I've not recorded my weight for the past week or so due to having broken the tape measure. I purchased a new one yesterday and measured myself this morning. What I found was a little surprising.
This new one seems to have added 10cm to my measurements. Now, it's important to note that there are most likely any number of reasons why this happened. For instance, I haven't walked the dog much in the past couple of weeks, but I have done longer days on the motorcycle at work. I have also been swimming with Little Wookie and had a game of cricket with friends last Friday, and I've also been doing more work in my workshop. So while I've lost in one area, I've gained in a few more.
The other option is that the new tape was directly called a "Taylor's tape" whereas the other tape was called a "Sewing tape". I suspect this is nothing more than semantics but I would assume that there would be far greater accuracy on a Taylor's tape given the skin-like fit of a custom suit etc.
However, one would assume that a centimetre is a centimetre is a centimetre. After all, there is a standard definition for what a metre is and a centimetre is just that divided by 100. So all tapes should be the same measurement. In theory that is.
I have had it on tape measures before in the workshop where if I measured the area I'm working in with one tape, then went into the workshop and measured the timber with another tape, nothing fitted because there were actually two measurements. I assume something like this can happen in the sewing world.
If this is the case though, how can we be assured that the world around us is accurate? If there's standards that aren't being met, the implication is huge. Everything from chippie packet size to safety framing are affected.
We see it all the time in clothing. In fact I would say it's the worst industry for this. I can order a "Large" with one brand and another brand that shirt would be considered "Medium". We have a phrase for this in New Zealand... "Chinese Sizing". It's not that we're being racist, it's just that a "Large" in Chinese sizing is actually a "Medium" in European and most likely a "XS" in USA.
What's even the point of an international standard if no one uses it correctly?
