Well my friends I am really thrilled to tell you all about how my pattern sizing is changing! We’ve been working on this for a very long time, and it’s been a mammoth effort behind the scenes, but i think you’ll agree its been SO worth it!
When I launched my brand back in 2010 my business consisted of just myself drafting and grading by hand, so I started with five manageable sizes: XS, S, M, L and XL. As time has gone on I’ve received many requests for extended sizing, and for myself as a designer I’ve really felt the limitations of not only 5 sizes, but of the numerical size labels themselves. I take your feedback really seriously, so for the last few years I have been working on extending my size range to cover more sizes. I’ve worked SO hard on this, and there have been many sleepless nights considering all the pros and cons of different sizing regimes (i am not joking) but I feel really happy with what we have come up with.
After a lot of research and gathered feedback I’ve found that most people are familiar with and comfortable with the American sizing system which begins at size 0, rather than brand specific naming, so this is what I have decided to adopt to an extent. Even though I am using familiar size labels, like any brand, I can’t guarantee that my size measurements will line up with other brands sizing or with your expectations. And as with any pattern’s sizing, please make sure you always choose your size based on your actual body measurements not your size expectations. At the end of the day, these are just labels to help distinguish cutting lines :) As a small side note: you may wonder why I haven’t chosen Australian sizing for my patterns, and that is simply because there is no standard Australian sizing! I know, it’s weird.
The feedback from our testers on the new sizing has been amazing so i’m really hoping you love the new sizes as much as we do!
My new sizing will consist of two ranges. My standard range will cover sizes 0-20 and includes 6 additional sizes plus the 5 original sizes. Two sizes larger, two sizes smaller, and two sizes in the middle. As you can see from this size chart, we’ve worked hard to make sure that our new sizes line up with the old sizes cleanly, so that you can feel confident that all Megan Nielsen patterns are consistent and accurate. For example if you have always cut a size M in my patterns this will correlate exactly to the new 12.
From now on all new patterns will be available in the 0-20 size range, however I won’t be updating all existing patterns with this new size range. You may see some existing patterns being released with extended sizing in coming months, but most existing patterns will remain available in XS-XL. Extending the size range for a pattern is akin to beginning from scratch with that design in development, timeline and cost, and it sadly isn’t possible for us to do this for all existing patterns.
The curve range will cover sizes 14-30. You’ve probably noticed that there is an overlap of four sizes with the standard range, and this is completely intentional. I am well aware that our bodies are all different and that we often span a range of sizes, so I wanted to be thoughtful and intentional about the intersection of these two size ranges. I didn’t want anyone to be in the situation where they found themselves stuck between two size ranges and needing to purchase both and blend. I am hoping this overlap of sizes will remove that worry for you. If you are a size 14 to 20 I leave it up to your discretion to decide which size range will work better for you.
Now that I’ve told you all about the new sizing, I’m really thrilled to share that the first two patterns with the new sizing will be the much loved Virginia leggings and Brumby skirt patterns! These patterns were both due for a reprint, so it was an ideal opportunity for us to regrade. This means that the Virginia leggings and Brumby skirt are now both available in printed form for sizes 0-20 and in digital PDF form for sizes 0-20, and Curve sizes 14-30!
I am really super excited about this and I hope you are too! If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment below or email us at hello@megannielsen.com !
