Main description (English)

During the fifteen years of my teaching experience in the Fashion department in the field of pattern making, draping and design of garments at the National Academy of Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria, my observation on the students' work and their understanding of pattern making led me to different techniques of developing new forms and designs of garments. Students are admitted in the Fashion department after serious personal training in drawing, and high scores on the entrance exam for the specialty, which consists of life drawing of a human figure in black and in colour. The second task of the exam is to design and draw an accessory inspired by an assigned object. The majority of them are coming from schools with general education and they don't have any background knowledge on the real process of creating a garment. In our program, pattern making is one of the main courses. Students start to learn how to create a basic form for all the classic garments of the female and male wardrobe. The course is taught during the bachelor's and master's degrees, starting from flat pattern making, and concluding with the learning of draping. During the study process students are expected to be very consistent, and great perseverance is required for the knowledge to be assimilated. Maintaining constant interest and consciousness along the process to the final result represents a big effort for them. That takes long group work, and learning without creating for a relatively long period of one semester can be confusing. Students are eager to start their own projects, and have difficulty to accept that learning pattern making is a process similar to learning a new language, in regards to the time and practice it requires. My deep understanding of the profession of a fashion designer is to include the knowledge of pattern making, draping, and to combine it with the feeling and understanding of the relationship between the human figure and the garment. Knowing these principles allows them to freely make variations of the garment design. What is key in this method is acquiring the notion of how alterations in construction are applied to the final result. The main goal of this method is to arrive fast at the realization of the prototype. Nowadays, creating new constructions and forms plays a big role in a designer's projects, and the quest for innovation is oriented towards the construction of the garments. The idea to achieve three-dimensional forms by using flat patterns has been an inspiration in the process. Using experimental methods of making new forms expands the students' creative thinking. Encouraging creative thinking in pattern making is positively received by students. The notion of using the strict classic system in pattern making is often considered difficult. Once they learn to create the basic blocks, they can start to play with all the basic principles. They can break the rules, be innovative, and are free to apply the accumulated knowledge to develop further ideas. By cutting, adding, and withdrawing forms on basic sleeves, bodice blocks, collars, and hoods, a new unexpected form can result in the idea of a new garment design. Keywords: prototype, pattern making, draping, garment, design