Handicrafts Design Support Systems
for Creative Homemaking Education

Sewing in homemaking education aims to nurture technical and creative ability of children. Design of original handicrafts requires the construction of an appropriate 2D pattern, but this is very difficult for children and this restricts them to use off-the-shelf 2D patterns only. Many schools have introduced CAI (Computer Assisted Instruction) today, but they are not useful for learning creative ability because they are merely used to show images and movies. We therefore developed handicrafts design support systems for novices to design their own original handmade crafts. This paper examines the requirements these systems should satisfy to be used as digital education tools in homemaking education. We successfully demonstrated in workshops and user studies that children can design original handicrafts using our design support systems. These case studies show that homemaking classes can teach creative ability, fun of sewing, and versatility of computers.

Demonstrations

Publications