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. All text copyright Amy Herzog and all images copyright splityarn 2010, unless where otherwise noted. I hope you enjoy the series!

This ten-part 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 both fabulous assets to show off and a thing or two that you wish would disappear forever (or, in some cases, appear forever). The fact is this: Though I won’t argue that we’d all be healthier if we exercised more, wearing flattering clothes will do much 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.

Previous installments have focused on determining your own shape, principles for using clothing to flatter, and specific garment elements. In this installment, the seventh out of ten, we wrap up the series of installments on specific garment elements by focusing on the hem of a sweater. The final three installments will cover waist shaping, implementation, and advanced topics. We’re almost there!

Another Horizontal Line.

Like necklines and sleeve cuffs, the bottom hem of a sweater draws a visual line across the wearer’s body and hence has a dramatic impact on the garment’s flattery to the wearer’s shape. That line can be accentuated and widened by ensuring the sleeves end at the same place on the wearer’s body; it can be minimized and narrowed a bit by breaking it up with an opened button band or deep ribbing. But any way you slice it, the hem of a sweater is going to draw some amount of attention to the place it falls on the wearer’s body.

For now, let’s consider sweaters that are neither cropped nor tunic-length. In other words, we’ll restrict our attention for a moment to sweaters that end somewhere in the wearer’s hip region. Knitters’ shapes can generally be binned into two categories: those flattered by a sweater that ends at the widest point of their hips and those that are not. (We’ll go back to extra-long or extra-short sweaters later in the installment.)

Those Who Do: Top-Heavy Shapes and Others.

It’s a good bet that top-heavy shapes will be most flattered by a sweater that ends at their widest point. Their shoulders, their bust, or both give a wide impression of their top half that needs to be balanced by a widening of their bottom half. Here, Danielle illustrates this point in my design Arm Candy: It falls exactly at the widest point on her hips and nicely balances her broad shoulders and large bust. Better yet, it’s paired with a deep neckline that breaks up the visual block of her chest.

One subtlety in using hem length to flatter a top-heavy shape involves whether or not the wearer is curvy as I’ve defined the term in this series: That is, whether the wearer has a waist dramatically smaller than her bust. Danielle is a fairly straight shape, with a waist that doesn’t pull in very far from her bust/hips. With very few exceptions, she will be most flattered by sweaters that end exactly at her widest point on the middle of her hips. Curvy top-heavy shapes can sometimes be more flattered by sweaters that end just above the widest point of their hips, as long as the sweater is paired with a bottom that broadens the hips like a bias-cut skirt. The hip-widening is handled by something other than the sweater, and the wearer’s small waist gets some attention from the slightly shorter sweater length.

Erin, standing second from the left, is wearing Thea Colman’s Nantucket Red in a length just slightly above the widest point of her hips. This combines with the widening horizontal distressing on her jeans and a narrow, deep neckline to draw the eye to her narrow midsection, a very flattering look.

Proportional shapes can also be flattered by sweaters with a hem ending at their widest hip point, provided those sweaters incorporate a widening element at the shoulders as well. Crystal looks fantastic in Bonne Marie Burns’s Twist Cardigan since the wide collar balances out the horizontal impression given by the hem.

This balancing act works for either curvy or straight proportional shapes. The width of the hem and shoulder region will give a straight shape like Crystal the illusion of a narrower waist (since the waist isn’t also widened by the sweater). Sweaters with a widening shoulder element and a hem at the widest hip point will also, if the fit in the waist is trim, exaggerate the difference in measurements for a curvy proportional shape. (Think about a classic hourglass shape in a tight cardigan worn closed only in the very middle—a very nice look.)

Of course, as with sleeves and necklines, the desired sweater length depends very much on the individual knitter’s measurements. We’ll go through a process for confirming your own ideal sweater measurements later in this installment.

Those Who Do Not: Bottom-Heavy Shapes and Others.

It’s a similarly good bet that most bottom-heavy shapes will be best flattered by a sweater that does not end at their widest point. Instead of drawing the eye to their widest feature, most bottom-heavy shapes look best by drawing the eye upward toward their waist, shoulders, or bust. Sarah looks great in Green Gable, which ends just about four inches above the widest point of her hips. This lets the width of her hips become a nice contrast with her waist instead of being a defining feature. And though it’s a topic for another time, this piece has the added benefit of the brighter color of the top drawing attention away from her dark pants.

Curvy or straight, most bottom-heavy shapes look best in sweaters with only a little ease at the hem. It is most flattering to have the hem line (on the upper hip) appear narrower than the widest point of the hip. Since most hand-knit fabric is fairly stiff, too much ease at the hem will make the upper hip appear as wide as the lower hip.

