How to measure shoulder width and sleeve length

Shoulder width is the distance across your back from one shoulder point to the other: the bony tips where the arm meets the shoulder. Sleeve length starts at that shoulder point and ends at the wrist bone, measured over a slightly bent elbow. Dress shirts start the sleeve at the center back of the neck instead, which is why their sleeve numbers are much larger.

Both are lengths that charts usually give as garment measurements, so the easiest way is often to measure a jacket or a shirt that already fits you well.

How to measure your shoulders, step by step

You need a helper for this one.

1. Stand straight, arms relaxed at your sides, in a thin T-shirt.
2. Find the shoulder points. Your helper feels for the bony tip at the outer end of each shoulder, where the shoulder seam of a shirt that fits sits.
3. Measure across the back, from one point to the other, the tape following the curve of the upper back.
4. Read and note it, with the unit.

How to measure your sleeve length

1. Bend your arm slightly, hand resting on your hip. A straight, stiff arm gives a short reading.
2. From the shoulder point, run the tape down the outside of the arm, over the elbow, to the wrist bone.
3. For a dress shirt, start at the center back of the neck (the bone you feel at the base of the neck when you bow your head), go across the shoulder to the shoulder point, then down to the wrist as above.
4. Write down which method you used next to the number.

Or measure a garment that fits

1. Lay it flat, buttoned, front up, sleeves smoothed out.
2. Shoulders: measure straight across, from one shoulder seam to the other.
3. Sleeve: from the shoulder seam, along the top of the sleeve, to the end of the cuff. Raglan sleeves have no shoulder seam: measure them from the center back of the collar.

Common mistakes

• Mixing the two sleeve methods. A sleeve measured from the neck can't be compared with one measured from the shoulder.
• A straight arm, which shortens the reading.
• Guessing the shoulder points, too far in toward the neck or out over the arm.
• Measuring over a jacket.
• Comparing body and garment numbers. A jacket's shoulders and sleeves are cut larger than the body inside them. See body vs garment measurements.

Sleeves in the templates: where does the tape start?

Ruban Size's templates list sleeves as garment measurements:

The gap between a 65 cm jacket sleeve and an 88 cm shirt sleeve is not a difference of fit: it is where the tape starts. Jacket and top sleeves are measured from the shoulder seam. Shirt sleeves of 84 to 90 cm (33.1 to 35.4 in) and big and tall sleeves of 37 to 39 in are shirt numbers, read from the center back of the neck, the usual way for shirts. The templates don't say it in a caption, and your own chart should.

Length follows the same logic. The big and tall note says "Tall sizes (T) add about 2 in to the body and sleeve length. Choose by chest first." The petite note goes the other way: petite sizes are "cut for a height of 163 cm (5 ft 4 in) and under: shorter sleeves, legs and torso."

No template has a shoulder width row. Most charts let the chest decide and treat the shoulders as part of the cut, so if your shoulders are broad for your chest, compare a jacket you own with the garment measurements of the chart.

What it means for a Shopify store

Shoulders and sleeves are where shoppers with long arms or broad shoulders get stuck, and a chest size can't tell them. If your garments differ there, publish the numbers:

• In a garment tab, with a caption that says how they were measured: "laid flat, shoulder seam to cuff" or "center back of the neck to cuff".
• In both units, so a US shopper who knows their sleeve is 34 in can compare.
• With a picture of the garment, since a body figure can't show where a seam sits.

How Ruban Size handles shoulders and sleeves

In the Women's tops template and the Coats and jackets template, body measurements and garment measurements are two tabs: chest and waist (and hips on the tops) in one, lengths and sleeves in the other, under a caption. Every row has its unit, so the cm/in switch converts sleeves and lengths too, with fractions such as 34 ½ in if you choose them.

The How to measure block links each step to a measurement, and its body figure draws the measurements Find my size works with: neck, chest, bust, underbust, waist, hips, inseam, height and head. Shoulder width and sleeve length are not among them. For those, add a second How to measure block in the garment tab, set its drawing to "My own image, or none", use a photo of the garment laid flat with the tape on it, and leave each step's highlight on "Nothing".

Find my size picks the size from the body circumferences, the chest first on tops and jackets; the sleeve and shoulder rows stay in the guide for shoppers to compare. On the Men's big and tall template, that is its own advice: choose by chest first, then read the length. For dress shirts, the neck comes before both, as the neck measuring guide explains.

Questions

How do you measure shoulder width?

Across the top of the back, from the bony tip of one shoulder to the other, with a helper. On a garment laid flat, measure straight across from one shoulder seam to the other.

Where does sleeve length start?

On jackets, coats and most tops, at the shoulder seam, or the shoulder point on the body. On dress shirts, at the center back of the neck. Check the chart's caption.

Why is my shirt sleeve number so much bigger than my jacket sleeve?

Because shirt sleeves are usually measured from the center back of the neck, which adds the distance across half the back to the arm. The arm is the same.

Can I measure a shirt I own instead of myself?

Yes, and for sleeves and shoulders it is often better. Lay it flat, measure seam to seam for the shoulders and shoulder seam to cuff for the sleeve, then compare with the chart's garment measurements, not the body ones.