According to many, many of the sewing goddesses I read and follow, one should use pattern weights and a rotary cutter when cutting fashion fabric. Pins can pull your fabric off grain and cause inaccuracies. That said, my personal preference is for pins over pattern weights. I find that I do a better job if my fabric is well pinned to the pattern. This is the way I learned way back in the day, so it's still the way I roll today!
And how about during construction? Do you baste, or pin? Again, back at South Junior High, I learned to pin my pieces together, carefully removing each pin as I went along so as not to sew over the pins. Sewing over pins is like sewing Russian roulette. You never know when you'll hit a pin and bend it, break your needle, or screw up the alignment of your needle housing. For very slippery fabrics I do baste and for some sturdier fabrics I can go pinless to speed up the sewing process.
Occasionally I come across cut patterns in my UFO pile with pins still intact where the pattern was pinned to the fabric. Sometimes moisture in the air has caused these pins to rust. Thankfully, I've not had to discard anything due to damage, but I try to recall these pieces when I'm tempted to put aside something I've cut in favor of another project.
To be optimally useful pins should be straight and free from surface problems like rust spots. Periodically, I go through my pins and repurpose or discard those that should no longer be used on good fabric. Also, I sort out bad ones as I sew.
"See a pin and pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck"! I guess that makes we sewists very, very lucky!
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