Terms & glossary

The growing collection of sewing patterns, whether printed or digital, that a sewist has purchased or downloaded but not yet actually sewn up.

The process by which sewists outside a designer's own team sew a new pattern before its release, checking fit, instructions, and grading across sizes.

A sewing pattern sold as a digital file, printed at home across multiple sheets of paper or sent to a copy shop for large-format printing.

A joking acronym for 'project half done,' describing the pile of unfinished sewing projects that many sewists accumulate over time.

The raised loops or cut fiber ends standing up from a fabric's woven base, as seen in velvet, corduroy, and terry cloth.

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

Stopping with the sewing machine needle down at a corner, lifting the presser foot, and turning the fabric to continue stitching in a new direction.

A finished, reinforced opening in a garment, strengthened with an extra strip of fabric, that allows buttons, a zipper, or the head to pass through.

A section of fabric folded back on itself and pressed or stitched in place, adding controlled fullness or decorative shaping to a garment.

Short for PatternReview.com, a long-running online community where sewists post detailed reviews of commercial and indie sewing patterns before others buy them.

French for 'ready to wear,' describing standard-sized clothing manufactured for general sale rather than garments custom fitted to one person.

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 leftover end-of-bolt piece of fabric, usually smaller and sold at a discount compared to fabric cut fresh from a full bolt.

The finished, face side of a piece of fabric that is meant to show on the outside of a finished garment.

Positioning two layers of fabric so their finished, face sides touch each other, leaving the wrong sides visible, before stitching a seam.

The vertical measurement of a pair of pants from the crotch seam up to the top of the waistband, split into front rise and back rise.

Short for 'ready-to-wear,' mass-produced clothing manufactured in standard sizes and sold off the rack, as opposed to custom-made or handmade garments.

The single sample size, usually a small one, in which a garment is first produced for photography, fit sessions, and buyer showings.

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.

The strip of fabric lying between the stitching line and the raw cut edge, commonly five eighths of an inch or one and a half centimeters.

Any treatment applied to a raw seam allowance edge, such as overlocking, pinking, or zigzagging, to keep the fabric from fraying over time.

The line printed or drafted on a pattern piece marking precisely where the stitching should go, set in from the cutting line by the seam allowance.

A woman who sews, especially as a paid occupation, a historical term that is still used today to describe skilled hand and machine sewing work.

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

The tightly woven, self-finished edge that runs along both lengthwise sides of a fabric bolt and will not fray or unravel like a cut edge.

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 table listing body measurements matched against pattern sizes, used by a sewist to decide which size to cut for the best fit.

Short for 'stock keeping unit,' a unique code identifying one specific product variation, such as a particular size and color of a garment.

A pattern alteration method that involves cutting a pattern piece apart along marked lines and spreading the resulting pieces to add fullness or length.

The American term for a basic, made-to-fit pattern with no seam allowances or style lines, used as a foundation when drafting new pattern designs; called a block in British usage.

A document listing a garment's precise measurements at every key point, used by a manufacturer to keep sizing consistent across a production run.

A generalized set of body measurements assigned to numbered sizes by a particular pattern company, which can vary noticeably from one brand to another.

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 line of regular straight stitching sewn just inside the seamline through a single layer, to keep curved or bias edges from stretching out of shape while handling.