Tired of the small sizing....arrrrrg!

[nuliajuk]

Commercial clothing patterns are drafted for a woman who wears a B cup bra. If you're a D cup or larger you will unfortunately never get a great fit. Unless you're in the plus size range - plus sizes tend to be drafted for a C/D cup.
I have the opposite problem - no matter how fat/thin/fit/flabby I've been in my life, I've always been two sizes bigger in the waist and hips than at the bust. I recently bought a bright orange microfiber jacket off a sale rack at a running store, deeply discounted. It fit in the chest and shoulders but not the hip, so I modified it with contrasting gussets sewn at the sides. It's impossible for mass-produced clothing to be made to fit the entire range of body dimensions, so consider the manufacturers sizing to be a starting point. Buy a jacket that fits your biggest part and have it taken in where it's too big. Any tailor shop or alterationist can do the job quite quickly, and it's not usually very expensive. Unless you're bottom heavy like me - altering around the shoulders is a bit more complicated, so adding fabric is often the answer.

[nuliajuk]

On the subject of vanity sizing, vintage sewing sites like Etsy offer a glimpse of the changes, in the old sewing patterns. A size 14 from the 70s was for a 36" bust, 27" waist, 38" hips. I can remember sewing clothes in high school and using the same size pattern as my off-the-rack clothing size. Some time in the mid-80s, a size 12 pattern became too small while size 12 off the rack was fine. The sizing charts used by the pattern companies remained the same, it was the mass-produced clothing that changed.

[Eden]

Hmmm I think that what the article writer is referring to as vanity sizing may not be what some people mean when they use the term. From my perspective I think there is vanity sizing - why otherwise would we as a population of people who are growing - both getting taller and rounder have added all of the "extra" sizing to the bottom? If the clothing is getting bigger why not add the numbers to the top - I mean numbers actually keep going in that direction and that would also mean if you were a 4, which I was at in high school that you'd still likely be a 4 today instead of being a 00(0!) which is what my mostly the same size body fits in today. I'm just waiting for the day when I have to buy a -4 because adding all those 0's is just getting ridiculous. And why do we do it? IMHO, because as we age and get bigger we don't want to be reminded.

[zoom-zoom]

On the subject of vanity sizing, vintage sewing sites like Etsy offer a glimpse of the changes, in the old sewing patterns. A size 14 from the 70s was for a 36" bust, 27" waist, 38" hips. I can remember sewing clothes in high school and using the same size pattern as my off-the-rack clothing size. Some time in the mid-80s, a size 12 pattern became too small while size 12 off the rack was fine. The sizing charts used by the pattern companies remained the same, it was the mass-produced clothing that changed.

Yeah, in the 70s I would have been a 14...perhaps even a 16. Today I am an 8-10. That's ridiculous. And, as Eden pointed-out, it gets especially crazy for very petite/slim women.

[Catrin]

Yeah, in the 70s I would have been a 14...perhaps even a 16. Today I am an 8-10. That's ridiculous. And, as Eden pointed-out, it gets especially crazy for very petite/slim women.

Yep. I am currently a size 6. There is a part of me that is pretty darn cool with that since I once was a size 22, I know I have this apple shape and boobs. I am probably closer to a true size 12, at least before vanity sizing became so popular. I am pleased and perturbed at the same time as I remember what a size 6 looked like in the late 60's/early 70's and I am not there...

[Wasp]

Commercial clothing patterns are drafted for a woman who wears a B cup bra. If you're a D cup or larger you will unfortunately never get a great fit. Unless you're in the plus size range - plus sizes tend to be drafted for a C/D cup.
I have the opposite problem - no matter how fat/thin/fit/flabby I've been in my life, I've always been two sizes bigger in the waist and hips than at the bust. I recently bought a bright orange microfiber jacket off a sale rack at a running store, deeply discounted. It fit in the chest and shoulders but not the hip, so I modified it with contrasting gussets sewn at the sides. It's impossible for mass-produced clothing to be made to fit the entire range of body dimensions, so consider the manufacturers sizing to be a starting point. Buy a jacket that fits your biggest part and have it taken in where it's too big. Any tailor shop or alterationist can do the job quite quickly, and it's not usually very expensive. Unless you're bottom heavy like me - altering around the shoulders is a bit more complicated, so adding fabric is often the answer.

It's amazing the things you learn at TE. No wonder most regular sized tops/jackets don't fit me if they are based on a B cup. As far as plus sizes, they tend not to fit either as they are to large and baggie around the middle. For years I have been sizing up and then getting the item altered.
I always assumed that smaller framed women had an easier time buying clothing, and I also assumed that it was just me that had fit issues. It's nice to know im not alone and that a lot of women share my frustration.
And yes, I know what happens when one assumes.....it makes an *** outta u and me

[Irulan]

Commercial clothing patterns are drafted for a woman who wears a B cup bra. If you're a D cup or larger you will unfortunately never get a great fit. Unless you're in the plus size range - plus sizes tend to be drafted for a C/D cup.
I have the opposite problem -

This is only correct if the fit model is a B cup, in the base size that everything is graded from. There is zero standardization in women's sizing so it should not be expected. The only standard in women's sizing is the "grade" the calculations made to grade a pattern up into one size form the next. And it's not proportional.

[nuliajuk]

This is only correct if the fit model is a B cup, in the base size that everything is graded from. There is zero standardization in women's sizing so it should not be expected. The only standard in women's sizing is the "grade" the calculations made to grade a pattern up into one size form the next. And it's not proportional.

The patterns are first drafted for dress forms, then tested on a fit model whose measurements come as close as possible to the dress form. The fit model is chosen for her resemblance to the pattern sizing, the patterns are not drafted for the fit model to begin with. Some patterns are started from "slopers", which are base block patterns available to the commercial garment trade.