Fit to flatter is a ten-part series of tutorials on choosing and modifying knitting patterns to flatter your shape. These tutorials will be released every two weeks both as blog posts (free) and as separate, professionally formatted PDF files for printing (nominal charge). Should you desire the PDFs, each installment can be purchased from the tutorial page as they are released, or via a “buy now” button at the end of the installment. Individual installments are US$2.00 and at the end of the tutorial series the whole series will be available for $US10.00. I hope you enjoy the series!

Normally I don’t like jump cuts in blog posts, but this installment got so long that I felt it was a little cruel to flood everyone’s reader (and my blog’s front page) with the whole thing. Please click through for the whole installment, which is 16 pages when formatted for printing. Thanks!

This series is not about making you feel badly about what you have already knit. It is not about making you feel badly about your shape or about making you feel like you can only knit certain things, in certain yarns. In writing these tutorials, I want to help you learn basic principles for dressing the figure you have in the most flattering way possible.
Every person reading these words has fabulous assets to show off and a thing or two that you wish would disappear forever. The fact is this: Though exercise offers a plethora of benefits, it won’t change your fundamental shape. And wearing clothes flattering to your shape will do more to change the way you feel about your body than losing weight or gaining muscle will.

As knitters, we have the ultimate power of creating a piece of couture perfectly suited to our figures every single time. Your hand-knits should make you look and feel like a million bucks, and not just because of the skill required to form the stitches. I want to help you get there.

The first installment of this series introduced the concept of a shape and how the right clothes can change the appearance of that shape. In this second installment of my ten- part tutorial series I’ll dive into details on the different shapes and how to use specific kinds of clothing to make them all appear more proportional. Future installments will tailor this advice to hand-knits in particular and explore different garment elements that can have a big impact on flattery. I’ll end the series with thoughts on advanced sweater modification and custom sweater design.

Let’s Get Started.

I’d like to begin this installment by noting that the concept of body shape is not something I invented—others have said it far better and in more detail than is possible in a series of blog tutorials. I owe my first interest in this topic and a decent chunk of my insight to Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine, whose television show What Not to Wear on the BBC won my lifelong admiration. If you are interested in a significantly more precise classification of body shape and general dressing for flattery, I recommend their excellent book The Body Shape Bible. Since I am focused specifically on helping hand-knitters, I won’t try to reproduce their results here. Instead, I’ll cover a more general breakdown of shapes in this tutorial series.

Let’s start with a reminder of just how many different shapes there are. Remember my knit-night friends?

(From the left: Erin, me, Beth, Thea.)

(From the left: Crystal, Sarah, Danielle, Jess.)

Please also recall the three imaginary lines we can draw on figures to illustrate the principles of dressing to flatter: A line at the widest point on the top of the figure (shoulders or bust), a line at the waist, and a line at the widest point on the bottom of the figure (hips or thighs). This group of women includes examples of the three basic types of shape I’ll focus on: Bottom-heavy shapes, whose bottom line is longer than the top; Top-heavy shapes, whose top line is longer than the bottom; and proportional shapes, whose top and bottom lines are equal. (As a reminder, the “average” woman shape you’ll find online is typically a proportional one.)

There are a few basic kinds of visual tricks we will use with each shape to give a balanced visual impression. Most readers have probably heard that light colors maximize and dark colors minimize. In addition, horizontal visual lines will maximize/accentuate width and vertical visual lines will narrow/minimize width. There aremany different variations in clothing that will give horizontal or vertical impressions, and exploring those variations is a large part of what we’ll be covering in the remaining tutorials. Since we all learn best from examples, here are a few: Hems, the bottoms of sleeves, yoke-style details, and necklines that are more wide than deep all provide a horizontal visual impression. Deep necklines, cardigan button bands, slits, and cables that run from hem to shoulder all provide a vertical visual impression.

Now for the details: Let’s examine how to apply visual elements to flatter each type of shape in turn.

Group One: Bottom-Heavy Shapes.

The first group of shapes I’ll discuss is the one I personally belong to: the bottom-heavy group. Here are some pencil drawings of a few different bottom-heavy shapes.