Those bottom-heavy shapes whose widest point lies entirely below their hips, like me, have quite a bit of leeway in terms of where the sweater hem falls since the legs flare out from any point in the hip region. I typically choose a length just above the middle of my hip, giving my legs a bit of extra length.

Curvier bottom-heavy shapes look best in sweaters that are close-fitting and end somewhat after the narrowest point of their waist, so that the sweater highlights their curves without breaking them up. (This is especially true for short-waisted shapes.) Straight bottom-heavy shapes simply want to ensure the hem lies above the widest point of their hips.

Finally, proportional shapes can once again look great in sweaters that end above (or below!) the widest point of their hips, provided any visual elements in the sweater shoulder region are appropriately balanced by the hem. Since a hem that ends above the wearer’s widest point will not broaden the hip area, proportional shapes knitting sweaters that either narrow or are neutral to the torso will be most flattered by a slightly shorter sweater. Below, Jess provides a great example in a to-be-released pattern from Thea Colman. The vertical band of the cardigan and wide shawl collar give a neutral impression of her torso. The shorter hem, ending well before the widest point of her hips, shares that neutral impression and Jess’s figure retains its balanced proportions.

More Edge Cases.

Like with sleeve length, there are a number of special circumstances and edge cases where the general rules don’t necessarily apply. The first of these is an edge case of the knitter: How having a protruding belly affects what sweater hem length you should choose.

A Belly.

There are all kinds of reasons one might have a protruding belly. It’s a fact many mothers have to face eventually (the skin of the stomach, once stretched to giant proportions, doesn’t always want to snap back). Many of us get a bit of a potbelly with age, still more just have something of a pudge no matter how many crunches we do. The thing about flattering a figure with a belly is that although most women who possess one won’t believe me, it’s actually not a very prominent feature. The eye is much more likely to be drawn to the bust, the legs, the hair, or any number of other parts—provided whatever shirt the knitter is wearing doesn’t draw explicit attention to the stomach. Naturally, sweaters with negative ease in the stomach will usually call attention to that region and are not very flattering choices for these knitters. Few women with a stomach will purposely wear skin-tight tops, but the hem length of a sweater can often call attention to a belly inadvertently.

Consider the side-view picture you took in Installment 4:

Knitters with a protruding stomach will have an extra bump on their front that is missing in the back, which causes the length from their shoulder to sweater hem to be longer in the front than the back—just like a large bust. And, just like a large bust, that imbalance will cause sweater fronts to ride up just a bit. This can be extremely unflattering to a knitter with a bit of a belly, as the hem tends to expose a bit of skin when it rides up, drawing the eye directly to the stomach.

The solution to this is two-fold. First, make sure that the sweater is long enough overall not to leave a good bit of the stomach showing. Second, add short-rows to the bottom of the sweater front to give just a bit of extra room to that stomach. The added length will keep the sweater from riding up and allow the eye to be drawn to all of the right places on the wearer’s body. How much length to add depends on the size of the discrepancy in length between the front and the back. You will generally want to add the short rows in the bottom few inches of the sweater, and they should usually stretch most of the way across the front of the sweater.
Note that bottom-heavy knitters may need to play something of a balancing game between ensuring the sweater is long enough to cover most of the stomach and short enough to end above the widest point of the hips. Two inches above the widest hip point is often a good compromise between these two pulls.

The next set of unusual edge cases involve differences in the sweater, not the knitter.

The Cropped Sweater.

Definition time: A sweater can be called “cropped” if it ends at or above the waist. Few shapes are truly flattered by a cropped sweater, and we had no examples of them in our photo shoot. A cropped sweater will shorten the torso as it breaks up the length into at least two blocks of color. It will also draw the attention directly to where the hem falls on the wearer, often either exactly at the waist or just under the bust as in a bolero.

Top-heavy shapes are almost universally not flattered by a cropped sweater length, as it focuses attention on their widest point. Bottom-heavy shapes with large busts, particularly if they are also curvy, tend not to be flattered by these sweaters either, since they often make the wearer look bulky. Proportional and bottom-heavy shapes with small busts, especially if they also have longer waists, can be flattered by cropped sweaters so long as they are paired with something fairly plain. The small bust doesn’t distort the smaller amount of fabric in a cropped sweater, the longer torso benefits from being broken up into blocks of color, and the wearer’s torso gets all the attention.

Fortunately, lengthening a sweater is usually a very simple modification, so any cropped sweater pattern that catches your fancy can be turned into something much more flattering.

The Tunic.

The opposite of a cropped sweater, tunics are those sweaters whose hem falls entirely below the hip region.

