Sizes and Measurements

Use existing measurements

OpenPattern comes with a set of standard sizes for women, men and kids. For women and men the sizes exist in french (Chiappetta, Gilewska and Wargnier) or Italian (Donnanno) sizes. These measurements are stored in the measurement.db file which is an sqlite 3 database.

The following table lists the status of the measures contained in the sql database from OpenPattern.

Source	Gender	Min Size	Max Size	N Meas.	Meas Code sample
Gilewska	Women	34	48	25	W34G
Gilewska	Men	36	54	24	M36G
Donnanno	Women	40	50	21	W40D
Donnanno	Men	44	54	19	M44D
Wargnier	Men	38	48	25	M38W
Chiappetta	Girls	2 ans	16 ans	23	W3C
Chiappetta	Boys	6 ans	16 ans	20	G6C
Chiappetta	Men	36	50	22	M38mC

Sizes available in the measurements database. The example code corresponds to the calling code of the minimum size.

to look at measurement you can use the Pattern class of OpenPattern Indeed when you load measurements in open Pattern they are stored in a dictionnary called m. Hence it is quite simple to see how they look like using the following code

# Check the content of Gilewska 38 for women
p = OP.Pattern(pname="W38G")
for key, val in p.m.items():
    print(key, val)

The result will print on the screen as follows:

tour_poitrine 88.0
tour_taille 66.0
tour_petites_hanches 81.0
tour_bassin 92.0
longueur_dos 41.75
longueur_devant 45.4
hauteur_poitrine 26.5
hauteur_petites_hanches 9.2
hauteur_bassin 19.75
ecart_poitrine 19.5
carrure_dos 35.5
carrure_devant 34.0
tour_encolure 37.0
longueur_epaule 13.8
longueur_manche 59.0
hauteur_coude 35.0
tour_bras 28.0
tour_poignet 16.0
longueur_taille_terre 100.0
hauteur_taille_genou 58.0
montant 25.5
tour_cuisse 56.0
tour_genou 37.0
tour_cheville 21.0
fourche 61.0

Note

All measurements are given in centimeters !

By entering these measures and starting to use them I identified no less than 52 different measurements from my sources. The distribution of these different measures depending on the sources gives the measure :)) of trouble ahead. Everyone uses a common set of measurements but embroiders in adding or not different measures and even changing the names! This will pose a problem, for example, for the outline of the shoulders of the man who presents inconsistencies depending on the authors.

Warning

I’ll try to make all these measurement fit together but it takes time so meanwhile I recommend you use the sizes that correspond to the stylist you wish to use knowing the differences between your size and the one used by these stylist.

Bespoke Measurements

Upload your own measurements in the database

Now let’s get bespoke. Due to what has been discussed before, the set of measurements you need to make depends on the stylist and pattern. In the following paragraphs below are some figures of measurements depending on the stylist.

Once done these measurement can be stored in a csv file an example of wich is given in the measurement directory. The number in the figures refers to the M.N column in the example spreadsheet.

Once your done filling the spreadsheet export it to csv and use the load_sql() method of the Pattern class. An exemple spreadsheet with Donnanno style measurements is given in the measurement section and the

p = OP.Pattern()
p.load_measurements("../measurements/measurement_sheet_Esther.csv")

Warning

Beware to do the upload only once as I have not yet included a test for doubles.

If you want to look at your measurements just use

p = OP.Pattern(pname="Esther")
for key, val in p.m.items():
    print(key, val)

and the result looks like

carrure_devant 34.0
carrure_dos 35.0
cheville_terre 8.0
ecart_poitrine 16.0
entrejambe 79.0
hauteur_coude 34.0
hauteur_cou_dessous_bras 17.0
hauteur_taille_genou 60.0
hauteur_taille_terre 102.0
largeur_bras 9.0
longueur_epaule 12.0
longueur_devant 39.0
longueur_dos 37.0
longueur_manche 60.0
...