In our group of women there were two bottom-heavy shapes, me and Sarah:

The first thing I’d like to point out is that while we are both bottom-heavy shapes, our widest points are in different places. Sarah is a classic pear: her widest point is at her hip line. (Sarah’s shape looks much like the pencil drawing on the left.) My hips and bust/shoulders are of equal width but my thighs flare out from there. (A more slender version of my own shape was the inspiration for the middle drawing.)

The most basic visual trick to flattering a bottom-heavy shape is to use horizontal visual motifs on the top of the clothing and vertical (or absent) visual motifs on the bottom. The former will widen the visual impression of the shoulder area while the latter will minimize the visual impression of the hip/thigh region. Work them separately or in combination.

As an example, in the following picture Sarah and I are wearing clothing that minimizes our bottom halves while widening our shoulders:

First, the minimizing: Our (dark) jeans do not taper at the ankle, instead they flare out to balance our hips/thighs. We’re also wearing tops that maximize our shoulder width. The V-necklines draw a viewer’s eyes out at the shoulder. Sarah’s brighter top draws attention to her collarbones/shoulders and away from her hips. Both tops have a wide horizontal visual impression: The gathering just under the V-neck and the fluttery sleeve on Sarah’s shirt seem like a unit, drawing a horizontal line all the way across her bust and to the outside of her arms. On my sweater, diagonal ribs trace the outline of the V-neckline and create a similarly widening line. Sarah’s shirt has one additional feature in that the pleats coming down from the point of the V-neckline create a vertical visual line down to the bottom of the shirt.

One advantage to being a bottom-heavy shape is that it grants a lot of leeway to choose interesting and even intricate tops. Yoked sweaters, with their broad horizontal lines, tend to look good on bottom-heavy shapes. Many bottom-heavy shapes have a small bust as well, enabling cables and thicker yarns to look very attractive.

Here are some guidelines for choosing tops flattering to bottom-heavy shapes:

• Any horizontal visual elements should be in the top half of the garment. The bottom of the garment should be neutral and end before the widest point of the wearer’s shape.
• Any vertical visual elements should be focused within the bottom half of the garment.
• Generally speaking, the sleeves should never end at the same place as the hem of the sweater. Best choices include sleeves that don’t end at the wearer’s widest point, either.

Bottom-heavy shapes can also try to choose pants/skirts with the same visual properties:

• Since vertical visual impressions minimize width, wearing heeled shoes with pants that are a bit too long help create a narrower impression of the wearer’s legs than wearing flats or pants that end at the ankle.
• Darker colors are generally better choices.
• Bottom-heay shapes should typically avoid bottoms with any horizontal motif around the hips (I’m looking at you, low-slung wide belt).
• Skirts and pants should have a bottom half that flares out somewhat to balance the hips/thighs. Tapered pants are a poor choice for flattery. Likewise, bias-cut pencil skirts are unflattering since bias-cut fabric clings to and widens the hips.
• Skirts and pants should be constructed of structured fabrics that do not cling.

Hand-knit sweaters can, of course, fulfill the guidelines for flattering tops.

Notice that both Sarah’s sweater and mine are brighter and more eye-catching than our pants. The necklines both create a strong horizontal visual impression at the top of the sweater, further widening our top halves. The elbow-length sleeves on my sweater draw the eye just below my bust to my narrower waist; the vertical line of buttons on Sarah’s sweater gives a long and slender visual impression. One final point to mention is that the horizontal lines of variegation in my sweater also widen my top half. Somewhat non-intuitively, this does not make me look heavier: The trim fit of the sweater allows my curves to show, so the horizontal lines simply give the appearance of a top half equal in width to my hips/legs.

A one-sentence summary of dressing to flatter a bottom-heavy shape: Choose tops that widen the shoulder/bust region and pants/skirts that flare out at the knee or below, and clothing that minimizes the widest area.

Group Two: Top-Heavy Shapes.

At the other end of the spectrum we have the top-heavy shapes. This is an interesting category because it can contain both the shape most people think of (one with an ample bust) and those with a smaller bust but broad shoulders. The defining characteristic of a top-heavy shape is that the widest line will be on the top instead of the bottom.

Our group included women with larger chests, larger shoulders, and both.

Erin, on the left, has a large bust and a narrow waist/hip/thigh region. Danielle has both broad shoulders and a large bust. Beth and Thea both have broad shoulders for their frame and smaller busts. All four women are top-heavy shapes, and the same types of clothing will flatter them all (with some variation according to bust size).

