Skip to content
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Mission
    • FAQs for Contributors
    • Editorial Team
    • Posts about the Sewcialists Community
    • Get in Touch!
  • Theme Months
    • All Butts Welcome – May 2021
    • Zero Waste – February 2021
    • All Chests Welcome – August 2020
    • #MayWeRemindYou – May 2020
    • Denim Month – February 2020
    • Giving Challenge – November 2019
    • Over/Under – August 2019
    • Sew Brave – May 2019
    • Menswear for Everyone – Feb. 2019
    • Sustainable Sewing – Nov. 2018
    • Sew Style Hero – Aug. 2018
    • Sewcialists Love MMMay – May 2018
    • Sew Stripes – Feb. 2018
    • TNT Month – Nov. 2017
    • Tribute Month – Aug. 2017
    • Lingerie Month – July 2015
    • Tribute Month – Aug. 2014
    • Oonapalooza! – July 2014
    • Early Theme Months
  • Who We Are Series
  • #SewInclusive
    • Sew Inclusive Posts
    • The Sewcialists Interview
  • Frosting Fluff and Fun
  • Ask The Sewcialists
    • Gabby’s Fitting Series
    • Sewing Dilemmas
  • Sewcialists Challenges
    • #SewThePrecious
    • Mini Challenges
  • Sewcialists Podcast
  • Instagram
  • Sewcialist Firehose

Archives

Categories

  • #MayWeRemindYou
  • #SewInclusive
  • #SewStayHome
  • #SewThePrecious
  • About Us
  • Accessibility
  • All Butts Welcome
  • All Chests Welcome
  • Ask The Sewcialists
  • Denim Month
  • Early Theme Months
  • Editorial Team
  • Frosting Fluff and Fun
  • Gabby's Fitting Series
  • Giving Challenge
  • Good News
  • Lingerie Month
  • Menswear for Everyone
  • Mini Challenges
  • Oonapalooza!
  • Our Mission
  • Over/Under – August 2019
  • Posts about the Sewcialists Community
  • Sew Brave – May 2019
  • Sew Religion
  • Sew Stripes
  • Sew Style Hero
  • Sewcialists Challenges
  • Sewcialists Love MMMay
  • SewcialistsPodcast
  • Sewing Dilemmas
  • Sustainable Sewing
  • Textiles of the World
  • The Sewcialists Interview
  • Theme Months
  • TNT Month
  • Tribute Month 2014
  • Tribute Month 2017
  • Uncategorized
  • Who We Are
  • Zero Waste

Recent Posts

  • Our Final Farewell
  • Saying Farewell: YOUR Memories
  • Saying Farewell: Highlights from the Who We Are series
  • Behind the Scenes at the Sewcialists: Copy-Editing for Amplification
  • Saying Farewell: Sewcialists Interviews

Follow Blog via Email

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Recent Comments

Live for Tweed on Textiles of the World: Harris…
sewsobeautiful on #AllButtsWelcome: Pockets to E…
Karey on #AllButtsWelcome: Unmentionabl…
30. Zero Waste Sewin… on Zero waste sewing
Karey on #AllButtsWelcome: Unmentionabl…
  • Instagram
  • Sewcialist Firehose

Sewcialists

A Sewing Blog for Everyone

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Mission
    • FAQs for Contributors
    • Editorial Team
    • Posts about the Sewcialists Community
    • Get in Touch!
  • Theme Months
    • All Butts Welcome – May 2021
    • Zero Waste – February 2021
    • All Chests Welcome – August 2020
    • #MayWeRemindYou – May 2020
    • Denim Month – February 2020
    • Giving Challenge – November 2019
    • Over/Under – August 2019
    • Sew Brave – May 2019
    • Menswear for Everyone – Feb. 2019
    • Sustainable Sewing – Nov. 2018
    • Sew Style Hero – Aug. 2018
    • Sewcialists Love MMMay – May 2018
    • Sew Stripes – Feb. 2018
    • TNT Month – Nov. 2017
    • Tribute Month – Aug. 2017
    • Lingerie Month – July 2015
    • Tribute Month – Aug. 2014
    • Oonapalooza! – July 2014
    • Early Theme Months
  • Who We Are Series
  • #SewInclusive
    • Sew Inclusive Posts
    • The Sewcialists Interview
  • Frosting Fluff and Fun
  • Ask The Sewcialists
    • Gabby’s Fitting Series
    • Sewing Dilemmas
  • Sewcialists Challenges
    • #SewThePrecious
    • Mini Challenges
  • Sewcialists Podcast
Ladies walking on beach
  • #SewInclusive
  • Who We Are

Grade My Size Survey

Beckyjopdx February 15, 2019 28 Comments

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...
Categories#SewInclusive, Who We Are
TagsSurvey
Previous
Menswear For Everyone
February 13, 2019
Next
Menswear Fabrics
February 16, 2019

28 Comments

  1. Francie Butler February 15, 2019 at 8:19 am

    Why are Arabic letters showing up on your survey?

