After talking with a friend and learning she didn't know what many of the things were that I discussed in my last post, I thought I'd give a quick tutorial. I may do this from time to time to clarify any tools or techniques if you so desire. Just let me know!

As a demonstration, I'll use the pair of pants I discussed in the last post.

A hem is the bottom or top of a garment that's folded over and sewn to create a smooth finished edge. In the picture below, it's the thread that is sewn horizontally. This is the bottom of one of the pants legs.

A seam is the area where two pieces of material are joined with thread. In the picture above it's the thread that runs vertically. Below it's where the material comes together, located horizontally.

Outer leg seams are the sections were the back and front of the pants meet at the thigh/outer area of your leg and side.

Inner leg seams are the seams 

that hold the front and back of the pants together from the crotch down to the edge of the garment.

The casing is this folded over and sewn material that holds the drawstring for the pants. This is really tricky as it requires a lot of folding, ironing and sewing and you have to be careful not to sew too far toward the middle of the casing or you won't be able to pull the drawstring through! Here is a picture of the casing:

A seam ripper is your friend. And, as I learned the hard way, it can be your enemy. It's used to rip out the threads from sewing if you need to make some adjustments or if you made any mistakes. Seam ripper:

The seam ripper is sharp. It'll rip your fabric if you're not careful. But since a shirt will cover the casing most of the time, I decided not to worry about fixing the problem because that would probably require either a small patch or creating a whole new casing.