Cape High textile students win 17 awards at state competition

Cape High textile students netted 10 gold and seven silver medals at a state competition, and will head to the international competition in California in June.

After winning top prizes for fashion design, fashion construction, recycle and redesign, and interior design in Delaware’s Family, Career and Community Leaders of America’s state competition, six students earned spots in the national competition in Anaheim, Calif.

Cape High family and consumer sciences teacher Alayna Aiken said she was proud of her students’ strong showing.

“I’m not sure if our school has ever won so many medals at FCCLA before,” she said. “And Ashlyn Moore received a perfect score, too. That’s a definite first for Cape.”

Ashlyn said she incorporated critique from last year’s competition into her design process this year.

“Two days after I got back from internationals last year I was looking at patterns,” she said. “I saw a floor-length dress last year and wanted to do one because I never had before. It’s harder because there’s more fabric and so much detail.”

Ashlyn plans to wear her gold-medal-winning pink gown to next year’s prom. But first, she’ll enter it in the international competition.

Kimmie Aiken also won gold in fashion construction and an invitation to internationals for her vintage burgundy dress made from a pattern she found in a 1954 issue of Vogue.

“I wanted to do the hardest pattern ever, and it was hard,” she said. “The pattern was made for housewives at the time, and it was hard for me to translate because housewives knew how to sew very well then.”

Kimmie accented her dress with her great-grandmother’s jewelry. “You can still wear vintage clothes in the modern era,” she said.

A first-year FCCLA member, Kimmie is president of Cape High’s chapter and was also named to a state officer position.

Emma Lombardi, Destiny Villanueva, Mackenzie Parker and Holly Zacco also earned gold in fashion construction.

In fashion design, Jasmine Mayo earned top gold and a spot in the international competition for a clothing line she designed for children that would support the Sunrise Sewing School Alayna Aiken launched in Kenya.

Along with designing four different outfits, Jasmine had to write a business plan for her line, Kwa Watoto, which translates to “for the children” in Swahili.

“I was inspired by the kids in Kenya,” she said. “It’s heart-breaking to see how they live. No child should have to go through that.”

For every outfit purchased in her proposed line, Jasmine would donate an outfit to a child in Kenya. Alayna said Jasmine has already sewn 14 dresses for children in Kenya.

In the recycle and redesign category, Claire Rasin earned silver for a quilt she made using her outgrown Lilly Pulitzer childhood clothes. Top gold winner Mikiyah Ennals will compete in Anaheim with a two-piece women’s jumper she constructed using an old pair of men’s overalls.

Also heading to the international competition are interior design top gold winners Andreza Barros and Molly Godwin, who designed the interior of a tropical hotel room to appeal to millenials.

“We made it sleek and minimal, with pop-up patterns here and there, and used tech, like lamps with USB chargers,” Andreza said.

“We called it Mar Terra because Andreza is Brazilian and speaks Portugese,” Molly said. “It means ‘sea and land’ in Portugese.”