A Note About our Trouser Sizing

Recently we hit a hurdle with our trousers - in that we found that many of them were labeled incorrrectly. It mostly affected sizes 6,8,10, 12 and 20 - all of them were labeled one size too small except for the 20s which were any sizes from a fourteen to an eighteen!
As I went through and measured them (a painstaking process, taking 3 weeks) I also realised we had a second even worse issue. The waist on nearly 70% of them was outside what we'd think of as normal tolerances - being nearly a whole size bigger at the waist. An example is our walnut whip trousers, pictured here, which are currently reduced by £5 because of this issue.
Walnut Whip Trousers
The important thing to you is that you might now need a size larger than you thought you did! The actual measurements are at the bottom of this post to help you decide.
You'd think that after all this time our manufacturers would have this right. But in truth this is very easy to get all up the spout!
Our trousers, as our customers will know, have an inlay in the centre back - an extra large seam if you like - that can be let out if you have a more straight up and down figure than our regular cut. This is a wonderfully handy thing to have, since women change shape often, and it is something that you normally would only find on very high quality ladies trousers (yet it is on nearly every pair of men's suit trousers!)
We also have our buttons down the side - a typically authentic vintage element (did you know they thought centre front zips vulgar?).
walnut whip buttons
Well, these two things - the line of the inlay and the placement of the buttons, if varied only slightly, can make a large impact on the final size of a garment. Add to this little variations on each seamstresses natural seam allowance, wether they err slightly more or slightly less, and then the accuracy of the fabric cut, things very easily get out of hand. Chaos ensues!
The difference between one size and the next is only around 2" and that difference is easily gobbled up.
The correct measurements are as follows, and we'd assume a 1" tolerance larger rather than smaller.
Size 6 waist 24 1/2" - hip (11" down from the top of the waistband) 38 1/2"
size 8 waist 26 3/4" - hip 40"
size 10 waist 28 3/4" - hip 42"
size 12 waist 30 3/4" - hip 44"
size 14 waist 32 3/4" - hip 46"
size 16 waist 34 1/2" - hip 48"
size 18 waist 37 3/8" - hip 50"
size 20 waist 40 3/8" - hip 52"
We do aplogise if by correcting the trousers to the pattern that they were meant to be messes up with what size you are in them. Do remember that they can always be altered just by moving the buttons.
If you have any issues with any of your trousers ordered from us please let us know! The best way to reach us is a quick email to Helen at shop@heyday.co.uk. Send us measurements of you or the trousers in question so we can answer you quickly!