    Loading...

    Reply

    1. gilliancrafts February 15, 2019 at 8:21 am

      Oh goodness! I’m not seeing that – can you tell us a little more about what you are seeing and where? Are you looking at it on a phone or computer? (Not sure why that would affect things, but more info always helps with troubleshooting!) Thanks!

      Loading...

      Reply

    2. Beckyjopdx February 15, 2019 at 10:47 am

      It’s a standard font in a Google form. I created in in Safari and had zero font issues. Perhaps try Chrome or maybe there’s an update you’re missing?

      Loading...

      Reply

  2. Pirkko February 15, 2019 at 10:42 am

    Talking about inclusion, are you aware that the only countries still not using the metric system are the U.S, Myanmar and Liberia?

    Loading...

    Reply

    1. Beckyjopdx February 15, 2019 at 10:51 am

      Yes, and as an American (which in itself is ridiculous… United Statesian?), I make fun of that all the time. It’s silly we use Fahrenheit and Imperial. I made a decision to use Imperial because most patterns are in Imperial, I talked to our international Editors group and they’re used to Imperial. A choice had to be made for the ease of compiling data.

      Loading...

      Reply

      1. Pirkko (@ittetein) February 15, 2019 at 11:09 am

        I’m seriously considering boycotting companies that only give measurements, seam allowances etc in inches and yards. And I’m definitely not taking part in a survey if it means taking out my calculator. In my book such a survey is aimed at US audience only (and perhaps Liberian and Myanmarian) leaving the majority of us sewists outside.

        Loading...

        Reply

        1. coco February 15, 2019 at 4:03 pm

          As somebody who lives in the US but buys fabrics and patterns mostly from other countries, I don’t find it that hard to find out my metric measurements. You simply google cm to inch, etc. Why boycott over such a small thing. We, people who sew in the US and create patterns in the US, can’t help it if our government is stupid.

          Loading...

          Reply

          1. Erika February 17, 2019 at 4:00 pm

            I think it’s about the ease with which I fill out such a survey (or determine what size to pick). I know my most important measurements by heart in centimeters, so if I have to get out the calculator the number of actions increases tremendously.

            I think it’s just stupid that each of us has to do the extra work instead of a pattern designer doing it once. The most incomprehensible example here are dear and doe patterns, who provide metric in their French instructions but only inches in the English instructions, and for a pdf pattern you need to choose before you buy.

            As for the survey: these are not measurements I know by heart but I do have them written down somewhere. So again, transforming them would be a lot of work. I am not sure about the amount of work it would be to have a second survey and automatically transform one of the outcomes (would be easy in spss but spreadsheet programs can be a beast), but I would very much like to know if you have even explored the option. If you have and found it would be risky or too much work I can understand, and knowing that you did put in that effort would also motivate me to put in the effort to transform them myself.

            Loading...

            Reply

            1. gilliancrafts February 18, 2019 at 8:10 am

              Hello! We did consider a bunch of options, and time really is the limiting factor. We are all volunteers here, and we already but over 40 hours per week as a team into the website content and social media. Making the survey was an addition challenge we took on because we believe that one way we could help designers make better patterns is to give them better info! Making one survey, testing it with industry experts, tweaking it and later crunching the data is already tens of hours of work (probably 50-60 total?) and so we really appreciate all the people helping us out by converting their measurements! Thank you for understanding that having you do some conversions really helps us out! 😊

              Loading...

            2. Erika February 20, 2019 at 3:44 am

              Hi Gillian and team!

              I may or may not have been super clear in my last comment – typing on your phone does not leave a lot of room for editing for clarity, and my comment became cloudy with related-but-not-relevant frustrations, so I’m sorry I did not take an effort to type on my actual computer.

              What I meant to say is that I think this type of large scale conversion work should not be done by humans but by computers. If right now the survey is open to both systems, but the conversion would be made by humans on your end rather than by me, I’d prefer filling it out in the system you plan on aggregating the data in because I wouldn’t want to simply transfer the labor to another human being! (I assume it’s inches?)

              The other thing I wanted to say is if you consider redoing such a survey in a couple of years I’d be happy to help making a few simple tweaks to the survey design that make it easier to automatically transform answers, and making something that actually does the transformations. I’m not a statistician or a data scientist or whatever they call it nowadays, but I am in social science so I do know my way quantitative data a bit.

              Loading...

