Garment measurements

Garment measurements describe the product: how wide the shirt is across the chest, how long the sleeve is, how big the waistband is. They are usually taken with the garment laid flat on a table, edge to edge. A body chart says "if you measure this, take this size"; a garment chart says "this is how big the shirt is".

The two are never equal for the same size. The gap between them is ease, the room a garment needs over the body.

How to measure

1. Lay the garment flat, front up, buttoned or zipped.
2. Smooth it with your hands without pulling: a knit stretched on the table measures larger than it is.
3. Measure straight across for widths (chest pit to pit, waist, hips) and along the garment for lengths.
4. Measure the same points on every size.
5. Say "laid flat" in the header. A flat width is half the circumference; a length is never doubled.

How to measure a garment flat shows where the tape goes for each point.

On a size chart

Ruban Size's men's T-shirts template gives them a tab of their own:

The M's 53 cm flat is a 106 cm chest around, made for a body of 96 to 103 cm.

In Ruban Size

Find my size always asks shoppers for body measurements, then converts. It spots garment rows from header words such as flat, laid, half, pit to pit, garment or product, and from values too small for an adult body (a chest under 72 cm, a waist under 52, hips under 68). It doubles flat values, adds ease for the garment type and the fit the shopper picks, and says so in the answer. When a header doesn't say, set Measurements in the table to Garment measurements in the chart's Fit and Find my size tab.