Nowadays, women have the opportunity to sew or buy clothes without leaving home. In order to enjoy the new thing, you need to know the rules for measuring hips and waist. Determining your body parameters is necessary for choosing clothes, for self-sewing, for weight control.
Tips before starting work
If you want to sew clothes for yourself or buy them online, then thanks to the ability to take measurements correctly, you can reduce the number of fittings, adjustments, or optimally choose the right size.
Before you start taking measurements, you should consider a number of tips from tailors:
- Before starting work, you need to make sure you have a suitable mirror; it should display the model from head to toe.
- When taking measurements for the purpose of sewing or purchasing dresses, skirts, trousers, all measurements must be taken using underwear with which the item of clothing will be worn. This requirement is due to the fact that different types of underwear individually adjust the figure, which affects the parameters of the girth. If in everyday life a woman constantly wears shapewear, then measurements can be taken over it. When such underwear is worn occasionally, it should be changed so as not to distort the results of the measurements.
- During the work, the model should stand upright, in a relaxed pose with relaxed abdominal and buttock muscles, so you should take into account that you may need the help of another person and take care of this in advance, since when the position of the body changes, the parameters of the measurements also change.
- In some cases, it is not necessary to take measurements on yourself. If there is no one to help, then measurements can be taken from clothes that fit well on the body. Then you need to take into account the concept of half-girths, that is, multiply the obtained waist and hip values by 2. This should also be taken into account when recording or reading the parameters.
- Before starting work, you should take care to have the tools that may be needed for this.
What devices can be used to take measurements?
You can measure a woman's waist and hips using a tape measure - a flexible tape with corresponding divisions. Its length is usually 1.5 m, and its width is 1.5 cm. The tape has a scale in centimeters and millimeters. There are products on sale that have centimeter divisions on one side and inch divisions on the other.
They are convenient for determining European and American sizes. The tape can be bought in any store that sells accessories, fabrics, sewing accessories. When choosing, you need to make sure that the material of the product is rubberized and durable, and that it does not stretch.
If you don’t have a tape measure at hand, you can do without it by using improvised tools:
- belt or waistband;
- pencil;
- Whatman paper sheet;
- ruler.
The belt or strap should be long enough to wrap around the waist or hips. At the same time, you need to make sure that the belt does not stretch and the belt is flexible.
In addition to the standard set of tools for taking measurements, there are a number of specific devices that help optimize work and increase the accuracy of measurements:
- Belts for horizontal measurements (determining waist and hip volume). They can be hand-made belts of different lengths made of non-stretchable material or tapes with divisions in the form of fasteners. These can be buttons, Velcro, buttons or hooks. Belts are made in a studio, each division indicates a standard size. With their help, you can absolutely accurately measure the circumference of the chest, waist, hips. If you want to make such a device at home, then calculations for intermediate values can be found on the Internet.
- Plumb line. The device is a belt made of regular measuring tapes, to which a weight is attached. Thanks to this trick, the tailor's tape measure drops down during hip measurement under the influence of gravity, that is, in the correct position without tension.
- Non-standard rulers. Special rulers for cutters help to take precise measurements. They are a regular ruler combined with a movable triangle. With their help, you can accurately determine the values of the most protruding parts of the body.
What are reference points and how to determine them correctly?
You can measure a woman's waist and hips incorrectly if you don't know how to determine and find reference points. They make the process of taking measurements much easier and reduce the time spent on it. Reference points are places on the human body where imaginary lines of different parts of the body intersect.
Their list includes the following places:
- The point where the neck meets the shoulder. It is located at the intersection of the base of the neck and the shoulder line. It can be used to obtain important measurements such as the length of the garment, the chest height, the length from the shoulder to the waist, and from the waist down the hips.
- The place where the shoulder connects to the arm.
- The point where the 7th cervical vertebra meets the neck line. This is the most prominent vertebra on the column at the base of the neck. It is used to measure the length of the garment to the waist.
- The most prominent point on the chest is in the center of the nipple. From there, you need to measure the chest height, the length to the waist in front and the shoulder height.
