Terms & glossary

A quarter-yard cut of fabric shaped as a roughly square piece rather than a long narrow strip, popular for quilting and small projects.

The actual dimensions of a completed garment, including all built-in ease, as opposed to the raw body measurements the pattern was originally drafted around.

The gradual unraveling of a cut fabric edge as individual threads work themselves loose from the weave over time or handling.

To rip out a section of stitching, or abandon a project entirely, from the rhyme 'rip it, rip it' echoing a frog's croak.

A measurement taken horizontally around the body at the fullest, most projecting point of the bust, one of the core measurements used to choose pattern size.