Starting out sewing or quilting can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be if you find the right resources!
When I first got back into sewing, there were soooo many things I got confused on because of the wording and the abbreviations.
I am here to help simplify a lot of that for you in one easy place 🙂
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Back to business.. Common quilting and sewing abbreviations!
Let me start off by saying, all people are different, and some may use other terms that mean roughly the same thing. This is NOT an all inclusive list, just common abbreviations that took me a minute to catch on to. I hope this list can help to simplify your journey! If you see I missed something that you think might be useful to others, comment and I will update my list!
Some common sewing abbreviations (and their translations) are:
- RS
- Right Side of your fabric. This is the pretty side with the pattern!
- WS
- Wrong Side of your fabric. This is the “ugly” side or the back side of the fabric. Some fabrics (like Batiks for example), do not have a right or wrong side.
- RST/WST
- Wrong/Right Sides Together. This usually refers to sewing pieces of fabric together. Most commonly, you sew WST so when you unfold it, you have two pieces of the Right Sides of fabric facing you
- HST
- Half Square Triangles. This is two triangles sewn together to make a square. There are many “cheat” ways to make multiple HSTs at a time! I will be going over those in a future blog 🙂
- QST
- Quarter Square Triangles. This is four triangles sewn together to make a square. These are commonly made using two HSTs.
- HRT
- Half Rectangle Triangles. This is the same idea as the HST, but it is a rectangle instead of a square. These are a little difficult to make as they are sewn a different way.
- WIP
- Work In Progress. This is a project you have started, but not finished. It might be self explanatory, but always worth mentioning!
- UFO
- Unfinished Project. Same as above with WIP.
- TPST
- TopStitch. This one is a little less common, but it is just decorative stitching on top of your fabric.
- FPP
- Foundation Paper Piecing. This is a type of piecing where you print a design off on computer paper and literally just follow the lines and sew there. This can definitely be a learning curve, but has become one of my favorites!! I will also have a future blog section all about FPP 🙂 if you would like it sooner rather than later, let me know!
- EPP
- English Paper Piecing. This is a type of piecing where you print out shapes on paper, and use that as sort of a “stabilizer” to topstitch all the pieces together. To me, this is very time consuming and a lot of work with your fingers and not a machine.
- FQ
- Fat Quarter. This is a pre-cut piece of fabric that can be VERY useful, one of my favorites actually! It is a piece of fabric that is ~18”x~21”. Sometimes, a quarter of a yard is just not enough because it’s too skinny (depending on your fabric, it’s usually 9”x~42”), but a half will leave you with WAY too much extra fabric. So think of it this way.. If you have a half yard of fabric (18”x~42”) laid out, cut it in half on the short side! So instead of having two long skinny strips, you have two rough *almost* squares!
- JR
- Jelly Roll. I have not seen this abbreviation much, but it is still worth mentioning. A jelly roll is a pre-cut of fabric that can also be very useful! It is a package of strips of fabric that are 2”x~42”. They can come in various amounts, usually equalling out to 1 or 2 yards of fabric.
- LOF/WOF
- Length/Width of fabric. This is usually used when telling you how to cut fabric. The width is how wide your fabric is, the length is the amount you told the shop to cut/what you bought.
- QAYG
- Quilt As You Go. This is a quilting technique where you sew your ‘quilt sandwich’ in small sections, often connected using a sashing (or small strips of fabric). This can be easier for people using small domestic machines. I still like sewing my quilt sandwiches as one big piece, but to each their own 🙂
- SA
- Seam Allowance. This is how far into the fabric from the edge you are sewing. Usually, ¼” is the most common one you’ll see. There is also a scant ¼” SA that is used in some patterns, and this just means you are sewing one thread width inside of ¼”. This takes a lot of practice to get the hang of.
Again, this is not an all inclusive list. These are just many of the abbreviations I had to keep reminding myself of when I was new.
Fun Fact, I actually still have my sticky note on the inside of my sewing binder with most of these abbreviations on there! Hahah!
If you have any questions, please reach out! If you have an abbreviation that you see all the time that I don’t have covered, please comment and I can update my list 🙂
Thanks so much for sticking around, and I hope you enjoy the rest of my blog posts to come 🙂
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