Harriet Wetton
When choosing or tailoring garments, analyzing fitness progress, or tracking changes in body composition, correct body measurements are critical for getting a perfect fit. Knowing how to properly measure hips is particularly important since it ensures that your clothes fit comfortably and appropriately represent changes in your body.
This guide will bring you through the process step by step, guaranteeing that you get the exact results every time. Hip measures can also be used as a health indicator. A healthy waist-to-hip ratio is typically linked to better overall health, making it even more important to precisely measure your hips.
Why Knowing How to Measure Hips Matters
Understanding how to measure hips is more than just determining the appropriate garment size. It’s also important for:
- Tracking Fitness Progress: The hips are an important place to check when assessing changes in body composition.
- Tailoring and Alterations: Using proper measurements ensures that your items fit perfectly.
- Health Insights: A waist-to-hip ratio is a standard way to examine the distribution of body fat, which can suggest potential health issues.
Now, let’s go over the specific methods to guarantee your measurements are correct.
How to take Hip Measurement Accurately
Before you start measuring, preparation is crucial. Gather the following tools for a seamless experience:
- A full-length mirror: To ensure that the tape is straight and parallel to the ground.
- A flexible cloth tape measure: to obtain accurate readings.
- Pen and paper: Record the measurements right away.
- Optional: A length of rope and a ruler (if you do not have a tape measure).
Step-by-Step Process
Find a full-length mirror.
Although hips are more comfortable to measure yourself than other parts of the body, a mirror will help you to make sure that the tape is not tangled or uneven. So, stand in front of the mirror to get your measurement.
Take off your clothes.
Remove any bulky outerwear such as pants, skirts, or thick materials. Thin underwear is ideal for retaining accuracy without sacrificing comfort. Wearing thick or layered clothing may affect the results, so measure directly over the skin or in a single layer.
Put your feet together.
Standing with your feet apart can result in erroneous measurements, making your hips appear larger than they are. Keep your feet together for an accurate reading. Ideally, your feet should be shoulder-width apart or entirely touching.
Know the difference between your waist and your hips.
Your waist is the narrowest region of your torso, usually right above your belly button. The hips, on the other hand, are placed below your waist and are the largest region of your lower body, encompassing your buttocks. Understanding this distinction is critical to knowing how to properly measure hips.
Find the widest point.
To correctly measure your hips, locate the broadest part of your lower body. This is where your buttocks usually protrude the most. Clothing and tailoring rely on this precise measurement to ensure a flawless fit.
Hold a cloth tape measure at one hip.
Hold one end at one hip. It doesn’t imply which side you are starting from. You can also pull it more towards the middle if it is more comfortable for you. Just be sure to endure on that end while making the other end. Thus, cloth tape will assist you in knowing how to measure hips.
Turn your back.
Begin at one side of your hips, securely holding one end of the tape measure. It doesn’t matter which side you start on, as long as the tape is properly aligned.
Look in the mirror.
Look in the mirror to ensure that the tape is absolutely horizontal and parallel to the ground. Any twists or unevenness can cause erroneous measurements.
Make it comfortable.
The tape measure should be close around your hips, but not too tight. A typical rule is to provide just enough area for a finger to slide beneath the tape without being too loose.
Read the number.
You can look down to see out your measurement. Your measurement is wherever the end of the tape meets a number when the tape measure reports. You may need to look in the mirror to read the number more efficiently.
Write down your measurement.
Now that you have thought about your hip measurement, please write it down to save it for later. You will also need other measurements to make your clothes, such as bust, hips, thighs, waist, and inseam, depending on what you are doing.
Add a few inches in measurements.
When you make clothes, you don’t reach your exact measurements because they would be too tight, meaning it would be difficult to move them. So you need to add a few centimetres to make it more flexible.
So, just these few steps are required to answer how to measure hips. Hopefully, you can do it in a perfect manner.
Tips on how to measure high hip:
There are some particular tips regarding how to measure high hip, i.e.;
- If you measure a pattern or clothing, it is vital to be as perfect as reasonable.
- All have different body shapes, so it may take many tries to reposition the tape measure to make sure you measure the deepest point.
- You can also print a tape measure from the Internet. You can get them with a simple online search.
- Do not use metal tape for measurements.
- They are not flexible enough, so they will not give you an exact measurement.
- If the tape measure doesn’t look smooth, reconnect it and try again.
- Add a few inches or centimetres when you are doing your laundry.
Additional Considerations
Knowing how to measure hips is only one aspect of understanding your body. To get thorough findings, consider obtaining related metrics like:
- Waist Circumference: Helps establish the waist-to-hip ratio, which can provide information about your health.
- Thigh Circumference: useful for assessing athletic or fitness levels.
Conclusion
Correct hip measurements are essential in making clothes or assessing weight loss.
How to measure hips, first, find the hip bone. The hip is measured by covering and wrapping the tape measure around the hip’s deepest part, below the hip bone. You would know very well where your buttocks stand out the most. This is where you should attach your hip tape.
When taking your hip measurement, make sure your feet are united or together, not the wide part, at least not as wide as your shoulders.
