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www.FredericksburgParent.NET 23 SUMMER CLASSES INTRODUCE FASHION SKILLS Students who want to get an introduction to the basic skills of stitching, using a sewing machine, working with patterns and designing clothing should look at at the Summer Sewing Clinic that LOK Fashion Academy offers. Ms. King offers five one-week sessions, and students can sign up for one or up to five weeks. Classes are taught with a high teacher-to-student ratio, with only 10 to 12 students in each class and two to three teachers guiding their work. Classes run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Thursday. They start the second week in June and go through the end of July. Ms. King is careful not to call her summer classes "camps," because they are intended for students who have a serious interest in learning to make clothing—though they need not have prior experience with sewing. The admission process starts with an application that can be downloaded from lokfashioninstitute.com. King then interviews students and parents to ensure the classes will be a good fit. Once students have mastered the basics, Ms. King and her instructors encourage them to make their own decisions and trust their creativity in choosing projects to create. The result is a wide variety of styles and clothing types—many of which look professionally made, as Ms. King is a stickler for details. Students who like what they learn in the summer can continue with the Academy's Fall and Spring classes. Ms. King also offers lessons for homeschoolers and adults. HANDS-ON EDUCATION The process of designing and making garments combines art and science, drawing on a range of skills that engage mathemat- ics and engineering, as students learn to measure, make patterns and choose the correct stitching techniques to hold the garments together. "A lot of people don't realize how much STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is involved in fashion," Ms. King said. "These students really are building something." Ms. King has seen her courses inspire students to major in engineer- ing in college. Other Fashion Academy graduates have gone on to study fashion design at schools in New York and at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. "The Academy is sort of a springboard to get into fashion design," Ms. King said. Students who progress from the Academy classes can continue their studies at the LOK Fashion Institute, a one-year certificate pro- gram licensed by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Students have gone on to fashion colleges including Fashion Institute of Technology, New York; Parsons School of Design, New York; and Philadephia University. To learn more, visit lokfashioninstitute.com Future Future Designers Designers