How to take your measurements

Before ordering clothes online or buying a ring as a gift, a few measurements taken properly save a lot of returns. They take five minutes and a tape measure, as long as you know where to put the tape.

Before you start

• A soft sewing tape measure. If you have none, a piece of string and a ruler: mark the string, then measure it flat.
• A mirror, or better, someone to help you: on your own, the tape easily slips at the back.
• Underwear or thin clothes, and bare feet.
• The tape snug against the body without squeezing, and always level for circumferences.
• Each measurement written down straight away, to the nearest half centimetre (or quarter inch), with the date: bodies change, especially children’s.