Sizing one person for a new uniform is simple enough. Sizing an entire team, several builds, several preferences, and usually at least one new hire's uniform on order before their first shift, is where it actually goes wrong.
Get it right and nobody thinks about it again for months. Get it wrong and you're re-measuring, re-ordering, and explaining to a new starter why their first-day scrubs don't fit.
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Four measurements cover almost every scrub style: chest or bust (fullest part, tape snug but not tight), waist (the narrowest point of the torso), hip (fullest part, feet together), and inside leg (crotch to ankle, for trouser length).
Two things make the difference between a good fit and a redo. If someone's between sizes on a top, size up. A scrub top needs room to move through a full shift of bending, reaching and gloving up, not just to look neat standing still. And check what the fabric is actually made of: four-way stretch blends move with the wearer and hold their shape across a long day, so the larger of two sizes will almost always be the more comfortable one. Heavier cotton mixes behave differently and can shrink slightly after repeated hot washes, worth knowing before you order rather than after the first laundry cycle.
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Both exist for a reason. Unisex cuts are boxier and more forgiving, a practical default for a mixed team, though some people find them roomier than they'd like and prefer a more tailored fit through the waist and shoulders. Gender-specific cuts fit closer to the body but need more precise measurements to get right. Plenty of practices simply let staff choose whichever suits them, since consistency in colour and branding matters more to how a team reads together than everyone wearing an identical cut.
This is the part that actually causes delay, not the measuring itself.
Most sizing hold-ups come from collecting information in stages rather than all at once. Chest sizes get gathered one week, embroidery names the next, a correction to someone's size the week after that. Every extra round is a chance for something to get missed or mismatched.
The fix is straightforward: collect everything in a single pass, per person, before you order anything. Name, role, size, and exactly what should be embroidered, all on one form, sent once. It sounds obvious written down, but it's the single biggest difference between an order that goes smoothly and one that needs three follow-up emails.
A new starter's uniform is one of the easiest things to sort before they arrive, but it's often the thing left until "once they've settled in." By the time someone's filling in payroll details and setting up logins, it's easy for the uniform to slide down the list.
Building it into the same paperwork as everything else, ask for sizes as part of the offer or induction pack, not as a first-week afterthought, means a new hire starts looking like part of the team from hour one, not week three.
Sizing charts vary enough between suppliers that a size which runs true in one range can run small in another, so it's always worth measuring against the actual chart rather than going from the label in someone's own wardrobe.
Where someone falls between two sizes, size up. On a stretch fabric the larger size is nearly always the more comfortable one across a full shift, and it costs nothing in appearance. Also check the range actually covers your whole team before you commit: it's worth confirming the smallest and largest sizes offered will fit everyone, rather than discovering a gap once the order is placed.
Stitchwell's own size charts, covering women's 2XS to 3XL and men's XS to 3XL with bust, chest, waist, inside leg and garment lengths in centimetres, are on the Stitchwell site if you want a real chart to measure against.
Size up on tops. The fabric has four-way stretch, so the larger of two sizes is nearly always the more comfortable one across a full shift, and it costs nothing in appearance.
Staff name and practice name embroidery are included as standard on every set, with no setup fees and no minimum order, so kitting out one new hire costs the same proportionally as a full team order.
Use the Staff Sizing Sheet: one form covering name, role, size and embroidery details for up to 12 people, filled in once and sent back in a single email.
A proper chart, always. Sizing varies enough between suppliers that a size which runs true in one range can run small in another, so measuring against the actual chart avoids a reorder.
The Staff Sizing Sheet does exactly what the section above describes, one form, every role, sent once, rather than something you'd otherwise have to build from scratch. Download it here, and once everyone's sizes are in, you can build a full quote at stitchwell.co.uk.