At Houston High School, Andra Davis’ fashion design students have been working on a year-long project.
The Houston Bear Project, which satisfies course requirements, is solely aimed at giving back.
“The students have been producing outfits for teddy bears throughout the year,” said Davis.
Each bear comes with an assortment of handmade clothing.
“Each student chose outfits for three adventures each bear might go on. Then, they each named their bears,” Davis explained about the project.
“They used American Doll and some newborn patterns but all needed to be altered in order for the pudgier bears to wear them,” she said. “This taught them how to measure and what happens when you don’t measure correctly. They were able to design these outfits and sew with various techniques on a small scale.
“As they worked,” she continued, “I noticed most were not asking as many question–so that let me know that they were more confident with their sewing. That was one of my goals for them.”
A paramount component of the assignment, according to Davis, was the community service aspect.
“For my students to make those connections and to collaborate with other departments (the visual arts department supplied hand-drawn children’s books about the bears’ adventures to go in the package) it’s been amazing.”
To celebrate the culmination of the project, her students traveled downtown to hand deliver the bears, their outfits, activity/story books, and birth certificates.
