Body circumference
Bust controls upper-body width; waist controls lower bodice shaping. Ease determines how close the block sits on the body.
Sewing pattern guide
Bodice measurements guide
A bodice block connects shoulder, neckline, armhole, bust, waist, and length measurements. Small errors can strongly affect fit.
The bodice block is the closest-fitting draft on the site, which makes it the least forgiving of measuring errors. A skirt hides a 2 cm mistake in gathers or ease; a bodice shows it immediately as a gaping neckline, a shoulder seam sliding backwards, or drag lines pointing at the bust. The generator drafts the front and back pieces directly from your bust, waist, shoulder, and length values, so the tape measure is doing the pattern making — every value transfers into the block one-to-one.
Six measurements carry most of the weight: bust and waist set the widths, back length and front length set the vertical balance, and shoulder width and armhole depth position the armhole that a sleeve will later hang from. Ease is entered separately and explicitly, so the circumferences you type should be your actual body — the generator adds the breathing room on top and shapes the difference between bust and waist into darts.
You will need a flexible tape measure, a piece of narrow elastic to mark your natural waist, and ideally a helper for the back measurements — back length and shoulder width are genuinely hard to take alone. Wear the bra you plan to wear under the finished garment and a single thin layer at most; a different bra can change the bust value and the front length by 2–3 cm.
Use this guide
Related pattern templates
Open a matching generator after reviewing the guide, then preview the calculated draft before export.
Generator
Basic bodice pattern
Draft a bodice block with neckline, armhole, shoulder, length, and waist shaping.
GeneratorBasic sleeve pattern
Generate a sleeve block and check cap shape, bicep, wrist, and armhole compatibility.
GeneratorBasic dress pattern
Build a connected bodice and skirt draft with waist, darts, length, and hem checks.
Front and back length
Front and back length balance the bodice vertically. A mismatch can pull the shoulder, neckline, or waistline out of position.
Shoulder width
Shoulder width places the armhole and affects sleeve fit. It should be checked before attaching a sleeve.
Armhole depth
Armhole depth affects comfort, sleeve mobility, and how much fabric sits under the arm.
Neckline shape
Round, deeper, or V-neck shapes change both the opening and the finishing method.
Darts and waist shaping
Darts shape the bodice around bust and waist. Their intake and position must be tested on the body or a mockup.
Before cutting fabric
After generating a bodice, check shoulder length, neckline shape, armhole curve, waist shaping, front/back balance, dart placement, and sleeve compatibility.
Step by step
How to take each measurement
Tie the waist elastic first — four of the measurements below reference it. Stand in front of a mirror with your usual posture, arms relaxed at your sides, and look straight ahead while the tape is read; tilting your head down to watch changes the back length.
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01
Mark your natural waist with elastic
Tie narrow elastic around your middle and bend gently side to side until it settles into the crease of your natural waist — the narrowest point of the torso, usually a little above the navel. Leave it on for the whole session: it is the lower endpoint for both length measurements and the line for the waist circumference.
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02
Measure the bust
Wearing a well-fitting bra, run the tape around the fullest point of the bust, arms down, breathing normally. The tape must stay level all the way around — its most common failure is dropping several centimetres at the back, which understates the value. Snug contact without compressing the bust; check the level in a mirror from the side.
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03
Measure the waist
Measure exactly where the elastic sits, parallel to the floor, without pulling your stomach in. One finger should slide under the tape. The generator turns the difference between this value and the bust into dart intake, so an artificially small waist reading produces darts deeper than your body actually needs.
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04
Measure the back length
Find the prominent bone at the base of the back of your neck — the seventh cervical vertebra (C7), the one that sticks out most when you tip your chin to your chest. Measure from C7 straight down the spine to the top edge of the waist elastic, standing upright. This value anchors the entire vertical geometry of the back piece.
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05
Measure the front length
From the point where your neck meets your shoulder (the high point of the shoulder, next to the neck base), run the tape down over the fullest point of the bust to the waist elastic. The front length is normally 2–5 cm longer than the back length because it travels over the bust — a front value shorter than the back is almost always a measuring error.
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06
Measure the shoulder width
Measure from the base of the neck to the shoulder tip — the acromion, the bony point you can feel at the outer end of the shoulder where the arm starts to drop away. Lift your arm briefly to locate the dimple at the joint, lower the arm, then measure to that point. Do not follow a shirt's sleeve seam; on most ready-to-wear it sits off the true shoulder point.
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07
Measure the armhole depth
Clamp a ruler or a flat book horizontally under your armpit, arm relaxed at your side, and measure at the back from the level of C7 straight down to the top edge of the ruler. This vertical distance tells the generator where the underarm level sits. Do not add extra 'for comfort' — the draft lowers the armhole by its own movement allowance, and doubling it produces an armhole you cannot lift your arm in.
