How to Measure for a Belt

The belt I made to wear on my wedding day.

I guarantee my belts to fit the measurement provided, I cannot guarantee it will fit the person it was intended for without taking the measure myself. Taking the best possible measurement is critical to ensuring you are pleased with your purchase, but don't worry, this article should give you a good understanding of everything required to do just that.

Made to measure belts are one of the few exceptions to my no questions asked return policy.

What Not To Do

Customers often present me with pant sizes when ordering, but that number simply doesn't tell me what I need to know.

Sure those pants were however many inches around the waist when you bought them, but I don't know how tight or loose those pants fit now, I don't know what brand they are, or how much they have stretched out over the years. A belt made based on a pants size could only ever be a best guess at the right fit.

We could try putting a tape measure around your waist, but that's more complicated than it sounds. Exactly where on your waist would you put that tape measure? How taught would you pull it? No, we can make it easier than that.

The Easy Way

We will take a measure off of another belt, and to ensure the most accurate measurement, we will measure the belt as it is worn over a similar style of pants to those you intend to wear with your new belt.

Jeans and dress slacks often sit at different places on your hips and your work belt and dress belt might not be the same length as a result.

How To Take A Belt Measure

Put on the same style of pants as you would like to wear the new belt with, adjust your old belt as you would like the new belt to fit, and mark or remember the belt-hole you used.

You could do this with multiple pairs of pants to come up with a range rather than a single number if you wanted to be able to wear the belt with both higher and lower rise pants.

Once you have your hole marked, remove the old belt, place it flat on a table, do your best to get any warp or curve out of the belt (a second set of hands is very helpful for this step) and measure from the tip of the prong of the buckle, to the marked hole or holes. This is your belt measure. Jot it down and send it to me.

A Few Other Things To Consider

When you do, here are a few other questions that will help me deliver the best possible product for your needs.

Will you be wearing this with a trophy style buckle, or a simpler, heel-bar style, or would you like the option of switching back and forth? If you'll be using multiple trophy buckles, how wide is your widest buckle?

I usually do 7 adjustment holes, 3/4 of an inch apart, which would give a range of just over 5 inches, which is a bit less than most department store belts. Will this range around your belt measure be sufficient?

Due to medication, recent happy marriages, exercise journeys, or for any other reason, do you have any expectations of gaining or loosing weight in the near future that would mean I should bias the adjustment of the belt in one direction or the other?

If you do not have a previous belt to measure from

A piece of rope can be substituted. In this case, the rope belt should adjusted until it can be comfortably worn around for an hour or two before you mark and measure the rope. It will probably be too tight when you first put it on and will take some adjusting and moving to get right. A belt, even a borrowed one, would be better.

If you do not have a piece of rope, a flexible seamstress tape measure can be used directly. For this you will need to wear a pair of pants that stay up well on their own, and loosely thread the tape measure through the belt loops of the pants. Do not pull it snug. The looseness is accounting for the difference in the thickness of the tape measure and the future belt. You want to jot down the number where the tape measure overlaps itself.

If you are trying to make it a surprise gift and cannot get me a good measure without ruining the surprise, you could take several decoy measurements at the same time to keep the fun going.