Selling Clothes on eBay: How to measure clothing
When listing your clothing items for sale on eBay using some simple measurements will a) help to sell the item and b) reduce the amount of returns you will get due to the item not fitting on receipt. I made the mistake of thinking that women’s clothing didn’t need measuring, and the generic sizing label would be enough. A few returns, and requests for sizing, later I quickly changed my mind on this. Every brand has slightly different sizing, despite the generic sizing given. Without the luxury of trying an item of clothing on, extra measurements give a better idea of actual size and dimensions to fit the customer.
The most frequent sizing questions I received were for chest measurement and length. I don’t include every measurement possible, just a couple of basic measurements to give the customer some extra information on the item:
Tops, T-Shirts, Jackets etc
Length – Neck to hem
Chest – Arm Pit to Arm Pit – doubled
eg 22″ pit to pit = 44″ chest
It doesn’t matter if you use cm or inches
Shirts
Yoke measuring:
from shoulder to shoulder
Sleeve measuring:
from the top of the shoulder to the cuff
Dresses
Bust – Pit to pit doubled
Waist – measured from the narrowest part of the waist area
– measure across and double
Hips – measured from the fullest part (under the waist)
– measure across and double
Skirt
Waist – measure across the waistband and double
For high waisted skirts you may want to add a hip measurement from the widest part of the hip
Length – measure from the waistband to the hem
Trousers
Waist – measure across the waistband and double it
Length – measure the inside of the leg
Describing a size…
When listing your clothing item the sizing label given may be a European or American label, or it may simply state S, M or L. A google image search for size guides can help you to identify the UK size for your listing. Some brands have their own size guides on their websites. Below are two generic Male and Female size Charts:
Tape measures
It is best to use a tailors/dress makers soft tape measure to measure clothing as it is flexible and versatile, enabling accurate measurements:
Click here for a recommended good quality tape measure
You left out the “rise” of the pants. That would be from the crotch seam up to the top edge of the pants. It helps people understand if the pants are low rise,mid-rise or if the waist goes up to the belly button area {high rise}.
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Yes! that is a good one to put in 🙂
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cheers for the tip 🙂
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The chest size of a suit jacket is not double, it’s double minus 2 to 4 inches depending on the fit of the jacket, so a tailored fit jacket with a pit to pit measurement on 23 inches would be a 44 inch chest, 23×2 = 46 then 46 – 2= 44
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