Measuring Your Body for Custom Clothing

Recently I placed an order with TaoBaoNow, and they have been fantastic. But that purchase review will come much laterzz..
For now, let's go over how to measure yourself for custom clothing! :D


The blouse I ordered needed to be custom sized because none of the sizes available would really fit me, and require tailoring. So I chose to spend an extra $20 and have it made for my body.

In terms of measuring, it's important to double-measure everything, to make sure you did it correctly. I can't tell you how stressful it was trying to decide if my shoulders were 33 or 36 cm, and then I measured again and found they were 34. -_-;; To save time and a headache, PLEASE PLEASE just double tap. :D

This is a short walk-through of how to measure your entire body for custom creation, from bonnets to boots. <4

Ta-da! Here you have a hand-drawn chart of my measurements, all in centimeters! Now it's time to break it down and go over how and why we want all these numbers floating around.

HEAD

This is where we get our measurements for wig caps and bonnets. You wanna measure starting between your eyebrows and around horizontally. To get the second measurement, start where your neck meets the spot under your jaw and measure up and around, as shown in the drawing.

NECK

This is where we get our measurements for chokers. You can also maybe use this for custom collars..? You just pick a section in the middle of your neck and measure horizontally.

SHOULDERS, ARMS, and WRISTS

This is where we get our measurements for blouses, OPs, coats, jackets, cutsews, vests.. and others. :) For shoulders, raise your arm. There is a divot between your shoulder muscle and your bicep, and you use this point on either arm as the anchors for your arms to your body. Measure between them and you have your shoulders measurement. If you go from the anchor to your wrist, you have your arm length. If you go from the anchor to your elbow, you have half-arm length. To measure wrist, just measure around horizontally.

BUST, WAIST, and HIPS

These are the three most common measurements, not only for custom sizing but trading BWH stats. This is where we get our measurements for OPs, blouses, JSKs, SKs, petticoats, and anything you have to fit over your chest or past your butt. To find bust, measure around the fullest part of your boobs. To find waist, bend to the side and find where it wrinkles in the middle. That's the smallest part between your boobs and butt; the waist. To measure hips, measure around the chubbiest part of your butt/widest part of your thighs and around horizontally. All of these measurements are horizontal.

INSEAM, THIGHS, ANKLES, and FEET

This is where we get our measurements for pants, bloomers/drawers, and shoes. Your inseam is measured from your crotch to the floor. Not to your ankle!! Measure all the way to the floor! For thighs, measure the middle part of your thigh, or if there is a significant difference, the biggest part of your thigh, around horizontally. You can find your ankle bone and measure around horizontally to get your ankle measurement.

**Feet are another deal entirely. Get a standard piece of printer paper. Step on it. Mark with a pencil or pen where the back of your heel and the tip of your toes are. Remove your foot and measure the distance between the two marks. This is how long your feet are, and use this measurement to find your shoe size on a SHOE CHART.**

Well.. That's all for now, hopefully these really bad doodles can help you measure yourself and make your own body chart! <4