By Lindsey Keilty
The Daily News

DARTMOUTH - Wouldn't it be great to walk into a store and buy clothes off the rack tailored perfectly to fit your body type?

Tanya Shaw Weeks hopes her Dartmouth-based business, Unique Design Solutions Ltd., can make this happen sooner than later.

"We are trying to help people," said Shaw Weeks. "There are a lot of self-esteem issues related to clothing when it doesn't fit properly."

The 33-year-old entrepreneur took a costume studies degree at Dalhousie University and was operating a successful sewing business when she noticed a lot of customers asking for custom-fit patterns. They would go home and sew their own clothing.

When she couldn't find the automated technology to make the pattern process more efficient, she set out to develop it herself.

In 1994 she founded Unique Patterns and launched her specialized pattern-creating computer software.

The company's technology arm, Unique Technologies, was formed in 1999 to focus on solutions to make clothes fit better, including The Bodyskanner, a 3D scanner that records digital body measurements in less than one minute.

"The first prototype has been circulating as a display, rental model in 200 stores since 2002," said Shaw Weeks.

"We've since developed a new version of the scanner that is designed to be permanently installed in stores."

Beginning in June, U.S.-based Joann Fabrics, the largest fabric retailer in North America, will install the scanner in its stores.

See the full story at The Daily News