Lowering the barriers to entry

Only. One. Measurement.

Most people who want to make their own clothes are not garmentos¹.

It makes sense that people in the fashion industry, particularly those with a background in pattern drafting and development would be most suited to providing advice to help regular folk make clothes.

A fair amount of fitting advice reflects the perspective of a fashion professional. For instance, fitting guides often assume the need for a “fitting buddy” which is unlikely to be realistic for a regular person making clothes. Or you can attend a workshop and be fitted by an expert, akin to the experience of having custom clothing made in an atelier. The cost of such a service is naturally on a par with what one would expect to pay for custom clothing and not accessible for all.

I wanted to approach the process centering the experience of the person who is making for themselves. Fitting oneself is very personal. Fitting as the person who is also making the garments is a very different challenge to being fitted or fitting someone else. What fitting advice from professionals made sense from the perspective of a solo maker? This led to the realization that just as makers learning how to fit might be constrained by lack of professional experience, are there there are constraints in a professional atelier which were not necessarily relevant for the maker.

For the fashion industry professional, fitting is part of the process of making a particular style. But the amateur maker already has a graded pattern with a defined style. In some aspects, fitting while making from a commercial pattern is more similar to alteration of RTW rather than fitting during the process of pattern development.

For example, every fitting guide always starts off asking you to “assess” something: your body shape, your personal measurements, flat pattern measurements, your preferred ease, all the body parts that “deviate” from normal etc. Take for instance this from a recent (2023) Threads Magazine article by pants fitting professional Jennifer Stern:

“The first step in successful pants fitting is to determine your body shape” Threads magazine article author Jennifer Stern Summer 2023 Issue #222

According to this article, “The first step in successful pants fitting is to determine your body shape”. From the perspective of the solo maker, this is not a trivial ask because it raises issues of body cathexis. It is reasonable to ask why such information is necessary and for a clear explanation as to how it will be used. If such information is indeed necessary, how can we know if we have “determined our body shape” satisfactorily? Waiting until the end to see if the garment fits seems kind of risky. And if the garment does not fit, how do we know which assessment was incorrect, and by how much? “The importance of accurate measurements cannot be overemphasized” one fitting book declares, but what level of accuracy is needed? The lack of clarity is bewildering.

I realize this question seems somewhat quixotic for experienced sewists—of course measurements matter, how would it even be possible for measurements to not matter?² And a traditional pants fitting assumption is that the body shape matters, because the pattern should to be drafted with a crotch curve for your body shape….³

I focused on pants fitting because (a) I wanted pants that fit⁴ and also (b) because pants were considered to be the garments that were the most challenging to fit.

It came as a surprise to discover that when fitting a commercial pattern, absolute body measurements are not as important as are relative measurements.

It still amazes me that, if you have a regular pants pattern with a straight waistband, the only measurement needed for fitting is a single body measurement, the hip.

To fit pants, no flat pattern measurements are required at all. There is no need to assess one’s body shape.⁵

Only. One. Measurement.

Only one measurement. And, moreover, a measurement that can be readily adjusted in the process of fitting with the TopDownCenterOut approach. Making fitting simpler greatly reduces the barriers for people to start making their own pants. Life is hard enough.

1. Garmento is a colloquial term for somebody working in the fashion industry

2. And, full disclosure, measurements do matter, we need to know how many inches of fabric to buy. But they do not matter for fitting in quite the way that the fitting books imply.

3. See this post for a discussion of this assumption

4. Nothing quite like personal motivation

5. Certainly, after the pattern is suitably adjusted, it is great to make a note of things like ease and hem opening width as an aid for future makes. But that information is not necessary for the fitting part of making pants.