 | Applique: Motif applied by hand or machine to fabric or
garment. |
| Armseye: Armhole, opening for a sleeve. |
| Asymmetrical: One sided, not geometrically balanced. |
| Bias: Diagonal direction of fabric or trim. True bias is
at a 45 degree angle to the grainlines. |
| Binding: Strip encasing edges as finish or trim. |
| Block: Another name for a sloper or basic pattern. |
| Bodice: Portion of the garment above the waistline |
| Bolt: Unit in which fabric is packaged and sold. Usually
contains 20-30 meters. |
| Bones: Metal, plastic, or whalebone strips used to stiffen
the seams and edges of a garment. |
| Casing: Self fabric or applied tunnel through which a tie,
tape, or elastic can be run to draw fabric up to a specific
measurement. |
| Colorfast: Refers to fabric that will not fade or run when
laundered or dry cleaned. |
| Crock: Process of dye flaking off the surface of a fabric
during the cutting, construction or pressing process. |
| Draft: The process by which a custom pattern is created
from a design and a set of measurements or sloper. |
| Finish: Any means of completing a raw garment edge. |
| Garni: Trimmed, garnished. |
| Haute Couture (oh-koo-tur): High fashion, creative fashion
design. |
| Lap: Any edge which extends over another garment edge, as
in a placket. |
| Layout: Cutting charts found on commercial patterns which
show one way the pattern may be placed on the fabric for proper
cutting. |
| Line: Style, outline, or effect given by cut and
construction of a garment. |
| Mannequin: Dress forms or dummy. |
| Miter: Diagonal seaming at corners. |
| Notions: Items other than fabric and pattern necessary to
complete the garment, i.e. buttons, zippers, trim. |
| Pad Out: To change a standard size dress form to a
specific body size through the use of muslin strips. |
| Passementerie (pahs-mahn-tree): Trimming, particularly
embroidery or edgings applied in a random, floral, or geometric pattern. |
| Piece: small pieces of fabric together to form a large
piece of fabric before cutting out a garment. |
| Piece goods: Fabric sold in fixed lengths or by the
yard/meter. |
| Pin basting: Pinning seams before sewing. |
| Plate: See rendering. |
| Pre-shrink: Contracting the fabric and removing excess
sizing before cutting and construction. |
| Remnant: Unused or unsold piece of fabric or trim. |
| Rendering: A color drawing/painting of garment or costume. |
| Rip: Removing stitches placed improperly; also tearing the
fabric along grainlines. |
| Selvage: Lengthwise finished edges on all woven fabrics. |
| Shell: A muslin fitting garment that is machine basted
together for a preliminary fitting on the wearer. |
| Shrinking: Contracting fabric with steam or water to
eliminate excess in certain areas. |
| Silhouette: Outline or contour of figure or garment. |
| Sloper: A basic pattern in a range of standard sizes or
custom sizes used as a basis for pattern making. |
| Stay: Bone or other means of maintaining the shape of a
garment area. |
| Stitch in the ditch: A line of machine stitching placed
directly in the small indentation that occurs when two pieces of
fabric have been sewn together. |
| Tailoring: Construction technique that requires special
hand and pressing techniques to mold fabric into finished garment
shape. |
| Topstitching: Line of machine stitching parallel to seam
or edge, done from the right side of the garment. Topstitching
can be decorative or used for added stability. |
| Yardage block: Guide on the back of commercial pattern
envelopes which includes garment description, measurements,
yardages, notions, etc. |
