Ok I went looking to find a god place on the net that will give good instructions on how and where to measure yourself before buying a pattern. This is it, very similar to what I did with everyone that I sewed for.
http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/...-to-measure-up
Please go check this site out as it might even have more information on how to adjust the patterns.
and this is the best I've seen to help you pick out the right size pattern for your size, it's on the same website
http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/...-size/page/all