Pattern Terminology

Inre is the neck end (by the neck), yttre the armhole end.

The seam from neck point to shoulder point. Front and back shoulder lengths must match once the posture allowance is taken off the front.

The layer turned back behind an edge — behind the button placket, for instance.

Also: beläggning

A yoke, when the seam sits lower on the garment — the chest yoke of the jeans jacket. See ok.

Used to swing a measured distance onto a line, e.g. keeping the front sleeve length while adjusting the cap.

The flap covering a pocket opening.

The bag behind a pocket opening.

Turning the bottom edge up and stitching it. The hem allowance is added outside the drafted hem line, like a seam allowance.

Also: fåll

The foundation pattern a garment is drafted as a variant of. grundliv is the bodice block, grundärm the sleeve, kavajgrund the bodice block drawn with jacket ease.

Also: grundliv, grundärm, kavajgrund

The two measurements that place the neckline.

The finished edge around the neck. Placed by neck width and neck depth, then drawn as a curve between them.

Also: urringning

The amount the front shoulder is shortened relative to the back, so the garment hangs on a body that is not flat.

The shaping a dart or a seam removes. Distinct from intag, which is a plain reduction in width.

A wedge folded out of the pattern to shape flat cloth over a body curve.

The tip of a dart. On a bust dart it stops 2–3 cm short of the bust point, or the shaping ends in a cone instead of a curve.

A reduction: fabric removed at a seam or an edge. The jeans jacket takes 1 cm in at each front panel seam and 2 cm at center back.

Cut the pattern along a line and open the cut by a fixed amount to add width or flare — how a puff sleeve, a gathered skirt, or extra bust room is made without redrafting.

Also: slash and spread

The button edge, drawn outside center front.

Measure the line you have just drafted and use that number, rather than a table value. The collar is control-measured against the neckline, the waistband against the hem, the sleeve cap against the armhole.

The band at the hem. Control-measure the drafted hem for its length, then add the button placket.

A vertical distance in the draft — bodice length, sleeve length, jacket length. Measured along the body, not along the finished seam.

The band at the wrist. On a jacket it gets ~4 cm more than the wrist measurement; on a shirt, less.

The garment's back centre line.

The garment's front centre line.

A small tick cut into the seam allowance so two pieces can be matched while sewing — sleeve to armhole, waistband to hem. In our patterns a notch is a feature placed on an edge, not a line you draw.

Also: klipp, passmärke

Tracing the finished pieces off the construction draft — the last step of a draft.

The bottom edge of a piece.

A yoke, when the seam sits higher up — the back yoke. The distinction matters for fit: a bigger yoke tolerates less ease, which is why shirt yokes are cut close.

How the finished garment sits on the body. Distinct from size: two garments of the same width can fit very differently depending on where the shaping sits.

The flat drawing of the finished garment, front and back.

A first garment sewn in cheap cloth to check the fit before cutting the real fabric. Always worth it on a new block.

Also: toile

Pulling a longer edge in against a shorter one with a running stitch, so the extra length becomes soft volume — a puff sleeve cap, a gathered skirt waist.

The room added beyond the body measurement so the garment moves. A jacket carries more than a blouse.

The side seam. Early in a draft it is often just a horizontal line out from the armhole, refined later.

Also: sidsöm

A slit left open in a seam — at the cuff, or at a hem.

A construction line you draw to find a point, not a cut edge. Rendered dashed or dotted.

Also: stödstreck

A named point in the draft — a corner, an intersection, a measured distance along a line. Everything in a pattern is built from points, and every line in our YAML runs between two of them.

Also: punkt

The strip of fabric outside the drafted line that the seam is stitched in. Our patterns draft the finished line and add the allowance on export, so a piece you print is wider than the line the maths produced.

Also: tillägg

The direction of the warp threads, marked on every piece as an arrow. Lay the arrow parallel to the selvedge or the garment twists on the body.

Also: varpriktning

Fabric folded and held at a seam to give volume that a dart would remove. Not to be confused with the veck in VIM, which means the wedge of a dart.

Girth around the body or the garment. Prefixed to say where: övervidd (chest), midjevidd (waist), stussvidd (seat).

An edge cut on the fabric fold — no seam allowance, and the piece is symmetric about it.

Veck i mönster. Moving a dart: either to another place on the garment, or into a seam so it disappears. "VIM'a bort" a dart means closing it into a seam — the sleeve's elbow dart is VIM'd away at the back side line, so the two-piece seam carries the elbow shaping instead.

Also: veck i mönster

Rotating part of the pattern around a fixed point. Rotating a dart around the bust point is how a dart moves from the waist to the shoulder without changing the fit.

Also: rotation

The armscye — the opening the sleeve is set into.

The curved head of the sleeve. Its height is a third of the armhole circumference; the difference between cap and armhole length is the ease that has to be worked in.

Measured over the fullest part of the chest. The course's "C50" is a 100 cm chest.