The principles for dressing a top-heavy shape mirror those for dressing a bottom-heavy one. All horizontal motifs should be worn at the hip/thigh level, widening that area so that it appears to be equal in width to the bust/shoulder region. Top-heavy shapes with large busts have an additional constraint in that they look best in lower-cut shirts and/or shirts with long vertical lines. (We’ll get into necklines in minute detail in Installment 5, but any neckline that makes your chest look like it stretches from your chin to your navel is an unflattering choice.) Let’s look at these same women in clothes that flatter their shapes:

The use of long vertical lines by the two bustier women (Erin, far left and Danielle, far right) make them both appear more slender and of equal width in bust and hip. Thea (middle left) chooses a light top with a hem that falls exactly at her widest hip point. Beth (middle right) emphasizes her small waist and widens her hip by drawing horizontal lines with the waist sash and the hem of a brightly colored top. These two horizontal lines combine with the deeper neckline to draw the eye to Beths’ slim hips and away from her broad shoulders. Thea also chose a top with a deeper neckline that doesn’t scoop low enough to be unflattering to her smaller bust.

One nearly universal feature of women with a top-heavy shape is long, slender legs. This incredible asset can be shown off by a staggering number of shoes, pants, skirts, and shorts that other shapes find difficult to pull off. Top-heavy shapes are really the only shapes flattered by fluttery, bias-cut skirts (which cling to and widen the hip region).

Top-heavy shapes tend to look best in tops that widen the hips in balance to their shoulders/bust:

• Long, vertical visual motifs should begin at the top of the garment. Examples include a button-band and deep V-necks. The V-necks should be fairly narrow to avoid widening the shoulders.
• Horizontal motifs on the bottom of the garment widen the hips in balance to the shoulder/bust region and are very flattering.
• Longer sleeves are typically better for top-heavy shapes, though the right length of short sleeve can work as well. (We’ll cover sleeves in more detail in Installment 6.) Top-heavy shapes tend to look great in bell sleves, as they draw a nice horizontal line at the hips/thighs.
• The shoulder/neck area of a top should be plain and simple to avoid drawing attention to the width.
• Top-heavy shapes with a large bust should choose deeper necklines to break up the torso.

Top-heavy shapes have nearly limitless choices when looking for flattering bottoms:

• Nearly any style of pant is fine, provided it flares out a bit or goes to a straight leg at the bottom. Pants that are snug around the hips and/or are worn with an eye-catching belt are typically very flattering to top-heavy shapes.
• Skirts should be straight, A-line, or flouncy in some way to balance the shoulders/bust, but can cling as tightly as the wearer desires around the hips. Top heavy shapes are likely to look great in knitted skirts or wearing knitted knee-highs.

I don’t want to imply that the guidelines for simple tops with vertical elements mean a never-ending diet of boring hand-knit sweaters. These principles can be adopted in a number of different ways:

Our top-heavy women look great in these sweaters. They all employ vertical lines on top to break up the expanse of shoulder/bust, many of them end at the widest point of the wearers’ hips/thighs, and the sleeves are long enough to draw the attention down toward the wearer’s legs. (Though in the interest of being precise I would wave a magic wand and give Thea a couple of more inches on the sleeves of her sweater if I could. Thea has a nice long neck that looks good in turtleneck sweaters, but I think the combination of the roll-neck along with the short sleeves draws a little too much focus upward.)

In summary, top-heavy shapes want to choose tops that offer a vertical visual impression in all areas but the hips. Tops and bottoms alike should widen the hips and ankles and show off the top-heavy shape’s greatest asset: her legs. These shapes also tend to be flattered by other hand-knits like skirts and knee socks.

Group Three: Proportional Shapes.

This group is dedicated to the women whose top and bottom lines are naturally the same width. Before the rest of you get all snarky about how this group barely needs any help, remember that shapes come in all sizes and configurations. There are plenty of challenges awaiting the group of proportional girls:

First off, please notice that “proportional” simply means that the shoulder/bust line and hip/thigh line are of equal width. It says nothing about whether the wearer is curvy or straight, long-limbed or short, or any number of other things that can make a figure challenging to dress.

