I was doing some reading on Jitterbug Boy, Jeff Churchill’s theatrical and film footwear shop in Toronto, and discovered they publish their fit sheet and measuring guide online:
I always like reviewing these for tips and variations. Some notes:
Bridge Girth
They call the waist measure the “bridge”, which makes a lot of sense. Here’s how they describe instep and bridge measures:
Around Instep: Measure from under the arch (right in front of where the heel comes in contact with the floor) around the instep bone.
I’m guessing instep bone means the bump of the navicular bone, which is standard.
Around Bridge: Measure around the foot, from under the arch, around the top of the instep.
So it looks like they’re both tape measures over the navicular process, but one goes under just in front of the heel and the other goes under a bit tighter. Neat.
Foot Tracing
DO NOT start at the heel — start at either the inside or outside of the foot.
I don’t think I’ve heard this before. I wonder why they recommend it.
They stress taking time to do the tracing and keeping the pencil straight. But they also do a second pass with the pencil at 45° under the arch. Fun note there:
This may be ticklish, so do it quickly!
They also ask that people draw a measurement scale on tracings to be sent by e-mail.
I’ve taken to doing something like this when scanning in paper pattern pieces. But I tend to do a little rosette off to the side, often 1" by 1".