  3. Hafida February 15, 2019 at 3:36 pm

    hi, I started answring the survey but got discouraged by the lack of indications for measurement equivalences in metrics.

    Loading...

    Reply

    1. Beckyjopdx February 15, 2019 at 3:44 pm

      We apologize for the inconvenience. We had to pick a unit of measurement to compile data, and having your measurements in Imperial will help with a fitting series we will have up soon as well. Here’s a link to a quick conversion page if you’d like: https://www.metric-conversions.org/length/centimeters-to-inches.htm

      Loading...

      Reply

  4. Sabine February 15, 2019 at 3:40 pm

    I’d love to take that survey but inches are just too weird. International units are all metrics. I have no idea of my measurements in this unit.

    Loading...

    Reply

    1. Beckyjopdx February 15, 2019 at 3:44 pm

      We apologize for the inconvenience. We had to pick a unit of measurement to compile data, and having your measurements in Imperial will help with a fitting series we will have up soon as well. Here’s a link to a quick conversion page if you’d like: https://www.metric-conversions.org/length/centimeters-to-inches.htm

      Loading...

      Reply

  5. Lyn February 15, 2019 at 7:40 pm

    tbh I’m hoping this survey shows there a re a lot of smaller sized women who are being sized out of patterns. I have to start with the smallest size and try/fail to adjust the above bust area, this deters/prevents me from sewing but there are a lot of women smaller than me, what do they do?

    Loading...

    Reply

    1. Beckyjopdx February 15, 2019 at 8:19 pm

      That’s an excellent point. We are definitely in an era of more niche pattern companies. Now would be a time for a company to focus on the smaller end of the spectrum.

      Loading...

      Reply

  6. Krista February 15, 2019 at 7:44 pm

    What a great idea! Thanks for doing this, and for the effort and time you’ve clearly put into it.

    Loading...

    Reply

    1. Beckyjopdx February 18, 2019 at 3:31 pm

      Thank you! I appreciate that!

      Loading...

      Reply

  7. Sew Pretty Modesty February 16, 2019 at 7:41 am

    Great survey, I really enjoy taking it, and am looking forward to the tally and follow-up!

    Loading...

    Reply

    1. Beckyjopdx February 18, 2019 at 3:30 pm

      thank you so much!

      Loading...

      Reply

  8. Becky February 16, 2019 at 1:02 pm

    I was glad to see that you plan on revisiting this in future years. I’d take it, but I’m at the end of a first trimester and I think I lost my waist already, so I don’t want to skew the data. 😂

    Loading...

    Reply

    1. Beckyjopdx February 16, 2019 at 10:26 pm

      😂 that’s hilarious! Thank you for the laugh! An August baby? One of mine is…the ankle swelling in August is brutal, but the September walks with a newborn are priceless. ❤️

      Loading...

      Reply

      1. Becky February 17, 2019 at 1:04 pm

        My due date is early September, so August isn’t out of the question! Though both of my boys ran past their date, so…

        Loading...

        Reply

  9. Hari February 17, 2019 at 8:13 pm

    I’ve just taken the survey, I’m in Australia but self taught using vintage sewing books so am used to inches rather than cms so it was easy for me. I do think consideration in future should be given to the system used by the majority of people. Using inches would likely have put off a lot of non-U.S. Americans from taking the survey which will surely skew your results. Unless I’m mistaken and the majority of sewcialists are in the U.S.?

    Loading...

    Reply

    1. gilliancrafts February 18, 2019 at 8:13 am

      Hello! You are right – the clear majority of our readers are in North America. (I’m Canadian, for example, but we sew in inches here even though we measure in metric!) Good point about considering who may or may not be answering! We are all volunteers trying to do this as a public service in hopes that better data leads to better patterns – we certainly aren’t perfect.

      💕

      Loading...

      Reply

  10. Wednesday Weekly #159 – Helen's Closet February 20, 2019 at 9:01 am

    […] Sewcialists are conducing their own Grade My Size Survey for curvy sewists! The results will help maintain a living database of measurement information for […]

    Loading...

    Reply

  11. Saturday Musings: Where's My Size? | Body Positive Sewing & Style | Making the Flame March 9, 2019 at 3:19 pm

    […] I love that people are sharing their measurements, and that indie brands and community blogs like the Sewcialists are collecting body measurement data to further aid the community in getting patterns that fit all bodies (at least size-wise). Quick […]

    Loading...

    Reply

  12. That Sewing Blab Ep. 143: Recap of PatternReview.com's Sewing Bee Competition – handcraft March 24, 2019 at 5:11 pm

    […] 😍 Sewcialist’s Grade My Size Survey https://thesewcialists.com/2019/02/15/grade-my-size-survey/ […]

    Loading...

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Powered by WordPress.com.
%d bloggers like this: