Teach Me Tuesday

How To Read A Sewing Pattern for Proper Sizing

Hello Readers! I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday!

I originally wanted to share a self-drafted pattern tutorial with you but realized that it needed some tweaking before I released it.  For fear of missing my blog deadline for today.  I decided to make things easier on myself while addressing a common mistake that I see in beginner sewists.  That is choosing the right pattern size.  

We as women are accustomed to shopping based on a standard clothing size based on a sizing chart pre-determined by the clothing industry.  We are not accustomed to taking our body measurements let alone choosing our clothing size based on actual body measurements.  The men's clothing industry on the hand is very opposite of this especially in the area of pants, suits and button down suit shirts where they use actual measurements to identify the fit of the garment.

For example: If you ask a man what is his pants size he will say: 34" in the waist and 36" in the length.  He's answering you based on the actual measurement of his waist and the length from his waist to his desired pants leg length. Whereas women will say...." I wear a size 6 and have no idea what her waist measurement is.  Interesting isn't it?

So with that said.... Sewing is the complete opposite of the mass produced ready to wear garment industry.  You have to know your body measurements in order to identify the pattern that is going to get you the most proper fit.  Yay!!! How exciting!!! 

So to make this easier to explain and hopefully for you to understand as well I put together a little video tutorial for you on how to choose the right pattern size.  I hope you enjoy.  Questions or Comments are always welcome!