A tunic both lengthens the torso relative to the legs and draws the eye directly to the hem of the sweater. This makes it a poor choice for shapes whose thighs are their widest point and who have longer torsos:

However, many short-waisted shapes with long legs can be very flattered by tunic-length sweaters. Jess’s top, below, is a tunic-length sweater with very definite shaping. It looks great on her.

When choosing tunic-length sweaters it is important to ensure that the wearer’s curves are highlighted with shaping—otherwise the effect can be extremely boxy.

Other Considerations.

Finally, the stitch pattern at the hem can either minimize or accentuate the attention line drawn on the wearer’s body. Plain sewn hems, without any adornment, are the most minimizing hem treatments and tend to blend in best with whatever skirt or pant the wearer is sporting. This can be great for especially bottom-heavy shapes, as any stitch pattern on the top of the sweater draws all visual attention.

Most other stitch patterns and hem treatments will draw the eye to the hem, accentuating the horizontal visual impression. This includes ribbing, bands of lace, colorwork, and other stitch patterns in a band around the hem. The larger or more differentiated the hem treatment is, the more attention it will draw.

Making Modifications.

Like necklines and sleeve length, where a particular sweater hem will fall on your body depends on both the sweater’s measurement and your own. When starting a pattern, please look carefully at the schematic. The key measurement is the length of the sweater from hem to armhole shaping. In Installment 4, you took both hip-to-waist and waist-to-armhole measurements. Adding them together gives you a good first guess for a desired hem-to-armhole measurement for an average sweater.

But once you’ve picked a sweater you’d like to knit, you’ll probably want to refine this number slightly. If you have a great sweater whose length you’d like to match, and it has similar ease to the new sweater you’ve chosen, you can simply measure the old sweater from hem to armhole shaping. (If the old sweater has substantial negative ease and the new sweater does not, you’ll want to subtract up to an inch/2.5cm from the old sweater’s length.)

Otherwise, I advise you to do a little experimentation. Grab a long T-shirt or other shirt that fits you well but without negative ease and a handful of safety pins. Put the shirt on and “hem” it by folding it under and pinning. Try a few different lengths until you hit on one that works for your body and the sweater you’ve chosen. Then, keeping the shirt pinned, measure from the new “hem” to the armhole.

Now that you have a desired measurement, there are basically only two modifications you could make to the sweater: You’ll either be lengthening or shortening the body of the sweater. In order to do either, though, you need to know where on the body of the sweater you’ll be adding or subtracting length. Let’s break the body of a sweater below the armhole up into five zones:

1. The straight portion of the sweater before any waist shaping begins
2. The decrease portion of the shaping
3. The straight portion of the sweater at the narrowest portion of the waist
4. The increase portion of the shaping
5. Any portion above all waist shaping that is worked straight to the armholes

If you’re not afraid of the math, it’s actually pretty easy to make each of these five zones exactly correspond to your own measurements. But in this tutorial let’s deal with a simplified view of shaping. We’ll call zones 1 and 2 the bottom portion of the body, zone 3 the middle, and zones 4 and 5 the top.

In Installment 4, I asked you to take two relevant measurements: Hip to waist and waist to armhole. Compare those against the pattern schematic and note where you need to add or subtract length. The length adjustment may be evenly distributed across the body of the sweater (often typical for a tall knitter or someone with a long torso) or it may not be (for example, someone with an especially short or long waist).

If the total difference in length is small (say, under ½”/1.25cm in each of the three combined regions of the body), you may safely add or subtract the length in just the straight portions of the body of the sweater: zones 1, 3, and 5. If the total difference in length is more than 1½”/3.75cm, though, you will probably want to adjust the length of the shaping portions of the sweater. The simplest way to do this is as follows:

1. Calculate the total number of rows in your modified shaping section by multiplying your desired length by the row gauge.
2. Divide that number of rows by the number of actual increase or decrease rows to get your new shaping instructions. (Round down.)
3. Add any additional length from Step 2 to one of the straight portions of the sweater body.

If you’d like to be more precise in your modifications, divide your own body up into the same 5 zones, and perform the above calculation for any shaping instructions in zones 2 and 4.

As with sleeves and necklines, altering the length of patterned portions of the sweater can complicate things slightly. If the pattern is not all over, but only on the hem of the sweater, I suggest adding or subtracting the length entirely outside the patterned portion whenever possible.

And remember: If in doubt, draw it out! Modifying a hem is quite a simple calculation for most sweaters, and it has a huge impact on flattery.

What’s Up Next.

Sweater hems have a substantial impact on whether a sweater flatters. In this installment, we’ve covered principles for determining where you want your hems to end and given you tips on performing those modifications. In the next installment, we’ll cover the large and largely misunderstood topic of shaping. Installments 9 and 10 will close out the series with collected thoughts on implementation and advanced topics like custom sweater design.

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—we’re almost there!

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