How to measure your upper arm for kameez sleeves

Taking it, step by step

A helper makes this quicker, but it can be done alone: hold the end of the tape against your arm with your thumb, or clip it with a clothes peg, and read it in a mirror.

• Wear a sleeveless top or a very thin one. A gathered sleeve under the tape adds to the reading.
• Let the arm hang straight and loose. Do not hold it out or rest your hand on your hip, because both tighten the muscles.
• Start just below the armpit and move the tape slowly down towards the elbow, watching the number. The largest reading is the one you want.
• Keep the tape horizontal all the way round. A slanted tape reads long.
• Let it lie flat without denting the skin.
• Measure both arms. A small difference is common; send the larger figure.

Relaxed, flexed or bent?

Relaxed is the standard. A flexed arm can read an inch (2.5 cm) or more larger, and a sleeve cut to that figure looks loose for all the hours your arm is at rest. Room for reaching and lifting is added when the sleeve is cut, so give the relaxed number.

Bending matters lower down the arm. When the elbow bends, the joint widens, and a close full or three-quarter sleeve has to pass over it. For slim sleeves, add a second figure taken around the elbow with the arm bent at a right angle, and label it “elbow, bent”.

Why sleeves pull, and what this number changes

Ready-made sleeves are worked out from the bust size, on the assumption that arms grow in step with the rest of the body. Many do not. If your arms are fuller than average for your bust, a standard sleeve creases in lines pointing to the armpit, rides up when you reach forward and feels tight when you sit at a desk. If they are slimmer, the sleeve hangs wide.

With your upper arm figure, the sleeve width is set from your arm instead of being guessed. As a rough tailoring guide, a close sleeve is cut about 2 inches (5 cm) larger than the arm and an easy kameez sleeve 3 to 4 inches (8 to 10 cm) larger, with a little more for fabrics that have no stretch. Do not add that yourself; send the body figure and say how close you like your sleeves. The sleeve also has to agree with the armhole, which is why the two go together: see how to measure an armhole.

Reading a sleeve you already like

If one of your kameez has sleeves that feel just right, measure them as a check. Lay the kameez flat, smooth one sleeve out and measure straight across it about an inch (2.5 cm) below the underarm seam, at right angles to the fold. Double the figure. Take your upper arm away from it and you have the amount of room you are comfortable with.

Send it labelled as a garment measurement, for example “sleeve width 7.5 inches flat, 15 round, from a kameez”, so it is never mistaken for your arm. Our page on body and garment measurements explains why that matters.

Adding it to your order

Put the upper arm in the notes on the quote form with a clear label, and say which sleeve you want: full sleeves, three-quarter sleeves or something from a photo. If sleeves have given you trouble before, one sentence about what usually happens is useful. Custom stitching explains how your measurements and design are agreed in writing before cutting.