- The point where the spine intersects the base of the waist. The point located on the back where the midline of the spine intersects the waist. It is necessary to determine its volume. In the front, it is located slightly above the navel.
- The most prominent point on the buttocks, which is used to measure their girth, is located approximately in the middle of the hips.
How to record the measurements taken?
There are generally accepted abbreviations for the measurements taken, consisting of the first letters of the names:
- waist circumference – WC;
- hip circumference – HC;
- chest girth – OG.
To record half volumes, the letter "P" is added before the abbreviation. For example, POT is half waist circumference. It is most convenient to record measurements in the form of a table, in which their names are placed in the leftmost column, and halves, quarters and other necessary values are in the columns to the right.
Women need to measure their waist and hips to determine their clothing size. Each type of garment has its own size chart, which corresponds to hip and waist measurements.
Standards of Russian sizes for women with girth values are summarized in the table:
| Standard size | Hip measurements, cm | Waist measurements, cm |
| 42 | up to 95 | up to 69 |
| 44 | 95-98 | 69-73 |
| 46 | 98-101 | 73-77 |
| 48 | 101-104 | 77-81 |
| 50 | 104-108 | 81-85 |
| 52 | 108-112 | 85-90 |
| 54 | 112-116 | 90-95 |
| 56 | 116-120 | 95-98 |
| 58 | 120-124 | 98-102 |
| 60 | 124-128 | 102-105 |
How to measure your waist and hips correctly
To obtain accurate measurement results, cutters recommend adhering to the following rules:
- Measurements of the buttocks volume should be taken at their most convex part. In this case, if a person is right-handed, then measurements are taken from the right side, and left-handed people, respectively, from the left.
- When taking measurements, you must stand with your back straight, but at the same time not strain yourself: do not pull in your stomach and buttocks.
- Waist and hip circumferences are measured in a strictly horizontal position, with the tape measure parallel to the floor surface. Care must be taken to ensure that it does not twist.
- The measuring tape should fit snugly around the measurement area, but at the same time not be stretched or pressed into the skin.
- The hips are measured with horizontal girdle movements along the most convex parts of the body (both in the front in the abdominal area and from the buttocks side).
- The waist is determined at the narrowest point of the torso.
- When a "breeches" figure type is identified, the hip measurement should be duplicated just below the buttocks (along the protruding sides). Next, the measurements should be compared: if the first value is less than the second, the second is taken into account. This rule applies to those items that involve a narrow, tight-fitting silhouette. The clothing is then adjusted directly during the fitting to the figure.
- When taking measurements from the hips, the model should stand straight, upright, with a relaxed stomach, heels together, and arms spread out to the sides.
- The waist circumference is measured at a level slightly above the navel. The model should be in a standing position, with her heels touching and her arms at her sides. The body weight should be evenly distributed, the woman should breathe calmly, and the measurements are recorded on exhalation.
- Cutters recommend taking any measurements twice. If there is a small difference of up to 1 cm between the values, then the average value should be taken.
How to measure waist and hips for women? It is better to do it 2 times to make sure the data is correct. - It is easiest to take measurements from a slender figure, when the waist line and hip convexity are clearly defined. It is more difficult to measure figures with a hanging belly, when it is impossible to determine the narrowest place on the body or the most convex part of the body. In such cases, the circumference is measured 2-3 cm above the navel and 2 areas on the hips, the largest value is taken into account.
- There is a little trick that helps to take measurements from the hips with a hanging belly. A woman can attach a pencil or ruler to it with a thread so that the device is placed perpendicular to the floor surface. The hips are measured under the belly, taking into account the distance to the hanging pencil or ruler.
What is the easiest way to measure your waist and hips correctly?
The easiest way to measure a woman's waist and hips is to use a measuring tape. You can take your own measurements using a mirror. Waist and hip measurements are taken in a standing position, with your feet touching at the heels. The model needs to look at herself and determine by eye where the most prominent point of the hips and the narrowest point on the body are.
Depending on the individual features of the figure, the most protruding part of the body is located at the level of the buttocks, but it can also be on the hips on the sides, in places where fat accumulates. People with excess weight have a hanging belly. The tape measure should be positioned strictly parallel to the floor.
