A client walks in six months after their last fitting. They've lost weight, gained it, or simply want the same dress they ordered before in a different fabric. You pull up the record and start measuring from scratch because you don't actually know what's changed. Meanwhile they're standing there wondering why you don't remember them, and you're wondering why you didn't write everything down properly the first time.
The answer was always a structured client database. The problem was never finding one built around how a tailor actually works.
The Measurements That Most Systems Miss
Standard address-book software captures a phone number. What a tailor needs is a complete anthropometric record that covers every cut decision from collar to hem.
The template goes beyond the basics. Across Back and Nipple to Nipple are the measurements most apps don't have fields for — but they're the ones that determine whether a bodice fits or pulls. Shoulder to underbust, Shoulder to nipple, and Shoulder to Hip give you the vertical landmarks that control where panels fall on the torso. Without them, you're guessing at proportions every time.
The arm measurements — Sleeve Length and Around Arm — are stored separately from the torso data. This matters for clients with a non-standard sleeve-to-shoulder ratio, which is more common than the ready-to-wear industry would have you believe. A woman with a 38-inch bust and unusually long arms needs sleeve adjustments on every garment; if that measurement isn't in the record, you rediscover it on every fitting.
Under bust rounds out the bodice picture. Combined with Bust, it gives you the bra-to-garment clearance calculation that prevents the specific kind of discomfort clients rarely describe precisely but always feel.
Garment-Specific Lengths That Actually Get Used
Generic measurement templates give you "length" and leave the rest to notes. This one distinguishes between Kaba Length, Slit Length, Skirt Length, and Dress Length — four different garment types, four different cutting lines, all stored in dedicated fields.
A client who wants a kaba for a wedding, a pencil skirt for work, and an evening dress for a function has different target lengths for each. Her preferred kaba falls two inches below the knee; she wears her skirts strictly midi; her dress length varies by occasion. None of that fits in a single "length" field. Stored separately, it means you cut correctly the first time on every order type.
The Record That Travels With the Client
The Picture field is the underused anchor of the whole record. A photo taken at the first fitting — front and side — gives you a body shape reference that no number can fully capture. Fabric drapes differently across different body geometries even when the tape measurements are identical. The picture is the context the numbers can't provide.
Comments is where you put everything else: the client who prefers extra ease at the hips, the one whose right shoulder sits lower than the left, the one who always comes back wanting the neckline dropped by half an inch after the first fitting. These aren't measurement corrections — they're fitting intelligence, and they're worth as much as the numbers.
With 200 clients in the database, filtered by the Date field to show who's due for a seasonal fitting or who hasn't ordered in over a year, the customer list stops being a stack of paper forms and starts behaving like a practice management tool.