Lubbock conjoined twins, Knatalye and Adeline Mata, who are living with their parents in Houston are getting new clothes custom made for them by two Texas-based tech design students.
The conjoined twin girls are said to be joined together at the chest. Doctors reveal that the twins share a diaphragm, liver, heart lining and possibly intestines as well. The twins were born on April 11 this year and doctors at the Texas Children's Fetal Center suggest that it is too complicated to separate them. However, the doctors are planning for a surgery to separate them in about three months.
Till the surgery is performed, the twins needs clothes and it will be no easy task for the parents. However, to make things simple for the parents, students from the department of design in the College of Human Sciences at the Texas Tech University will design clothes for the conjoined twins.
The department of design arranged for two design and manufacturing students to visit Houston and take measurements of the conjoined twins so that they can start with stitching the clothes soon.
"It was really nerve-wracking, seeing something you'd never seen before," says Nicole Peacock, who visited Houston to take measurement and is now also involved with stitching the clothes. "When we got there, they were changing the babies' diapers. It was cool to see how they were working with them."
Sharran Parkinson, who is the Department Chair of Design and a Professor in the College of Human Sciences at Texas Tech University, reveals that she wanted students from the Texas Tech University to design clothes for conjoined twins since last spring.
Parkinson suggests that students have an unusual opportunity to design clothes for conjoined twins and at the same time reach out to help the community with their design skills. Parkinson also indicates that the students were quite enthusiastic to contact the parents of the conjoined twins and make clothes for the twin girls.
The students have designed several outfits for the twins by stitching together existing garments. The students have also stitched a christening gown and they reveal that it was a challenging task to make the gown from scratch.
The Tech design students reveal that they have also left a measuring tape with the mother of the twins so that they can get exact measurements as the twins grow in size.
