Make it Fit - Designer Secrets and Why Sizing is so Difficult

Sizing is the biggest problem that most hand knitters face. When shopping for ready to wear clothing we have a plethora of size choices; juniors, misses, petites, plus petites, plus sizes and tall girls to name just a few.

When sewing the category names are different but to offer just one example Vogue patterns come in 5 different ranges. The following information is from their website.

"Misses’ patterns are designed for a well proportioned and developed figure; about 5'5" to 5'6" (1.65m to 1.68m) tall without shoes. Misses’ Petites patterns are designed for the shorter figure; about 5'2" to 5'4" (1.57m to 1.63m) tall without shoes." There are 11 sizes in these 2 ranges from a bust of 30 ½ inches to 48 inches.

"Women’s patterns are designed for the larger, fully mature figure, about 5'5" to 5'6" (1.65m to 1.68m) tall without shoes.Women’s Petites patterns are designed for the shorter woman's figure; about 5'2" to 5'4" (1.57m to 1.63m) tall without shoes." There are 10 sizes in these 2 ranges from a bust of 36 inches to 54 inches.

"Today's Fit patterns are designed for the changing proportions of today’s figure; about 5'5" without shoes. The waist and hips are slightly larger than Misses’ and the shoulders are narrower." There are 10 sizes in this range from a bust of 32 inches to 55 inches. This comes to a total of 52 different sizes.

Most hand knitting patterns come in from 3 to about 7 sizes with no variation in length or figure type. There are many reasons for this simplification several being due to cost, publication space, the difficulty of grading each size individually,the inability to have every size test knit as well as an industry that underpays designers. So what's a knitter to do? I'm still thinking about this. As a designer I'm considering doing patterns that would target these specific markets but the question is would you buy them? LMK what you think.