Training Your Eye: Learning to See Fabric Behavior Before Designing

Before you start sketching garments, I would recommend practicing observing fabric. Fabric does not behave like a flat sketch, and many designs need to be modified once fabric is introduced. When you are just starting out, you may envision the shape of a garment without thinking about how fabric will drape, stretch, or crease. Cotton will not act the same as wool, and silk will not act the same as denim. The sooner you can learn to observe fabric and anticipate its behavior in a garment, the better equipped you will be to make good design decisions.

Instead of thinking about the shape of a garment in two dimensions, you will start thinking about how fabric will behave in three dimensions. Start simple. Instead of draping a whole garment, just observe a square of fabric. Lay a square of fabric flat on a table, then pick up one corner of it and drop it. Observe the creases that form in the fabric as it falls. Where does the fabric make a sharp crease, and where does the fabric make a soft crease? Try to quickly sketch the creases you see. Don’t worry too much about the accuracy of your sketch, as this is just an exercise to help you observe fabric. If you do this several times, your drawing hand will start to anticipate how fabric will crease before you even put pen to paper.

A very common error I see in student work is when a student designs a garment with creases that are unrealistic for their fabric choice. For example, a student may design a garment with sharp creases in a fabric that wants to drape softly. This is because the student designed the garment without looking at how the fabric behaves. The solution to this is to take a break from your design and observe your fabric. If you handle the fabric for a minute or two, you will learn more about it than you will if you simply make assumptions. Even draping the fabric over the back of a chair can help you anticipate whether it will make sharp creases or soft ones. You don’t need to spend a lot of time practicing this exercise.

Commit to spending just fifteen minutes a day observing a single type of fabric. Start by handling the fabric for a minute or two to get a sense of how much tension is in it. Then drape it over something, as even just a book or a hanger will do, and observe the creases that form. Take a minute or two to sketch what you see. As you get toward the end of your fifteen minutes, start thinking about what kind of garment you could make with this type of fabric, using the kinds of creases you see to help create the shape of your garment.

After a while, you will start to feel like you can anticipate the behavior of many common types of fabric. You will be able to look at a swatch of fabric and have a good sense of whether it will hold its shape, drape into soft curves, or spring back quickly into its original shape. You will be able to use this knowledge to make good design decisions. If you want to make a structured jacket, you will know that you should use a fabric that holds its shape well. And if you want to make a flowing dress, you will know to use a fabric that drapes into soft curves. Instead of just making guesses about what will work, you will be using your observations about fabric to inform your design decisions.