Pattern drafting in tailoring

Practical activity is an important ingredient in the training of the child to be able to fit into the adult working society very effectively. Tailoring provides this industrial training just as done by the creative art in the public school curriculum. As a skilful subject, tailoring provides a systematic training towards aesthetic education of the student. It involves a critical observation of shapes and analysis of human characteristics. It also synthesizes these factual characteristics and provides clothes in accordance with the facts observed about the figures. Clothing in its strictest sense involves three major processes - pattern designing, drafting and sewing. It is an exciting activity, simple if basic principles are learnt thoroughly and when the student is sensitive to the changes in shapes as demanded by fashion. Pattern Drafting is a means of achieving a shape around the body so that although the body remains constant; any student studying old magazines or costume books becomes aware that the outline of clothes often changes dramatically in different periods of fashion. It forms an integral part of tailoring on which the success of the trade depends. It is as important to a tailor as a building plan to an architect. Since each figure requires some adjustment in the general procedure of drafting, pattern drafting cannot be seen as a simple graphical representation of structures and their component parts. It is a process that requires intellectual reasoning creative thinking, socio—economic, cultural as well as emotional knowledge to achieve the full aesthetic value of the finished garment. It follows that Pattern Drafting provides aesthetic education. In Ghana, despite the advantages tailoring enjoy as explained earlier, the New Education Reform Programme did not fully embrace the subject as essentially as it deserves. Very little was done on the development and inclusion of tailoring in the school curriculum due to lack of personnel and equipment. Lack of personnel emanates from the fact that over the years tailoring has been left in the hands of local craftsmen who acquire their training through apprenticeship. This unfortunate situation creates the erroneous impression that tailoring or sewing in general is not an intellectual activity. Latest development with the New Education Reform Programme reveals some interest being generated in the acquisition of marketable skills. This is evidenced by the recent courses being organised for the Post Junior Secondary School graduates. It is hoped that since sewing defines the utilitarian value for weaving and makes it more meaningful to the consumer, more attention will be turned to tailoring in the near future. It is in this vein that the need for the development of pattern drafting cannot be over-emphasized. This document affords teacher-tailors the encouragement, expertise and enthusiasm necessary for handling the subject of tailoring in a more efficient manner in our schools and colleges. The research is also seen as a relief to students of fashion design, who have to waste more time to train at the local tailor’s shop in order to be fully equipped to establish a shop of their own. It would also provide the needed confidence and clear the confusion often associated with students of practical examination questions. Finally, the research will promote the development of the sewing industry in Ghana as younger elites will be attracted to join hands in the trade with more innovative ideas.

Source: KNUST