How to measure a dress for your size chart

A dress chart needs four numbers per size: bust, waist and hips decide the size, the length decides where it falls on the body. This guide is for merchants measuring their samples, and works the same for a shopper measuring a dress that fits to compare with a new one.

You need a flat table, a tape measure, and one finished dress of each size. Measure a second one of each size if you can: the two should agree.

How to measure a dress laid flat

1. Close it and lay it flat. Zip, buttons and hooks done up, front facing up, ties laid out to the sides. Smooth it with your hands without pulling: a jersey or a bias cut stretched on the table measures larger than it is.
2. Bust. Straight across the front, from one armpit seam to the other, just below the armholes. That's half the bust.
3. Waist. Straight across at the narrowest point, or along the waist seam if the dress has one. Also a half.
4. Hips. Straight across the widest part of the skirt at hip level. Pick a distance below the waist and keep it for every size. On a straight or pencil cut, this is where the dress is tightest on the body.
5. Length. From the highest point of the shoulder, beside the neckline, straight down to the hem. On a strapless dress, from the top edge. The Dresses template's garment tab is captioned exactly that way: "Garment length, from shoulder to hem".
6. Hem width, for straight and pencil cuts: straight across the bottom edge. It tells shoppers whether they can walk in it.
7. Shoulders and sleeves, if it has them: shoulder seam to shoulder seam across the back, and shoulder seam to the end of the cuff.
8. Write it down per size, in one unit, rounded the same way for every size.

The difference from one size to the next should go up in steady steps. A jump or a dip is worth measuring again.

Body measurements or the dress itself

The two describe different things. Body measurements say who a size fits; garment measurements describe the dress, and are larger, by the room a cut leaves. The Dresses template uses both, in two tabs. The first holds body measurements:

The second, "Garment length", gives the dress itself: 92, 94, 96, 98, 100 and 102 cm from shoulder to hem, XS to XXL. Shoppers choose a size from the body tab and check the length against their own, measured from the top of the shoulder to where they want the hem.

If you only have the dress measurements, publish those, laid flat, under headers that say so. Here is an example chart for this article, in centimeters:

Doubled, an M measures 104 cm at the bust, 80 cm at the waist and 110 cm at the hips. More on the two kinds of numbers in body vs garment measurements.

Common mistakes

• Halves without saying so. Under a plain "Bust (cm)" header, 52 reads like a body nobody has.
• Whole dress measurements in a body chart. A 104 cm bust next to "Bust" tells a shopper with a 104 cm bust to take a dress with no room in it.
• Hips at different heights from one size to the next.
• Stretching knits or bias cuts on the table.
• Length from different points: the shoulder for one size, the neckline for the next.
• An open zip, which lets the waist spread.

What it means for a Shopify store

• One kind of number per table. Body or garment, never both in one grid. Two tabs if you have both.
• Headers that say what they are: "Bust, laid flat (cm)" or "Garment length, from shoulder to hem".
• How to choose between sizes. A dress has to close at the bust, the waist and the hips at once, so shoppers should go by their largest measurement. The template's fit note: "Between two sizes? Take the larger one for a relaxed fit."
• Say if it stretches. A jersey dress with the same measurements as a woven one fits a larger body, so the right size can be one smaller.

How Ruban Size reads a dress chart

Find my size first works out what the table holds.

Garment or body. Header words such as "garment", "flat" or "laid" mark garment measurements; "flat", "laid", "half" or "width" mark halves, which it doubles. Values count too: on an adult chart, a bust under 72 cm, a waist under 52 cm or hips under 68 cm can't be a body, so they're read as laid flat. When neither says, the chart's Fit tab does, under "Measurements in the table".

The room. On garment measurements it adds ease for a dress and the fit the shopper chose, in centimeters around the body:

The bust and hip values are the midpoints of the Vogue, Butterick and McCall's ease allowances; the waist starts from the 1 in minimum given in Threads #221 (2023).

A worked example. On the example chart above, a shopper with a 92 cm bust, 74 cm waist and 100 cm hips, Regular fit: 92 + 11.6 = 103.6, 74 + 5.2 = 79.2, 100 + 9 = 109. All three land in M: "Your size: M", each line in the middle of the range, and the note "This chart gives the garment's own measurements: we added room for the fit you chose." With "Fit I like: Loose", the bust and the waist move to L and the answer reads "You are between M and L. We suggest L."

What a missing label costs. Put the same doubled numbers (94, 99, 104 and so on) under plain "Bust (cm)", "Waist (cm)" and "Hips (cm)" headers, with nothing in the tab or the Fit tab, and they're large enough to be bodies. The same shopper then reads "You are between XS and S. We suggest S.": a size too small, with an even smaller one as the alternative. Call the tab "Garment measurements" and the answer is M again.

Stretch. Turn on "Stretch fabric" in the Fit tab for a jersey dress and a little of the room comes off: the same shopper gets S.

Body charts. On the Dresses template itself, Find my size goes by the largest measurement. A 98 cm bust, 72 cm waist and 100 cm hips reads "You are between M and L. We suggest L.", because the bust alone points to L. The length tab isn't marked as a measurement, so it shows but doesn't move the answer.

Questions

How do you measure a dress laid flat?

Close it, lay it front up and smooth it without stretching. Measure straight across the bust from armpit to armpit, across the waist and the hips, and from the top of the shoulder to the hem; double the widths for the measurements around.

Where is dress length measured from?

From the highest point of the shoulder, beside the neckline, straight down to the hem. On a strapless dress, from the top edge.

Should a dress size chart show body or garment measurements?

Body measurements are easier for shoppers to match, and garment measurements describe the dress exactly. Two tabs, one for each, serve both.

How much bigger than my bust should a dress be?

For a regular fit, about 11.6 cm (4½ in) around the bust, from the Vogue, Butterick and McCall's ease allowances. About 8.9 cm for a fitted dress and 16.7 cm for a loose one.