We had three proportional women in our group photo shoot:

Caro, Jess, and Crystal all have shoulders and hips of equal width. The similarity ends there: Caro has a very curvy classic hourglass shape and will be most flattered by well-fitting clothing that doesn’t lose her waist. Jess has a long and gently curving waist and long arms. Crystal is a fairly straight shape without many curves at all.

The key to flattering any proportional shape is to preserve the balance between shoulders/bust and hips while addressing any other considerations. In the following pictures, Crystal and Jess are wearing outfits that preserve their proportion while also addressing their own challenges:

Crystal is using elbow-length sleeves and a wrap-style waist to create the illusion of a curvy midsection. The width of the V-neckline and plain shirt bottom keep her hips and shoulders in proportion. Jess is shortening the appearance of her arms by choosing a top that ends low on the hips. The parallel of an angled neckline and sleeves against the more floaty shirt bottom keeps her shoulders and hips in balance.

The proportional figure has a tremendous advantage in that if the clothes are proportional themselves, they are likely to flatter. Yoked sweaters with colorwork repeated at the hem, V-necks or scoop necks with an interesting bottom detail, cardigans, short sleeves or long, can all look great on a figure already balanced.

Proportional figures should look for tops with the following qualities:

• Balance in any visual motifs. Horizontal yokes should be paired with a similar motif on the hip and/or sleeve cuffs. Vertical motifs that flare at one end (say, a cardigan with a sloping V-neckline) should be balanced with a flare at the other end as well (e.g., wear the cardigan snug and unbuttoned over the hips).
• Sleeve length should not imbalance the rest of the garment. For example, if the top has a plunging narrow V-neck (which narrows the shoulders) the sleeves should not bell at the hips (which would widen them).
• A neckline should be flattering to the wearer’s curves or lack thereof. For example, busty proportional shapes like Caro’s should avoid high turtlenecks out of thick yarn. Smaller-busted proportional shapes like Crystal’s should avoid plunging scoop necks—they just call attention to a bust that isn’t there.

Proportional figures should look for bottoms with similar properties:

• Most pants will work fine as long as they are paired with a top that maintains a balance with their shape. For example a wide-legged pant will look best paired with a top that also widens the shoulders.
• The exception to this is that very few women are flattered by tapered-leg pants.
• Skirts should also be balanced with a top: Pencil skirts, which widen the hips, should be paired with a top that also widens the shoulders (a shawl-collared sweater, for example).

It should be no surprise that many hand-knits will look great on a proportional figure:

Crystal is once again given curves by the cables of this sweater, which exaggerate the lines of her bust/waist as they are pulled off of a straight up-down axis. The collar is perfectly balanced by the wide ribbed bottom. The hip-widening effect of a short sweater is balanced on Jess by a shawl collar. (And incidentally, the vertical impression of the neckline/front/tie pieces do a great job of making her long arms seem in balance with the rest of her body.)

Proportional shapes have a lot of freedom in their choices. Provided their clothing preserves the balance of their shape, they are largely free to focus on secondary considerations like the ones discussed next.

Curves: A Special Consideration.

While individual tastes vary, it is generally the case that a bit of a curve is a good thing. Curvy figures are flattered by clothing that preserves their curve; straighter figures are flattered by visual tricks that create the illusion of a curvier figure.

There are two types of curve to consider. The first is an ample bust. Busty women should generally avoid maximizing their chest by swathing it all in a single block of fabric. Flattering shirts break up the bulk of a large chest either through deep necklines or (on the right garment) striking visual elements. It is nearly impossible for a turtleneck to flatter a large-busted woman. Cardigans can often be good choices, as leaving them unbuttoned on top both breaks up the expanse of bosom and creates a narrowing vertical line. However, they should be worn with enough positive ease at the bust to avoid gaping between buttons; this is typically best achieved via bust darts so that the back of the sweater does not bag. (More on that in Installment 8.)

The second type of curve to consider when dressing to flatter is a waistline that differs dramatically from hip/bust lines; for example, the classic hourglass shape. An hourglass can be busty or not but always has a narrow waist in comparison to the hip and bust lines. The crucial element of flattering clothing for this type of curve is that the garment must not mask the line of the curve. Boxy clothing without shaping will make an hourglass look like a rectangle and much heavier than she really is.

