Sewing (and knitting) in any language

Even though I have what many international sewers would consider a wealth of sewing patterns readily available and at bargain prices, I still covet the foreign sewing magazines like Patrones, La Mia Boutiqe, and Diana Couture, among others. I do have a subscription to Burda but I want more! Alas, there is one small problem (besides the obvious difficulty of obtaining these magazines in the US) - I am only fluent in English and have a little knowledge of French. But that doesn't stop me from seeking out the pattern magazines in Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian, and Japanese. I should be experienced enough with sewing to not have to rely on the instructions, but I do want to read them and I find it fun to try to translate them. I've scoured the internet and come across some translations of sewing terms from web sites and fellow bloggers to help figure it all out:

Sewing in Any Language:

Japanese from moving hands
Spanish from fehr Trade
*NEW*Spanish from paco peralta
Dutch from Naaipatronen
More Dutch from Sigrid's Sewing Projects - the link for the pdf is on her post
French mostly quilting terms and it's in Canadian French
*NEW*French from japancouture.canalblog.com
French to English and English to French comprehensive textile dictionary from Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles
German broad craft and needlework terms, but some sewing from Dreams of Lace
Italian - the closest I could find for Italian was a website that translated Italian and gave multiple answers, which could be helpful. The link I have here is for the Italian word for "sew" and you can see the variation in meaning.


For general language translation, altavista is pretty good.
And if you just need definitions of English sewing terms, here's an online dictionary.

While I'm at it:

Knitting in Any Language:

French from Chez Plum
More French from Tricotin
Norwegian from Pinnsvindesign
Japanese dictionary and charts from tata-tatao.to
Japanese knitting symbols from Fleegle's Blog
German from designeryarns.de
This site from wiseneedle.com claims to translate terms from variety of languages but I haven't tried it out

Crocheting in Any Language:

French from passion crochet


I'd be happy to update this list with any other links to sources!