Well, my husband is Physicist, specifically a writer of physics and has the post of writer in residence at the Kavli Institute on the campus of UC Santa Barbara for three months and I came because ... why wouldn't I come?
Anyway, over the years of being married to a physicist I have met many other physicists, primarily high energy and nuclear physics and primarily men. BUT, here in Santa Barbara there are a group of physicists who study soft matter, specializing in soft matter that forms itself into sheets. And there are several women in this group ... AND they are interested in sewing and knitting and how physics is related to sewing and knitting.
I don't know how. I learned working in theatrical costume shops and they do stuff the old fashioned way, for the most part.
Now, the reason I'm writing on this topic today is to share a sweet, interesting and funny paper written by a British Mathematician, Professor Sir Christopher Zeeman, in 1993.
He brought back a beautiful piece of silk fabric for his wife when visiting Thailand, but when he couldn't find a dressmaker who would sew it up (they all thought there wasn't enough fabric), HE decided to learn to sew and would draft the pattern himself.
He discovers darts here! But this raises more questions and problems.
Here is the link to the whole paper, illustrations and all. Read it, it's very good.