Sewing Terms & Definitions- Series II

Whenever I have a sewing class or private lessons, I provide my students with a Treasured Guidelines folder. One of the most important pieces of information included in that folder is, Sewing Terms and Definitions.

Today we will be going over part II in this series, if you missed part I, you can read about that here. Before, we dive in; I mentioned in the previous post, that we were defining the following: clipping & notching, ease, facing, finishing seams, and fraying. We will define those; however, I forgot to include DARTS and FUSE/FUSIBLE…I don’t know what I was thinking, but I will include them in the post today and put them in alphabetical order! So, instead of 5 definitions in this post, we will cover 7 definitions. So please forgive me for that oversight, and let’s get started.

CLIPPING/NOTCHING: seam allowances are clipped and notched at the curved areas, so that when they are turned through they will lay flat. Clip inner curves by snipping up to, not through stitching, with diagonal snips. Notch outer curves by taking little wedge shaped cuts form the seam allowances.

In the example photos, the outer curved seam is clipped in wedge shaped cuts and when it’s turned right side out and pressed, that curved seam is flat.

DARTS: these are used to shape garments to the contours of the body. Darts are usually at the bust, hips, shoulder line or elbows to allow fabric to fit the contours of the body. The point of the darts should always point to the fullest part of the body. There are two types of darts, a single-point dart and a two-point dart. The single-point dart is wide at one end and point at the other end. The two-point dart has points at both ends and is wide in the center of the dart.

In the example photos, I show you the single-point dart before it is sewn and after it is sewn. The next photo is the two-point dart before and after it is sewn.

EASE/EASING: is to draw the fiber of fabric closer together than they were woven or originally manufactured. This is usually achieved with machine basting. When easing in fabric, no tuck or gathers are made in the fabric. Easing in the fabric allows a curved capped sleeve to fit in to the straight line of a jacket armscye to which the sleeve is sewn.

In the example photos, you’ll see the fabric with the black notches need to fit between the notches of the fabric on the right. When a machine basting line is stitched to ease to fit within those black notches, then it can be sewn slowly and careful to prevent puckers. Once it’s ironed properly, you can see there are no puckers.

FACING: a facing is the area of a garment or sewn item that turns to the inside, giving the finished appearance to what would otherwise just be a raw edge of fabric. The facing is usually interfaced to add shape and structure to the inside of the garment or sewn item.

In the example photos, you can see where the section of the half collar with the clothing label (shameless plug for my design business J) is a little more firm that the other layer of fabric that is because it was interfaced to add structure with in the collar.

 

FINISHING SEAMS: used on most woven fabrics, finish seams by using pinking shears, overlock/serge, overcast with a zig-zag stitch, turn fabric edges under, straight stitch, or cover the edge with seam/bias binding.

In the example photos, I show you an overlocked or Serge seam with a Serger sewing machine. The next example is a seam cut with pinking shears, and the final example is done using a zig-zag stitch with the sewing machine. 

FRAYING: this happens to most woven fabrics when fibers become unwoven or unravel typically through handling while sewing or laundering. Woven fabrics will fray while wearing or washing which can cause the garment to come apart if the seams are not finished properly.

In the example photos, I show two pieces of fabric, the green fabric is flannel back satin and the fibers are fraying. The other fabric is 100% cotton muslin and if you look closer, you will see that fabric fraying as well. Finishing seams (as mentioned above) is used to prevent fraying or unraveling of woven fabrics.

FUSE/FUSIBLE: refers to using the fusible material, which melts to “glue” two layers together. This melting action is done with a hot iron (no steam). In order for the fusing to work, the fabrics must be pre-washed or preshrunk to remove manufacturers’ finishes. These finishes will prevent a good fuse from occurring. Fusible web is available in a variety of weights and sizes.

In the example photos, the first one is a picture of fusible interfacing showing the right side and the fusible side; if you could feel the fusible side it has raised dots with a slight sheen to indicate it’s the fusible glue, this is the side that is placed to the wrong side of the fabric. The next photo show fabric with and without fusible interfacing and shows how much structure it gives to the fabric.

This concludes today’s post. Next time, we will define Grainline, Ham (Tailor’s Ham), Hems, Interfacing, Interlining, Nap/without Nap, and Notions. We will cover these seven definitions along with example photos.

I hope you found this helpful! If you have some definitions you’d like me to review, feel free to leave a comment.

Until next time!