Beary special: Year 10 students from St Francis XavierCollege Ellen Robinson, Shauna Furlong, and Rebecca Battaglin were recently awarded ribbons in the Royal Melbourne Show’s toy making competition.Glen Atwell
FOR the past 16 years, St Francis Xavier College in Beaconsfield textiles teacher Sally Andrew and her students have been wowing judges at the Royal Melbourne Show with cute and cuddly teddy bears.
Once again, a group of year 10 students from the school were awarded prizes in this year’s toy making competition, after showing off their handcrafted teddy bears.
The students made the bears in textiles classes, and submitted their entries in the highly contested category at the show last month.
Ms Andrew said the process of creating a teddy bear takes an entire semester.
“There is the design stage, then creating the bear,” she said.
“Working with fur fabric on the sewing machines isn’t easy, so the students have done really well.”
The students entered categories including, ‘undressed with minimum accessories’ and of course the ‘dressed’ category, where students have to also design and create suitable teddy attire.
Stephanie Kustreba stole the show with a first place, Rebecca Battaglin and Ellen Robinson received a second place ribbon, Shauna Furlong and Kelly Spackman grabbed third and Jessica Berkhout took home fourth.
Ms Andrew said the students should be commended on the quality of their work and that she was proud of the work that had been produced over the years.
