This how-to guide shows you everything you need to know about measuring a pair of pants or jeans. Before we start with the measuring, lay down the garment on a flat hard surface and smooth out any...
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First Things First
Before we start with the measuring, lay down the garment on a flat hard surface and smooth out any wrinkles.
Steps to Measure Jeans
WAIST: For measuring the waist first button the jeans up. Next spread the jeans flat on the surface, and remove any fullness and wrinkles from it.
FRONT RISE: With the jeans buttoned up, spread the jeans on the floor or table; next remove all wrinkles, and measure this region by starting from crotch seam spot to the spot of waist band.
HIP: Measure across the hip area, this is in most cases 1 1/2 inches below the zipper.
THIGH: Starting at the crotch seam and ending 1-2 inches below the hip area.
LENGTH: With the jeans buttoned up, spread the jeans on a table, floor or any other flat surface, with outseam on both corners. After removing all wrinkles and any fullness, measure the length from the top of the waistband.
KNEE: Next remove any wrinkles and fullness if present. Measure across the knee area.
INSEAM: Having the jeans buttoned up, spread the jeans on a surface flat. Now measure the inseam gap from the crotch, at the spot where the front and back seams meet, exactly where, depends on the length you desire ultimately.
LEG OPENING: Now in the last step follow the same pattern as the previous steps, that is spread the jeans on a flat surface e.g. table or floor. After removing any fullness or wrinkles, start measurement beginning from one side of leg opening to the other side of leg opening.
Take all measurements lying flat. Do this on a clean floor or table. Hanging clothes can stretch as you measure and if you have them on a dress model of a different size this can skew your measurement.
Use a flexible tape measure at least 36″ long. Don’t try to take clothes measurements with standard 12″ ruler you’ll end up with an inaccurate measurement. If you have no tape measurement handy and this is somewhat of an emergency, you can always download a printable measuring online.
Measure twice! If you don’t get the same measurement both times try again.
Record measurement to the nearest ¼ inch. Anything more specific is irrelevant but remember lying flat measurements are generally doubled (e.g. lying flat waist of 12.5″ can be understood as a 25″ waist) so a ¼ inch could make a difference.
Take measurements when you’re taking photos. Trying to measure as your listing at your desk ends up taking a lot more time and energy moving back and forth between tasks.
How to measure a jeans / pants video
Our friends from Dyer & Jenkins created a great videos on how to measure a pants.
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