We’ve talked a little about sewing and its components, but let’s talk about some terminology that you’re likely to encounter.
Here’s the thing – there are approximately eleventy million sewing terms, and they are likely to vary depending on what you are sewing. I’m going to talk about a few key terms, and they are ones that I feel are most applicable to a variety of sewing project types.
Notches
Notches are primarily used when sewing clothing, but can be applicable to anything. Notches are things that help you line up one pattern piece with the one that is joined to it. You might see these as triangle shapes on patterns from the “big 4” companies. You will want to include these markings when you are cutting out your patterns because matches them from one piece to another will help ensure that your pattern comes together properly.
Basting
Basting was something that took me a long time to truly understand, so I thought I would bring it up right away. It just seemed so…unnecessary and a wasted extra step. Not at all! Basting means that you are very very loosely sewing pieces together. This is NOT meant to be the final construction, only to temporarily hold the pieces together. Basting is generally removed after the final stitching is complete. So what’s the point of it then? If you have a finicky pattern, sometimes pinning it isn’t enough. Basting helps things stay in place while you do the final stitching. I promise, it’s worth it!
Seam Allowance
When we sew two pieces of fabric together, the stitching line becomes the seam. The area between the seam and the edge of the fabric is the seam allowance. Generally, most commercial clothing patterns have a 5/8″ seam allowance. Quilting generally uses a 1/4″ seam allowance. Fabric is likely to fray over time, so you can’t really join two pieces together right on the edge, or it will fall apart as it is used. Instead, we leave this seam allowance in place to protect the seam. How you finish the seam allowance on the interior of the project will vary.
Dart
For female presenting people, generally their waist will be smaller than their hips and/or bust. While you can get around this by the cut of the pattern pieces, a lot of times there will be darts in the pattern instead. This essentially pinches out fabric in the waist area (or other areas, just using waist as an example) by sewing a triangle. The widest part of triangle is at the waistline, and the point will be somewhere in the middle of the fabric. This will leave more fabric in areas with larger measurements, while still allowing the waistline to fit appropriately.
There are so many more sewing terms to cover, so there will definitely be more parts to this as time passes. What’s one sewing term you want to discuss?