Do you know what Clapper means? In the Ditch?? or 1/4 foot?
A visitor overheard some ladies in the classroom. Anybody got a quarter foot? You need to sew this in the ditch. Use the clapper for that.
Maybe you can relate to the unusual or special words that some people use so freely. Maybe you feel uneasy. Maybe you even feel a little intimidated.
There are many fields of endeavor, hobbies, and interest with their own special terms.
Sewing is wonderful. Talking about sewing with others who sew is fabulous. Knowing the right words makes it even more fun.
People who sew and quilt have their own language full of words whose meanings are unique to sewing. It is a rich and exciting language with very descriptive and useful words. Unfortunately, asking, What does that mean? all the time can get embarrassing.
The sewing word Clapper has nothing to do with applause or cheering at a football game. It is a special tool usually made of wood and used to press a crease. The tool flattens the crease area while drawing the heat of the iron out of the fabric leaving the crease set.
The sewing word yoke sounds a lot like joke, but please do not laugh. A seamstress knows a yoke is that part or panel of a garment running horizontally across it such as on a shoulder, waist, back, or midriff.
If you overheard older ladies talking about how important it is to use a scant quarter or 1/4 foot, you might imagine they were quite fugal, penny pinching, concerned about quarters, maybe even skinflints. Instead, they would be talking about using a special part of a sewing machine to insure exact quarter inch seam allowances.
If your sewing teacher told to sew in the ditch, she would not be talking about the gutter, or even the drain along side of the road. She would be talking about a sewing technique in which the sewer sews a seam in the well or crack formed when another seam has already been sewn on the opposite side of the fabric. The result is a seam that is all but invisible.
If you are new to sewing, a term like serged edge, might seem strange. Once you understand it, it is really pretty simple. A serged edge is simple sewing along the edge of fabric with an overcastting stitch to prevent it from fraying.
Without help sewing words like, CB Hook, Chapel Train, Cheater Panel, and Cut Work; may have no meaning whatsoever. And that is just a few out of the cs.
There is a whole world of exciting creativity in sewing and quilting. The specialized sewing language has loads of unique sewing terms, but with a little help you can master these terms quickly and easily.
There are three ways to find out what these sewing terms mean. First, you can ask your sewing teacher or other experienced sewing what a term means. Second, you can read sewing books which may include a limited glossary. Third, you can find the definitions in a good sewing dictionary.
If this still seams strange to you, maybe you need to follow my mothers old adage: If you really want to know look it up in the dictionary. A generic dictionary may not explain the terms in a way that relates clearly to your sewing, but a sewing dictionary will do a good job making sense of these special terms.
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