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Small, diagonal hand stitches worked in rows through canvas and fabric layers to permanently mold and shape a tailored collar or lapel.

Side hoops or pads worn at the hips under 18th-century skirts to extend width sideways while remaining flat front and back, especially fashionable in French court dress.

The French term for elaborate trimmings such as decorative braid, tassels, and cord, used to embellish garments as well as upholstery and home decor.

The technique of scaling a garment pattern up or down across a range of sizes while preserving proportion and fit, historically done by hand and now largely computer-assisted.

The technique of aligning stripes, plaids, or repeating prints across seams so that the design continues unbroken from one fabric piece to the next.

French designer active from the early 1900s who freed women from the corseted silhouette with looser, high-waisted dresses influenced by Orientalist style, though his own hobble skirts still restricted movement.

A lapel style with a point that angles upward toward the shoulder above the collar seam, traditionally used on double-breasted jackets and formalwear.

A waistband faced or entirely constructed from ribbed petersham ribbon, molded with heat and stitched to sit smoothly inside a skirt or trouser waist without a separate facing.

A grooved presser foot, typically used with a twin needle, whose channels guide fabric into narrow, evenly spaced raised folds called pintucks.

A pattern alteration technique in which a section of a pattern is pivoted around a fixed point and slid to add or remove width or length without cutting the pattern apart.

The fixed reference point on a pattern, often a bust point or hip point, around which a dart is rotated during dart manipulation.

An industrial machine with the bed raised on a vertical post above the table, giving access for stitching around bags, shoes, and other three-dimensional items.

A variation of backstitch that picks up only a tiny amount of fabric on the right side, used to hand-set zippers or topstitch in couture work almost invisibly.

A bodice draft in which the bust and waist darts are converted into a continuous curved seam running from the shoulder or armhole to the hem, replacing separate darts.

A fit alteration made along a princess seam, reshaping the curve between the panels to add or remove fullness at the bust, waist, or hip without adding a separate dart.

Products that are manufactured by one company but sold to the public under a different company's own brand name.

A finalized manufacturing pattern, complete with every size graded and all construction markings added, ready to be used on a factory floor.

A back shape in which the shoulder blades project more than the standard pattern block assumes, causing tightness and horizontal drag lines across the upper back.

Small folds at the top of a set-in sleeve cap come from easing stitches not distributed evenly around the curve. Run two rows of ease stitching, gather gently, and pin generously before sewing.

A zipper tape that ripples once pressed, though it lay flat while sewing, comes from ironing directly over the teeth and tape without support underneath. Press from the wrong side over a seam roll.