Terms & glossary

The common abbreviation for 'small bust adjustment,' a pattern alteration used to reduce the amount of room built into a bodice pattern.

Sewing small projects specifically designed to use up leftover fabric scraps that are too small to cut a full garment from.

Sewing a project purely for oneself to wear, as opposed to sewing gifts or clothing intended for other people.

A structured, often online group event in which many sewists work through the same pattern together over a set period, following shared guidance.

A trip or retreat taken specifically to sew, whether at an organized workshop or informally alongside a group of fellow sewists.

A playful blend of 'sewing' and 'social,' describing the wider online community of sewists who share their projects and connect across social media.

Sewing motivation or enthusiasm; a sewist who has 'lost their sewjo' feels uninspired and unmotivated to get to their machine, playing on the word 'mojo'.

A sewist's personal accumulated collection of fabric, patterns, or notions, kept on hand for future projects rather than used immediately.

Deliberately choosing to sew projects using fabric or patterns already owned, specifically to reduce an accumulated stash rather than buying anything new.

A small sample cut of fabric, kept for reference or used to test stitches, tension, or shrinkage before a full project is cut.