A “How to Measure Guide” illustrates specific points on a garment to show where and how these measurements should be taken.

It means you’re not going back and forth with your factory explaining that the chest width measurement should be taken 1″ below the armhole rather than underarm point to underarm point.

If you’re working with established fashion brands, they should already have a how-to-measure guide. But for freelance fashion designers, remote technical designers, or those who are starting their own clothing brand, you might have to create your own How to Measure Guides for the production process.

That’s why I decided to create FREE Customizable How to Measure Guide Templates for apparel to make your life (and manufacturing!) easier.

This guide is based on the one that I used in my fashion career for 15+ years to successfully produce and measure hundreds (thousands?!) of garments.

What Does A How To Measure Guide Include?

Here are the 3 key points to include in your How to Measure Guide: 

• Points of Measures (POMs)
• Description of the Measurement
• Technical Illustration w/ Arrow Guides

Points of Measures (POMs): Provide a clear and comprehensive list of the POMs that are crucial to achieve the desired fit of the finished garment. Depending on what kind of garment you’re designing, these could be the chest width, shoulder width, full length, bust point etc. 

Description of the Measurement: Are you measuring half or full circumferences? Should the elastic be measured while stretched or relaxed? Also specify if the measurement should be taken along a curved or straight line. 

For example, if you’re describing your armhole curve measurement, you can say “measure along the contour of the armhole seam from top to bottom.” If you have a top with an elastic waistband, you can include “waistband stretched” and “waistband relaxed” on your POMs.

These things might seem obvious for you, but might not be for the person reading on the other end.

Technical Illustration w/ Arrow Guides: You can include actual photographs of a finished garment or draw technical flats with guidelines and arrows to illustrate how each measurement should be taken. 

In some cases, sending a How to Measure Video can be helpful to make sure you’re on the same page. You can take a video of yourself measuring the garment while showing clearly how the measurements should be taken. 

Additional tips on creating a How to Measure Guide for your fashion manufacturer:

• Conduct a thorough review to check for inconsistencies. Share the guide with colleagues or team members and ask for their feedback. Testing the guide on a small batch of samples can help identify any issues and refine the instructions for clarity.
• This sounds like a no-brainer, but always use a consistent unit of measurement in your guide and spec sheets. Whether you’re using inches, cm, etc., just stick with one!
• Regularly review and update when needed, like when you introduce a new style that may have new and unique measurements.

Sharing Your How to Measure Guide with Fashion Manufacturers 

Your manufacturer will need access to the guide, and you’ll need to keep them in the loop as you make changes and updates. Here are the best ways to do that.

• Choose the right format: I prefer storing the entire How to Measure Guide as a PDF(s) in a Dropbox folder and then sharing a link to the folder (not the actual PDF(s)). This way, when you make changes or add new PDFs to the folder, you don’t have to share a new link, just mention the files inside have been updated.
• Talk to your manufacturer: Ask for feedback or questions from your manufacturers. You’ll find that they have a lot of helpful insights that can help you improve your guides.
• Demonstrate usage: For tricky measurements, provide a demonstration of how to take measurements using your guide. If an in-person meeting is not possible, send a video tutorial. This trick has saved me so much time troubleshooting measurement and construction concerns when I was working as a remote freelance fashion designer!

What You Get with My Free How to Measure Guide Template for Apparel

Customizable Points of Measures (POMs) and Codes

On the left side of the spreadsheet are the codes and Points of Measure (POMs). It’s essential to specify which part of the garment you’re pertaining to and include a letter (or number) code to match with the illustration for visual reference. 

If you feel like more or less POMs are needed for your own designs, just add / remove info.

For example, if your t-shirt has raglan sleeves instead of regular set-in sleeves, you can change the “armhole straight” to “armhole raglan” measurements and update the codes and illustration, as well.

Customizable POM Descriptions

Next, we have the POM Descriptions. This part should clearly specify any additional instructions on how to carry out the measurement. For example, specify if you are measuring from the edge or seam, or if it’s a straight or curved measurement.

Designers and pattern-makers can have their own ways of measuring garments, so make sure to clarify your process upfront.

Customizable Illustration Guide

A separate Adobe Illustrator File is provided so you can use your own flat sketch illustrations and change up the arrow guides and codes.

Then, you can just quickly replace the illustration in the file. Easy!

How to Measure Guide Templates for the Top 4 most common types of clothing & apparel

And I’ve got 4 completely FREE templates for you:

• How to Measure Guide for T-shirts
• How to Measure Guide for Woven Button Down Shirts
• How to Measure Guide for Bottoms (jeans, pants, shorts)
• How to Measure Guide for Skirts

Download all four below.

Customizing Your How to Measure Guide for Apparel

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer for How to Measure Guides. More often than not, you can’t just take my templates and just use them as is. You’ll need to add, remove, or adjust various POM’s because each garment is unique in style and fit.

So, before you drop these in your tech pack (oh, yeah, I have a free tech pack template for ya too!) and hit ‘send’ to your manufacturers, tailor these customizable templates to your clothing brand’s fit and your design details.