Fitting a winter coat over the layers you will actually wear

Measure over the layers, not over a t-shirt

Put on the mid-layer you expect to wear under the coat on the coldest day of the year, then take the chest measurement. For most people that is a fleece or a wool sweater, and it adds enough girth to move a borderline size. Measuring in a shirt and then buying the smaller of two sizes is the most common winter clothing mistake there is.

Then check the sleeve with your arms forward rather than at your sides. Reach out as if holding a steering wheel or a shovel: the cuff should still cover the wrist bone. A sleeve that is correct standing still and 5 cm short when you reach is a sleeve that will let cold in every time you use your hands.

Shoulders decide the rest. If the seam sits well outboard of the point of your shoulder, the coat is too big and the extra air is dead volume that your body has to heat. If it sits inboard, the coat will pull across the back every time you reach, and no amount of insulation compensates for a coat you cannot move in.

Five checks in the change room

A coat reveals its faults in about 3 minutes of being worn properly. Do the checks in a fixed order and the ones that fail, fail early, which saves trying on the rest of the rail.

Start with the hood over a toque, because a hood that will not close around a hatted head is the single most common failure and it cannot be fixed. Then sit down, which exposes the hem. Then raise both arms, which exposes the cuffs and the shoulder cut at once. Then zip it fully, twice, and finally put your hands in the pockets while the coat is closed.

Pockets matter more than they sound. Hand pockets set too high are unusable under a seat belt or a backpack strap, and a pocket with no closure empties itself when you bend to clear a windscreen. Both are visible in 15 seconds and neither appears on any specification sheet.

1. Put a toque on and close the hood: it should tighten without pulling across your eyes
2. Sit down and look at what the hem leaves exposed at the hip
3. Raise both arms forward and check for a draught at each wrist
4. Run the zip fully twice and check the storm flap lies flat over it
5. Put both hands in the pockets with the coat closed and a bag strap on

Children's coats: one size up, and no cords at the neck

Health Canada has determined that children's upper outerwear with drawstrings that does not conform to the applicable criteria poses a danger to human health or safety, because drawstrings can catch on playground equipment or a vehicle. Its guidance is specific about sizes and lengths, and it is the one piece of Canadian winter clothing regulation worth knowing by heart.

Children's upper outerwear in sizes newborn to 12 should have no drawstrings in the hood and neck area at all. In sizes 2T to 16, drawstrings at the waist and bottom should not exceed 76.2 mm, which is 3 inches, in length outside the drawstring channel when the garment is expanded to its fullest width, should have no toggles, knots or other attachments at the free ends, and should be bar tacked to the garment where the drawstring is one continuous string.

Sizing is the other children's question, and the honest answer is one size up rather than two. One size adds roughly a season and brings a $120 coat from about $1.00 a wear to about 50 cents on the figures in the budget guide here. Two sizes up leaves the cuffs and the hem open, which is the gap the wind chill index is about.

The gap between hood and collar that nobody measures

Exposed skin is what the published wind chill times are about, and most of the skin still exposed in a well-fitted parka is at the front of the neck and under the chin. A hood drawn tight at the face leaves a triangle open below it unless the collar comes up to meet it or a gaiter fills the space.

Check this with the hood up and your chin down, as if walking into wind. If you can feel air on your throat, the coat needs either a higher collar or a separate neck gaiter, and the gaiter is far cheaper than a different coat. A gaiter also solves the glasses problem, because it can be pulled below the nose to stop fogging without opening the whole front.

The same logic applies to the wrist and the ankle. An inner knit cuff that seals is worth more than 50 g of fill, and a hem that sits below the hip is worth more than a longer sleeve. Fit, in winter clothing, is mostly the business of closing gaps.

• Hood up, chin down: if you feel air on your throat, add a gaiter rather than a coat
• Inner knit cuffs seal the wrist better than an adjustable outer cuff alone
• A hem below the hip keeps a cold seat from undoing the coat
• Glasses fog less with a gaiter that can sit below the nose than with a zipped collar

When to size the shell rather than the insulation

If you are active outdoors, the right purchase is often a shell one size larger than you would buy in a parka, worn over a mid-layer you can take off. Shovelling a driveway or walking a dog uphill generates heat, and a single heavy coat gives you no way to shed it except opening the front, which lets cold into the body rather than out of it.

A layered system also fits a growing teenager and a changing winter better than one garment. The mid-layer can be replaced for $60 rather than the whole coat for $450, and the shell outlasts several of them, which pushes the cost per wear down on the figures in the budget guide here.

For standing still at a high wind chill, the opposite holds. A shell plus layers has more seams and more gaps than a sewn-through parka, and at a wind chill of -28 to -39, where exposed skin can freeze in 10 to 30 minutes, gaps are the whole problem. Decide which of the two situations is your real one before sizing anything.

Before you buy

• Put on the mid-layer you will actually wear before taking any measurement
• Check the sleeve with your arms reaching forward, not hanging at your sides
• Close the hood over a toque before looking at anything else
• Sit down in the coat and confirm the hem still covers your hips
• On a children's coat, confirm there is no hood or neck drawstring in sizes newborn to 12
• Measure any waist drawstring: no more than 76.2 mm outside the channel, with no toggles
• Decide whether you are mostly moving or mostly standing before choosing shell or parka

Questions readers ask

Should I size up for a winter coat?

Size for the mid-layer rather than for the number. Take the chest measurement over the fleece or sweater you will actually wear and buy the size that measurement calls for, which is often one up from your shirt size. Going two sizes up adds dead air your body has to heat and leaves the cuffs and hem too open to seal.

What exactly do the Health Canada drawstring rules say?

Children's upper outerwear in sizes newborn to 12 should have no drawstrings in the hood and neck area. In sizes 2T to 16, waist and bottom drawstrings should not exceed 76.2 mm outside the channel at the garment's fullest width, should carry no toggles or knots at the free ends, and should be bar tacked if the string is one continuous piece.

Can I just cut the cord out of a hand-me-down coat?

Removing a hood or neck drawstring entirely is the straightforward fix and takes about 2 minutes. For a waist cord, either remove it or trim it so no more than 76.2 mm sits outside the channel with the garment at its fullest width, and take any toggle off the free end. Elastic sewn into the channel keeps the shape without the cord.

How do I stop my glasses fogging under a hood?

Use a neck gaiter rather than a zipped collar. A gaiter can sit below the nose so breath vents downward instead of up past the lenses, and it can be adjusted without opening the front of the coat. A high collar zipped to the chin does the opposite, which is why most fogging starts within a minute of closing one.

Is a shell plus layers warmer than a parka?

More adaptable, not warmer at the extreme. A shell over a removable mid-layer lets you shed heat while shovelling and add it back while standing, which a sewn parka cannot do. Standing still at a wind chill of -28 to -39, where exposed skin can freeze in 10 to 30 minutes, the parka's smaller number of seams and gaps wins.

Sources

1. Health Canada — Notice of danger to human health or safety and risk mitigation for children's upper outerwear with drawstrings — checked 2026-11-03
2. Health Canada — Buying clothing and accessories online — checked 2026-11-03
3. Environment and Climate Change Canada — Wind chill and the Wind Chill Index — checked 2026-11-03