I have been dress making for a while, since I can't ever find a good fit for my body. I am just wondering of anyone has a good formula for dress size and waist length for those of us who are fairly short, but long-waisted? I am 5'2", but have an inseam of 26", and whenever I buy a dress in my 'size' it always is too short. Thus, aside from my work dresses (which are no big problem since I am sitting most of the time), I have been trying to make my own. The problem is that the waist length for most patterns has the same problem. Any suggestions??

Hi -Dress Shop knows where the floor is, where you placed your waist from the top down and where you placed the waist from the floor up as well as hip placement and abd placement.

In addition we have a nifty new tool which allows you to palce your waist shaping ( largest indent) where you want it.for many thats slightly aboiev true waist, soem like it at true waist.......you have a choice as well as many other user defined choices.thats what our custom emasurement chart is all about!

Kaaren

Hi Kelly,

I have a great way of doing this measurement. I mark the top of my hip bones, then move down an inch or two. Then I mark the bottom of my crotch and add an inch or two, and this becomes the length from the bottom of the pleat to the bottom of the dress. The middle of the dress is measured from the bottom of my bust to just below my hip bones, whcih give me ample room for bending and comfort. And the 6-8 inches between the bottom of the waiste to the bottom of the dress makes things comfortably short. (You can shorten it a bit more, but that gets a little revealing, which can be nice in the right occasion.)

Gloria, your numbers sound good, but a little small. Perhaps these work for your body? I am reltively petite at dress size 2, so maybe these are right.