Blog Archives

Pattern Sizing Charts

1/22/2017

As I move my company more towards sewing patterns and kits, and as I work on my first ever clothing pattern for sale (!!) I've had to develop a series of sizing charts to help you pick out which pattern size will fit you!

I've thought a lot about this, especially about how confusing and emotional clothing sizes can be. When I shop for a dress, I can come away with anything from a size 6 to a size 12, depending on the brand I'm trying on! Every company has developed their own way to size clothing, and some have even started "Vanity-Sizing" their clothing. This means that these brands have begun shifting their sizing to make shoppers feel skinnier. For example, someone like Twiggy, who was a size 8 in 1962, would now be considered a size 00 in some brands. And really, as a marketing campaign, it's not that surprising that companies would do this. As women, we especially tend to hold a lot of stock in our size, and are more likely to buy clothing with smaller sizes because it makes us feel more confident.

So what does this mean for the Goheen sizing system? It means that I've decided to do away with these numerical size labels. Instead of seeing that you are a size 00 or a size 16, my sizes are simply letters of the alphabet. I'm hoping that this little change will help in a few ways. First, it will hopefully get rid of any self-conscious feelings associated with a number that, let's be honest, doesn't even have a real meaning anymore! Second, it will make sure that you look carefully at the measurements instead of the size. Instead of someone being sure that they are a size 8, they now have to take their measurements and compare which set will work best for them for a particular pattern.

And since I've gotten rid of the sizing numbers, I figured why keep the small - medium - large setup? So I've dropped that too! Now, I offer animal sizes! If you ever have any questions about my sizing, you can head on over to our Facebook Pattern community for help :)

The animals are: Unicorn, Octopus, Dinosaur, Bunny, Hedgehog, Penguin, Tortoise, and Fox!

My next task is to make sure that we are all on the same page as far as how to take your measurements for these charts. Stay tuned for the next blog post!

Women's size chart in inches: