch seam and measure from here down to the leg bottom, following the natural contour of the leg as best you can.
Many times, retailers will also measure the outseam of a garment. This is the area on the outside of the leg, measured from the top of the waistband down to the leg opening. This helps folks determine the general amount of material above the crotch point on a garment.
How To Measure The Leg Opening
Prefer skinny jeans over bootcut? Straight leg over slim? This measurement will can partially help determine the type of pants you’re looking at. To measure, place your tape at one edge of the leg bottom and measure straight across to the other edge. Double this measurement.