Upon walking into D127, senior Lauren Alexander sits in her workspace and pulls out the fuchsia, coral, and baby’s breath pink string she had carefully selected the day before with Taylor Swift playing in the background. First, she threads the coral string through the tiny eye hole of the needle. Next comes the part that Alexander and other students in Mary Stauffer’s Intro to Fashion and Interior Design class have been learning about and practicing for: the careful work of embroidering an intricate pattern on her embroidery canvas. Alexander’s first stitch goes in and comes out as she begins her work on the bright floral pattern she has selected for the project.

Students are not required to have prior experience in any of these categories, and are encouraged to join if they have an interest.

This class isn’t just about sewing and fashion either. When taking this class, there is an option to take part in an interior design course as well. Intro to Fashion and Interior Design has been offered this 2023-2024 school year, and is continuing to accept enrollment requests.

Mary Stauffer, who has been teaching for 17 years, is the Intro to Fashion and Interior Design teacher at LSE. During her teaching career, she has taught Families in Crisis, a variety of medical classes, Health Science, multiple design classes and now, Intro to Fashion and Interior Design.

“Before I became a teacher, I went to school for merchandising, as well as Fashion and Interior Design,” Stauffer said. “It’s something I’ve always had a passion for. I’m not the best [at drawing], but I wanted to be involved in the fashion or interior design field, so that was a big push for this [class].”

For Stauffer, she enjoys the creative aspect of Intro to Fashion and Interior Design.

“I enjoy the different ways you can express yourself,” she said. “Like when we’re talking about interior design styles, I might really like a modern style, but you might really like a farmhouse or whatever the style is.”

Because of this, Stauffer believes that Intro to Fashion and Interior Design is a great class for kids’ creativity to flow.

“Seeing the creativity and how kids would apply it [is something] I love. Same with fashion. How they would design or use the principles of design, I think that is really fun,” Stauffer said

For Stauffer, she loves seeing the excitement from kids when they finally understand and complete something.

“[For example,] the hand embroidery unit that we do. It’s a hard unit, but when the kids enjoy their finished product, it’s super rewarding,’ Stauffer said.

There has been quite a bit of interest in this class within the student population as well. LSE senior Lauren Alexander joined the Intro to Fashion and Interior Design first semester this year, and has been enjoying it a lot. In fact, Alexander now plans on majoring in interior design in college.

“I’m so excited for college. I’m just excited to have multiple classes teaching me all these different things. [Here] we don’t have classes as specific [unlike college]. It’s just kind of like learning your basics here at LSE, so I’m excited to get more in-depth [in college],” Alexander said.