There are situations when a woman does not have a measuring tape at hand. There is no need to despair, as a device for taking measurements can be made from improvised means. To do this, just take a belt or tape that does not stretch, you can use a belt.
The waist or hip circumference is measured with a belt, and a mark is made at the junction. Then, using a ruler, the length is measured from the beginning of the belt to the mark at the junction, having previously laid it out on a horizontal surface. For complex body types, with a pronounced belly or "breeches", it is more difficult to take measurements, since there is no certainty that they were taken correctly.
In such cases, you can use the following trick: take a sheet of Whatman paper or connect several standard sheets (paper, newspapers) together, take off your outerwear and wrap yourself in these sheets. As a result, the paper will take the form of a cylinder that will fit tightly to the body. The main thing is to make sure that the paper tape does not skew and is parallel to the floor.
The connection points are marked with a pencil, and then the drawing paper is laid out on the floor and measurements are taken with a ruler. In this way, you can get the most accurate hip circumference taking into account all the errors of the figure.
How to measure your waist
The location of the waist on the body is not always easy to determine. To get reliable results, you need to stand in front of the mirror straight, without distortions. There are types of figures in which the waist line is not clearly defined, then you can take measurements 2-3 cm above the navel, repeating them several times, then choose the smallest value.
Taking measurements
Women's waist and hips can be measured in one go, provided they have a standard body type.
The general step-by-step instructions for taking waist measurements are as follows:
- Models must strip down to their underwear and stand in front of a mirror.
- In the area between the chest and the center of the abdomen, just above the navel, you should find a narrow spot. For women with a standard figure type, it is not difficult to visually determine the waist. In other cases, you can use a trick: having girded the body with a measuring tape, you need to move it up and down. The waist is located in the place where the tape does not move.
- Once you have made a mark on the tape with a pencil, you can release it and examine the value.
- The obtained result must be written down using the abbreviation "OT".
Interpretation of results
Recorded measurements in centimeters can be converted into half-girths or other values required for sewing. With their help, you can check your health. The ratio of waist to hips helps determine one of two types of fat distribution in a person: android or gynoid. The first type accumulates fat in the abdominal area, and the second - on the hips.
To determine the ratio, the obtained waist measurement must be divided by the hip parameter. For women's health, a coefficient of less than 0.75 is excellent, normal is within 0.76-0.85, and an indicator greater than 0.86 indicates problems, the presence of diseases.
To calculate the standard Russian clothing size, you need to divide the numerical value of the hip circumference by 2. The result of the division indicates the clothing size. For example, if the result of hip measurement is 92 cm, then their half-girth is 46 cm. This means size 46 for skirts, trousers, dresses.
When buying a tailor's tape, it is better to choose one that has a centimeter ruler on one side and an inch ruler on the other. With its help, you can determine not only Russian sizes, but also American and European ones.
You can convert centimeters to inches by equating 1 cm to 0.397 inches, i.e. the resulting measurement must be multiplied by the coefficient. Using the example of hip circumference of 92 cm, we get 92 * 0.397 = 36.5 inches. This means European size 36. To determine the American size, the resulting value in inches should be divided by 2.
How to measure your hips
The hip circumference should be measured according to the following algorithm:
- A woman in underwear stands straight in front of a mirror. The position of the body should be such that both legs make equal emphasis on the floor, so the heels touch.
- The tape should encircle the buttocks above the fold. The centimeter is fixed on one side with a finger, the end should be motionless, and with the other hand it is wrapped around the hips and connected at one point.
- It is necessary to ensure in front of the mirror that the tape measure is parallel to the floor.
- The obtained result is recorded at the junction of the two halves of the tape.
- The result obtained must be recorded and the procedure repeated.
Taking measurements from the waist and hips is a common activity for women, as the fair sex always wants to look charming and attractive. No matter for what purpose the measurements are taken, they do not take much effort and time, do not require special preparations or devices.
Video on how to measure waist and hips for women
How to measure your waist and hips for sewing: