Blue House Uganda
  • Home
  • About
  • Events
    • Mothers Tea
  • Stories
  • Donate
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters

Clothing Project:

University of Minnesota
​and Blue House Partnership
Picture
Top: 2017 - Secondary students model new dresses. Above: custom labels from U of M.
Picture2012 - Sundress
Learning happens on both sides of the globe

​Since 2012, University of Minnesota students have been an inspiration to the Blue House girls. That year, Sherri Gahring, U of M apparel design professor, offered to have her beginning sewing students make sundresses for the Blue House girls, as a one-day service-learning project. That small beginning grew when Lucy Dunne, Director of the Apparel Design Program, expanded the effort into a semester-long project for upper-level students that had students developing and producing shoulder bags, play pants and rain ponchos for the girls. Lucy Dunne’s third year apparel design class focuses on the mass-manufacturing process for clothing and sewn products. 

Ever since, students have designed and manufactured outfits and accessories for the Blue House each fall semester. Dunne's students see a presentation about the girls, ask questions about their life in Uganda, and then design and mass produce functional clothing specifically for their needs. In 2018, the class asked the Blue House girls to draw designs they’d like to see produced. The students make between 100 and 200 garments each year that are carried to the Blue House by volunteers. For most of these girls, their U of M outfits were the first new clothes they’d ever had. The University students love having such special customers!
Picture
2018 - Olivia, one of the Blue House girls, submitted a sketch of these pants outfits that university students developed, and the girls are modeling.

Clothing from the U of Minnesota to Uganda through the years

Click on a photo to enlarge, and click through to see them all. See more photo stories in the newsletters: 2018 and 2019
2012 - Made in Minnesota.
2012 - The lucky girl in Uganda.
2012 - Lucy Dunne and Sherri Gahring show the first dresses to Minnesota board president, Carol Roeller, and board accountant, Jerry Roeller.
2012 - U of M student
2012 - Learning the mass-manufacturing process for clothing.
2012 - Dancing with joy
2012 - A rainbow of sundresses!
2013 - Tracy’s dress a year later looks like she wore it daily.
2013 - Fleece for walking to school on chilly (70°F) mornings.
2014 - University students making play dresses and sleepwear
2014 - Play dress and sleep shirt.
2015 - in Minnesota
2015 - in Uganda
2016 - Better than shopping: the younger girls got first pick of tops, crops, and dirndl skirts.
2016 - Their first ever new clothes.
2016 - Everyone received a clever strawberry bag.
2017 - Flannel hoodies
2017 - Wrap hoodies take off the chill.
2017 - The younger girls look tickled to show off their new fashionable dresses.
2018 - Ampaire’s design
2018 - Dresses made from Blue House design
2018 - Ampaire happily models the dress she designed.
Even new clothes are quickly broken in!
Picture
BLUE HOUSE UGANDA
​​© 2023 Blue House Uganda
The Blue House, supporting orphans and vulnerable children in Uganda, 
is a 501(c)(3) charity governed by boards of directors
in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, and in Kazo, Uganda.
Blue House Art © Pat Owen for HMI. All rights reserved.
​Privacy Statement  and Terms and Conditions

Contact Us

Blue House Uganda
c/o St. Matthew's
2136 Carter Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108 USA
612-470-8316
info@blue-house.org

  • Home
  • About
  • Events
    • Mothers Tea
  • Stories
  • Donate
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters