How to Measure Bust, Waist, and Hips at Home

What You Need Before You Start

A soft, flexible tape measure is the only tool that gives an accurate reading; a rigid ruler or a metal carpenter's tape will not follow the curve of your body. Measure in your underwear or close-fitting clothing, standing straight with your feet together and your weight even on both legs. SewGuide, a sewing and pattern-drafting resource, recommends wearing the bra you would normally wear under clothes and avoiding bulky layers, since extra fabric under the tape adds width that is not actually yours. A second person can help keep the tape level around your back, but all three measurements below can be taken alone with a mirror.

How to Measure Your Bust

Stand straight in a well-fitting, unpadded bra and wrap the tape around the fullest part of your bust. Nordstrom's bra-fitting guide instructs keeping the tape taut but not tight, so it does not squish or distort the breast tissue, and confirming it stays level and parallel to the floor front and back rather than dipping down behind you. Breathe normally and read the number at eye level. If the tape rides up in the back when you lower your arms, start over rather than trusting a reading taken with your arms raised, since raised arms lift the ribcage and shrink the number.

This full-bust number is what dress, top, and jacket size charts use. It is a different measurement from the two numbers a bra size uses, which is covered in its own section below.

How to Measure Your Waist

Your natural waist is not the same as the waistband of your jeans. SewGuide describes finding it by bending gently to one side and feeling for the crease that forms; that crease, usually above the belly button and below your lowest rib, is your natural waistline. Wrap the tape around that exact point, parallel to the floor, snug enough to stay in place but loose enough that one finger slides underneath comfortably. Do not hold your breath or pull your stomach in, since a held breath shrinks the reading by up to an inch and gives you a number you cannot actually wear.

Levi's product size guide gives the same instruction for jeans shopping specifically: wrap the tape around your natural waistline, just above the belly button, snug but not tight. Use this number for both dresses and bottoms; a waistband size printed on a garment label is a design choice, not your body measurement.

How to Measure Your Hips

Stand with your feet together and wrap the tape around the widest part of your hips and seat. Levi's size guide describes this as the fullest part of the hips with the tape kept parallel to the floor, and SewGuide adds that the tape needs to pass over the fullest point of the buttocks, not just the hip bones, since skipping that curve is the most common hip-measuring mistake. For most bodies this point sits roughly 7 to 9 inches below the natural waist, though it can sit higher or lower depending on your individual proportions, so measure by feel rather than by a fixed distance from your waist.

Keep your feet together rather than hip-width apart while you measure. Standing with your feet apart shifts weight onto the hips and can add up to half an inch to the reading.

How to Measure Your Bust for a Bra

A bra size needs two measurements instead of one, and neither of them is the full-bust number above. Nordstrom's bra-fitting guide explains the split clearly: your band size comes from wrapping the tape snugly around your rib cage, directly beneath your bust, keeping it parallel to the floor and exhaling so you get the smallest comfortable reading. Your bust size, sometimes called the cup measurement, comes from the same fullest-point measurement described above, taken over a well-fitting, unpadded bra.

Subtract the band number from the bust number. Nordstrom's guide uses each full inch of difference to mark one cup size letter, so a 34 inch band with a 36 inch bust is a 2 inch difference, which lands at a B cup. A 34 inch band with a 38 inch bust is a 4 inch difference, a D cup. If the two measurements come out equal, that typically indicates an AA or A cup depending on the brand's chart. Because band and cup sizing varies between brands, treat the calculation as a fitting-room starting point rather than a fixed number across every label.

Ready to shop your size? Our bra size calculator takes your band and bust numbers and converts them into a size across US, UK, and EU labels.

Inches to Centimeters, at a Glance

Multiply inches by 2.54 to get centimeters, or divide centimeters by 2.54 to get inches. Most soft tape measures print both scales on opposite edges, so flip the tape over before doing the conversion by hand. Common reference points for the three measurements above:

Turn Your Numbers Into a Size

Three separate numbers are useful, but they are most useful together. Your bust-to-waist and waist-to-hip proportions are what our body shape calculator uses to place you into a shape category, and the same three numbers feed the dress size calculator to translate your body into a size across brands. Enter each measurement exactly as you took it, without rounding down, since a size calculator built on an optimistic waist number will consistently recommend a size that runs tight.

Common Measuring Mistakes to Avoid

A handful of habits throw off all three numbers in predictable ways. Raising your arms while measuring your bust lifts the ribcage and shrinks the reading. Holding your breath or pulling in your stomach while measuring your waist does the same thing to that number. Measuring your hips with your feet apart shifts weight and can add width that is not there when you stand normally. And measuring over a bulky sweater or jacket adds fabric thickness that a size chart never accounts for. Re-measure barefoot, in fitted clothing, standing naturally, and the three numbers you write down will match what a garment actually needs to fit.

If your bust, waist, or hip number changes noticeably from a measurement you took a while ago, that is normal rather than a sign anything is wrong. Bodies shift with training, medication, age, and hormonal cycles, and every shape and every measurement is a normal one to have. Our guide to measuring your body shape walks through how to read the three numbers together, and how to measure your inseam covers the fourth measurement most size charts ask for.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Guides