Typical measurement ranges
Use these combinations to sanity-check a suspicious reading, not to replace your own tape. A back length of 34 cm or a front length shorter than the back are the kinds of values this table helps you catch before they reach the pattern.
| Reference size | Bust (cm) | Waist (cm) | Back length (cm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| EU 36 | 82–86 | 64–68 | 40–41 |
| EU 38 | 86–90 | 68–72 | 40.5–41.5 |
| EU 40 | 90–94 | 72–77 | 41–42 |
| EU 42 | 94–98 | 77–82 | 41–42.5 |
| EU 44 | 98–103 | 82–88 | 41.5–43 |
| EU 46 | 103–108 | 88–94 | 42–43.5 |
Back length correlates with height much more than with size — a tall EU 38 can easily have a longer back than a petite EU 44. If your circumferences sit in one column and your back length in another, trust the tape: that is exactly the mismatch a generated block resolves and a standard size cannot.
Common measuring mistakes
Measuring in the wrong bra — or none
The bust value, the front length, and the dart position all depend on where the bust sits. Measure in the bra you will actually wear under the garment; switching from an unpadded to a push-up bra afterwards can shift the apex enough to misplace the bust dart.
A tape that drops at the back of the bust
This is the single most frequent bodice error. The tape slides down the shoulder blades and the reading comes out 2–4 cm small, producing a block that strains across the back. Check the side view in a mirror, or have a helper confirm the tape crosses the back at the same height as the front.
Taking back length to where trousers sit
Trouser waistbands sit below the natural waist. Measuring C7 to a waistband instead of C7 to the elastic adds several centimetres, and the drafted waistline lands too low — the darts then end below the body's actual waist crease. Always measure to the elastic.
Following a shirt seam for shoulder width
Dropped shoulders are everywhere in ready-to-wear, so a shirt seam is not a landmark. Find the acromion with your fingers instead. An overstated shoulder width pushes the armhole off the shoulder and makes any future sleeve hang from the upper arm rather than the shoulder point.
Slouching or looking down during back length
Rounding the shoulders or tipping the head down lengthens the C7-to-waist distance by 1–2 cm. Stand as you normally stand — not parade-ground straight, not slumped — and keep your head level while the value is read.
Padding measurements instead of using ease
Adding a few centimetres to the bust 'to be safe' breaks the draft twice: the block comes out wide and the darts are computed for a body that does not exist. Enter real body values; the ease field is the one and only place to control how close the block fits.
From measurements to a bodice that fits
Choosing ease deliberately
Ease is entered explicitly, so you decide how the block sits. For a woven fitting block, 4–6 cm at the bust is the classic close fit that still lets you breathe and pin-fit accurately; 8–10 cm gives a relaxed top. Go below 4 cm only for stretch fabrics, and remember the waist follows through the shaping option rather than a separate ease value.
Waist shaping and dart intake
The bust-to-waist difference is absorbed by the side seams and darts according to the shaping level. With a difference above roughly 20 cm, choose strong shaping so the intake spreads across more suppression points and each dart stays shallow; with a small difference, soft shaping avoids darts that overfit a straight torso.
Armhole depth is a sleeve decision
The armhole you draft now is the armhole a sleeve must sew into later. The generator reports the finished front and back armhole lengths, and the sleeve generator drafts its cap against them — so resist deepening the armhole for comfort. A deep armhole feels roomy sleeveless but binds badly once a sleeve is attached, because lifting the arm drags the whole sleeve up.
Verify on paper before cutting fabric
Print at 100% with no fit-to-page scaling and measure the 5 × 5 cm test square on the first sheet before assembling anything. Then pin the paper block together at the seam lines — shoulder and side seams — and try it on carefully: check that the waistline sits on your elastic, the armhole clears the underarm, and the dart points aim at the bust apex. A muslin from an old sheet is the final word; the seam allowances are drawn separately as the dashed cutting line, so sew the solid lines.
Frequently asked questions
Do I add seam allowances or ease to my measurements?
Neither. Enter bare body measurements in centimetres. Ease has its own field, and the seam allowances you choose are added around each piece as a separate dashed cutting line — the solid line is the sewing line drafted from your body values.
My front length is longer than my back length. Is that wrong?
It is correct — the front tape travels over the bust, so 2–5 cm longer is normal, and a fuller bust means a bigger difference. The generator uses the two values to balance the pieces vertically. Only a front length shorter than the back should make you re-measure.
Can I use the bodice block for knit fabrics?
The block is drafted with woven construction in mind — darts and a fixed armhole. For stable knits you can reduce the ease toward 0–2 cm and test, but for typical T-shirt jersey the dedicated knit generators are the better tool, since they handle negative ease and dartless shaping.
How do I know a sleeve will fit this armhole?
The bodice preview reports the finished front and back armhole lengths, and the sleeve generator reports its cap length against them. Keep the two within the small cap-ease margin the sleeve generator shows, and use the same measurement session for both — an armhole drafted from January values and a sleeve from June values will not match.
Which measurement causes the most bodice fit problems?
Back length, closely followed by armhole depth. Both are vertical, both are hard to take alone, and errors in them do not look like errors — the block simply balances wrong, with the waistline riding up or the armhole binding. If you can get help with only two measurements, choose these two, and confirm the print with the 5 × 5 cm test square before cutting.