Straight shapes have an opposite challenge: to use visual tricks to create the illusion of curves even when none exist. Typically this is best accomplished by actually using curvy visual elements: Wavy cables or lace patterns, a wrap top that curves from the shoulder under the bust to tie at the waist, or a cardigan worn nicely fitted and buttoned only in the middle are all good examples. Specific hand-knit cardigans that overlay an hourglass curve on a straight figure are Bonne Marie-Burns’s Twist, Berroco’s free design the March Basic, and Ysolda Teague’s Vivian. Note: This trick only really works if the cardigan is worn snugly enough for the hourglass shape to be pulled open at the top and bottom by the body. It is important to avoid straight lines crossing the waist if you lack curves: This will emphsize the equality of your waist/hip lines.

My good friend Diana joined us for a follow-on photo shoot for the series. In these pictures Jess (curvy) and Diana (straight) are wearing garments that are fantastic examples of both sets of guidelines here:

Jess accentuates her curvy frame by the use of a fitted, horizontal band at her smallest point. Though the width of that band wouldn’t work for everyone (on a very short-torsoed woman it would likely be longer than her smallest point and bunch in at the middle), it suits Jess very well. Curvier women look best in extremely fitted clothing that highlights their natural shape. Their sweaters should always include waist shaping, and any non-knitted clothing should be very closely tailored.

While Diana is quite busty, she does not have an especially curvy shape—her waist and hips are essentially the same width, and she has a flat backside. You wouldn’t know it in this outfit, however. The skirt is smooth and snug before flaring into curvy ruffles. This exaggerates the curve of her hips by causing her silhouette to have an hourglass shape. Her top uses a similar line with the placement of the lace panels that also form an hourglass, with the sloped bottom drawing the illusion of a small waist.

Height and Proportion.

One final consideration when using visual tricks to achieve proportionality is height. In addition to being top-heavy, bottom-heavy, or proportional, and in addition to being curvy or straight, we can be either long- or short-limbed, long- or short-waisted, and tall or short. Generally speaking, we’d like to use our clothing to achieve a happy medium in all of these areas. That “average” woman has legs slightly longer than her torso, arms proportional to her body length, and a waist that’s neither long nor short.

Most of us have at least one thing different from that “average” woman’s figure. The principle for addressing a vertical imbalance may seem counterintuitive at first: To shorten something, break it up into vertical blocks of different color. To lengthen something, give it the longest single block of color you can. For example: If you have short legs, have your pants hemmed long and wear them with heels (so that the pants reach nearly to the floor). Doing so will give you the illusion of longer legs. Cropped pants make your legs seem even shorter than they are.

The same trick can work to shorten or lengthen a waist. Those with an exremely short waist may want to lengthen it but may not: the “average” shape has longer legs and a shorter waist. For this reason, women with a long waist often want to shorten it a bit—shortening their waist will make their legs appear longer by comparison and bring their shape closer to that mythical average.

Danielle has a long waist. As different blocks of color will shorten the appearance of her waist, she has chosen a sweater and a T-shirt long enough to poke out underneath. These stripes of gray and white break up the length of her tosro and make her waist appear shorter than it is. (And though her legs are not pictured in this frame, by comparison they seem longer than before.)

Before ending this installment, I’d like to briefly touch on height. The principle of lengthening by using longer blocks of related colors applies to overall height as well as leg length and waist length. Petite women in particular can seem overwhelmed by lots of fabric or large, chunky motifs. Kathy is a petite pear, and normally I would recommend that she choose a coat with structured shoulders to balance out her hips. But this coat is just too much coat for her small frame:

Hand-knits don’t often run the same risk of overwhelming petite figures, since most knitters don’t have the patience to do large, thigh-length jackets. But especially tall or short women should be aware of their height when dressing to flatter.

What’s Up Next.

In this installment we dove into the nittiest, grittiest details of what defines a shape—and how to use visual tricks to alter its appearance. I hope that at this point you have a decent idea of your own shape and what kinds of clothes will or will not be flattering to it. In the next installment we’ll translate these principles into choosing your knitting projects well.

I feel passionately that you should have a closet full of hand-knits that you’re proud to wear wherever you go. Helping you understand what your own shape is and how you can choose knitting patterns that will make you look your best are the reasons I’m writing this tutorial series. I hope you’re enjoying them!

To purchase a PDF version of this installment (US$2.00), or the entire series (US$10.00): Buy this Buy all