Sewing and Quilting Acronyms… increase your vocabulary


I always feel a little bit sheepish when other sewists or quilters use an acronym or term that I’m not familiar with… and then sometimes I use one that makes people confused and I wonder if they are thinking this:


We’ve been discussing sewing and quilting acronyms in the SewCanShe Sewcialites facebook group a little bit, so I thought it would be fun to make a list of terms to ‘increase our vocabulary’, (wink, wink). Here you go:

BOM- block of the month.

 

FBA- full bust alteration.

 

FART- fabric accumulation road trip.

 

FQ- fat quarter of fabric.

 

HST- half square triangle.

 

LQS- local quilt shop.

 

OOAK- one of a kind.

 

OOP- out of print (like a vintage pattern).

 

PDF- who knows? but it’s the kind of pattern you print yourself.

 

PHD- project half done. See also UFO, WIP.

 

PIGS- projects in grocery sacks.

 

PP- paper piecing.

 

QAYG – quilt as you go

 

QST- quarter square triangle.

 

SA – seam allowance.

 

SABLE – stash accumulation beyond life expectancy.

 

STASH- special treasures all secretly hidden.

 

TOAD- trashed object abandoned in disgust.

 

UFO- unfinished object. See also WIP, PHD.

 

WIP- work in progress. See also UFO, PHD.

 

WOF – width of fabric.

 

WOMBAT – waste of money batting and time.

 

Do you know any more especially good ones? add them to the comments below. And FYI, I found a few of these terms on this other Sewing Acronym List while I was poking around the internet… you may want to check it out too.

Happy Sewing!


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14 Comments

  1. PDF is portable document file (just googled it to make sure). when my children text me and use all those typical acronyms they all use, I also make up some of my own just to add a little interest but they are not impressed.

  3. Staci Payne says:

    WOMBAT–Waste Of Money, Batting And Time!
    Yeah, I’ve made a few of those!! LOL!

    1. Melle Eldridge says:

      Or yeah what she said. My husband the techie just laughed at me. 😛

  6. Kathleen Kingsbury says:

    SABLE – stash accumulation beyond life expectancy

    1. Marsha Law says:

      Fussy cut is when you take the time to cut out a part of the pattern that’s printed on the fabric. Like if you want a flower to end up in a very specific spot on your bag or if you want to use that rose as an appliqué. It can even be cutting out a pocket so that the pattern matches up perfectly with the main garment.

  9. RSFT – right sides facing together.

    Only yesterday I was looking at a tutorial and thinking, "why do people need to have this written down, isn’t it obvious that right sides should face each other?", right before I sewed a right side to a wrong side… facepalm lol

  10. Surose312 says:

    Frog. Used to describe ripping out of sewn seams, knitting, crocheting .. Rip it rip it rip it.

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