The fit guide
Why a drafted pattern fits better than a size label, what actually changes when you change one number, and why a tailor cannot close the same gap. The arithmetic, not the adjectives.
Personal fit
Standard sizes fit a chart. We fit you.
A size label is one set of numbers chosen to suit as many people as possible. Your chest, your sleeve length and your shoulder width are three separate facts — and they rarely arrive in the combination a chart was built around.
| What decides it | A size label, S–XXL | Drafted from your numbers |
|---|---|---|
| Chest | The nearest of six numbers | Your chest, to the centimetre |
| Body length | Fixed per size, or a “tall” cut about 5 cm longer | Your number — the finished length, not a variant |
| Sleeve | Fixed per size, long enough for the tallest wearer in it | Your arm, from the shoulder you actually have |
| Shoulder & armhole | Scaled from the chest by a ratio, not measured | Drafted from your chest on the women’s or men’s block, then checked against your shoulder |
| Ease | Whatever the brand decided for that fit | 3.5 in (8.9 cm) over the chest, stated once and never quietly changed |
| If it is wrong | Return it, if the policy allows, and try another size | First adjustment free within 30 days of delivery |
Two people, both 104 cm in the chest. One is 178 cm with a 66 cm sleeve; the other is 163 cm with a 59 cm sleeve. A size L gives both the same sleeve, so one of them rolls a cuff for the life of the sweater.
We draft each sleeve from the shoulder it hangs off, and the armhole depth moves with the chest — so the sleeve head still sets cleanly at 104 cm and at 128 cm, where a scaled chart starts to pull.
Where standard sizing is the better buy: if your chest, sleeve and shoulder all sit near the middle of a chart at the same time, ready-to-wear will fit you well and cost less. The gap opens when your numbers disagree with each other — a chest that wants L with a sleeve that wants S, a long torso on a small frame, or 12 cm between your chest and your seat.
What moves, what does not
Change one number. Only that panel moves.
Every one of these figures comes out of the same pattern engine that drafts your sweater, run on the same one input at a time. Nothing here is an estimate for illustration.
| If you change | Finished chest | What actually moves | What stays put |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleeve 60 → 66 cm same 104 cm chest |
112.9 cm, unchanged | Sleeve length +6 cm, roughly 10 g more yarn | Body, shoulder, armhole, cuff |
| Shoulder 38 → 46 cm same 104 cm chest |
112.9 cm, unchanged | Finished shoulder 40 → 48 cm, and the sleeve head is redrawn to set into it | Armhole depth (it follows the chest, not the shoulder) |
| Waist 72 → 88 cm same 96 cm chest |
104.9 cm, unchanged | Hem 91.2 → 99.2 cm — straight or shaped, your call | Shoulder, sleeve, armhole |
| Women’s → men’s block same 96 / 82 / 42 |
104.9 → 105.4 cm | Armhole depth 25.8 → 28.4 cm, cuff +0.2 cm, higher and narrower neckline on the women’s | Your six numbers — the block decides how they are read |
All figures in centimetres, at 3.5 in of ease, set-in shoulder, tapered sleeve, on 100% merino. Cashmere and the cotton blend carry their own shrink allowances, so the machine numbers differ by a few millimetres — see the pattern page.
Kept on file
Your fit doesn’t start over.
Your six numbers become a Fit ID — a short code that brings the same block, the same construction and the same draft back for your next sweater. Change the yarn, change the colour, change the style. Keep the fit.
- One code, the whole pattern. The code carries your six numbers and the block they were drafted on, so a second sweater starts where the first one ended — not from a size chart.
- Change one thing at a time. Same fit in a new yarn, the same yarn in a new colour, or one number adjusted after a wash-day realisation. Nothing else moves.
- It is yours to keep or delete. It lives on your order and in our record, not in a browser cache. Write to us and we delete it.
How to read one. A code like MM-0XOJ-0IJ0 is not random: the two
halves encode your six numbers and the block, in a form our pattern room can decode without a
database lookup. Paste it into the builder and the fields fill themselves in.
The honest comparison
A $261.00 sweater and a $90 tailor
It is a real option, and for some people it is the right one. Here is the arithmetic, including the part that usually gets left out: what a tailor can actually change on a knitted garment.
| Buy a sweater, then alter it | Drafted from your numbers | |
|---|---|---|
| What you start with | A sweater in the nearest size, in whatever yarn the brand used | Six numbers and the yarn you chose |
| What can be changed afterwards | Hem, sleeve length taken up at the cuff, sometimes the side seams | Nothing needs changing — the panel was knitted to your numbers |
| What cannot be changed | Shoulder width, armhole depth, where the sleeve head sits, neckline width. Taking in a side seam does not move any of them | — |
| Typical alteration bill | $25–45 hem · $40–70 sleeves · $60–100 taking in the sides, in most North American cities | Included in the draft |
| Trips | Two or three, about a week apart, with the garment left behind each time | One delivery |
| If the second version is still wrong | Back to the tailor | First adjustment free within 30 days of delivery |
| All in | Around $270–320, still on the original shoulders | From $261.00, on your own shoulders |
When the tailor wins: you already own a sweater whose shoulders and armhole sit exactly right, and only the cuff is long. That is a $40 problem. Keep the $40 — we would rather tell you that than sell you a replacement. The tailor stops being the answer at the moment the problem is above the elbow, because that is where alterations stop and pattern-making begins.
Before you order
Three honest reasons not to
This page is written to talk you out of the wrong purchase as much as into the right one. If any of these is true, ready-to-wear is the better answer and we will still be here later.
- Your numbers already agree with a chart. Then a size M fits you, and paying for a drafted pattern would buy a difference you cannot see.
- You want it this week. A first sweater takes two to three weeks because it is knitted after you order, not picked off a shelf.
- You want to machine-wash cashmere. Cashmere is hand-wash. If the machine is non-negotiable, order M4 — it is the cheapest of the four yarns and the only one built for it.
Still unsure? Send us the numbers you have and a person will check them with you before the first stitch.