The anatomy of a waistline

With the internet, who needs an encyclopedia anymore? I'm always looking for information on the internet. We have a whole world of people sharing with each other, so some of it has to be good, but some estimations put less than half as solid and true. I once tried to find a video tutorial on how to accurately measure yourself for a pattern. One video suggested I should choose a waistline location where ever I thought best. Hummmm...Really? I guess I didn't need a video after all!

Webster defines a waist as: "the typically narrowed part of the body between the thorax and hip." Okay, so it's typically narrowed, but not always, so that's what throws everyone off (that and low rise jeans!). The real answer is in the last part of the description. Your waist is actually an anatomical place we can point to! I ask my students to feel for that place between the hip bone (pelvic girdle) and the rib cage. This is the place where your body can bend because it's not encased in bone. Your body is unique to you, so that space can be rather long, especially if you are tall, and other times it's extremely narrow. If you still have trouble finding it, feel along the bottom rib to your side where the bone and rib come the closest. It is at this defined point, all the way around and parallel to the ground that is your waistline!