Measurements and grading (Daily Update: 29/8/19)

What I want to make. Need to work on my sketching technique!

I’ve been wanting to make a gradient fade fingering weight shirt recently - we’re travelling for a few months and all I brought was my stash of fingering weight yarn (most of which are minis). I searched and searched on Ravelry for a pattern but I have something specific in mind so I figured I’ll just create it myself. I did a swatch and picked out my fade last night.

I’m starting with making a standard fitted shirt grading spreadsheet. It’s something I’ve wanted to have for a while so I can just easily get started on shirt patterns. My measurements are pretty different to most standard measurement charts (I have a smallish bust and a really high waist) so I’ll add in my own measurements and use that rather than one of my standard sizes so my shirts fit me better. If the standard sizes don’t fit me great though, they probably won’t fit a lot of people amazingly, so I’ll try and add in guides for how to adjust fit when I can.

I’m using a mixture of the standard CYC measurements for widths and Ysolda’s grading chart for lengths. After taking all of my own measurements it’s looking like I mostly fall into the size ranges for the 36”-38” bust measurements on the charts, but my bust is 34.5”. After looking up how bras are sized I’ve realised the charts are based on a 6” difference between underbust and bust which is a DDD! I decided to add in a C cup row to the charts and will probably base measurements off that, but apparently the average sized bra in the USA is a DD cup so the fit might be a bit loose for people around the hips and waist.

The CYC standards give 2” ranges for all their measurements (with a 1” gap in between?!) whereas the Ysolda measurements are all exact. I’ve decided to do a 3” range on the sizes (the CYC sizes with the extra gap between sizes included, this is consistent with my sizing for Lorraine’s Lace). So it should be ok that the measurements aren’t super fitted.

I’m going to move away from XS/XL sizes and just number them. They end up looking like this:

  
    Size
    Bust range (in inches)
    Based on this bust size in the Ysolda chart
  

    1
    28 - 31
    29
  

    2
    32 - 35
    33
  

    3
    36-39
    37
  

    4
    40 - 43
    41
  

    5
    44 - 47
    45
  

    6
    48 - 51
    49
  

    7
    52 - 55
    53
  

    8
    56 - 59
    57
  

    9
    60 - 63
    61
  

I think I have the chart measurements that I need for a sleeveless shirt mostly set up in my sheet now, so time to start on the actual pattern!

Katrina WalserAugust 31, 2019Comment