Donnanno measurements

Numbers refer to the M.N. colum of the measurement_sheet_sample.ods

Gilewska measurement

Chiappetta measurement

To go further (Discussion)

Kids, Men and women

The distinction between boy and man is not insignificant. Indeed if the effects of puberty on girls are known and result in particular the use of bust and waist darts, the patterns of bases without clamps practically do not change. For men the puberty produces an inversion of the shape of the bust. The chest circumference of a boy is indeed smaller than his hip circumference like a woman’s. From this point of view, important for the design of a pattern, the boy and the girl are of similar morphologies and closer to the woman than to the man. Puberty reverses the situation in men whose chest circumference becomes larger than the hip circumference. This change clearly influences the tracing of the male pattern even if, surprisingly, this is never discussed.

A consequence is that it will probably be more in our interest to use female models to draw the pattern of a man whose hip is wider than his chest. The effect will be probably better than with a classic male pattern.

Size Zoology

Generally men are less well treated than women in the books of stylists (with the exception of Chiappetta boys), probably because of the limited market they represent, and of the least interest of their clothing (shirt, jacket, pants to keep it simple). And in fact it goes in all directions for men… The biggest gap separates designers who measure the width of the shoulders and those who measure the length of the shoulders. Some measure both but it is rarer. We Note that typical measurements vary from book to book. There are not always measurements of arm circumference, or thigh circumference for example.

Worse some like Chiappetta differentiates between shirt sizes and pants sizes. (the one I keep here). The associated drop (difference between half chest circumference and half waist circumference) and stature (three heights are given 170,175 and 180 cm).

Finally, the cherry on the cake, the correspondences of sizes vary from one country to another so a 38 from Gilewska is not a 38 from Donnanno… Officially it is necessary to sbstract 4 to the Italian sizes to find, approximately, the French size. A 36 from Gilewska matches approximately a 40 from Donnanno. One should compare though as, depending on the measurements needed to draft a pattern, one may be rather closer to a difference of 2 (a 38 Gilewska would rather correspond from my point of view to a 40 Donnanno).

Mesure	WG	MG	WD	MD	MW	GiC	BoC	MC
carrure_devant	X	X	X		X	X		X
carrure_dos	X	X	X		X	X	X	X
cheville_terre			X			X	X	X
crane						X	X	X
ecart_poitrine	X		X
encolure_dos			X
enfourchure					X
entrejambe		X			X
entrejambe_terre							X	X
fourche	X
genou_sol								X
genou_terre							X
hauteur_bassin	X	X	X	X	X	X
hauteur_carrure	X
hauteur_corps					X			X
hauteur_coude	X	X		X		X	X
hauteur_cou_dessous_bras			X
hauteur_emmanchure	X
hauteur_petites_hanches	X
hauteur_poitrine	X
hauteur_taille_genou	X		X	X	X	X
hauteur_taille_terre			X		X
hauteur_tete					X
largeur_bras			X
largeur_encolure	X
largeur_epaule		X		X
largeur_secteur				X
longueur_7cerv_enc								X
longueur_col_devant	X							X
longueur_col_dos	X							X
longueur_devant	X	X	X	X	X	X
longueur_devant_7c					X
longueur_dos	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
longueur_emmanchure_devant	X			X				X
longueur_emmanchure_dos	X			X				X
longueur_epaule	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
longueur_manche	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
longueur_taille_terre	X	X		X		X
montant	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
profondeur_emmanchure	X			X
profondeur_encolure_devant	X
profondeur_encolure_dos	X
profondeur_poitrine			X
stature			X	X
tour_abdomen			X
tour_bassin	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
tour_bras	X	X	X			X	X	X
tour_cheville	X		X			X	X	X
tour_cou			X
tour_coude			X
tour_cuisse	X	X	X		X			X
tour_encolure	X	X		X	X	X	X	X
tour_genou	X		X			X	X	X
tour_jarret					X
tour_mollet					X	X	X	X
tour_petites_hanches	X
tour_poignet	X	X	X		X	X	X	X
tour_poitrine	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
tour_poitrine_haute			X
tour_taille	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
tour_tete					X

Measures and sources

W: Women, M: men, Gi: Girl; Bo: Boy, G: Gilewska, D: Donnanno, C: Chiappetta, W: Wargnier