By Katherine Lee, Webmaster
Several students have been taking advantage of the extra time in quarantine to explore their hobbies and interests. Sophomore Rebecca Levin, for instance, has been reconnecting with her love for sewing by making and selling hair scarves.
Levin sat down at her sewing machine a few weeks ago, inspired by a picture of a hair scarf from her friend to try making them herself.
“My friend made one and sent me a picture. I really liked it, and I wear them all the time, so I decided to make them, and from then on, I just didn’t stop,” Levin said.
For about five hours every day, Levin sews hair scarves in her basement with fabric from JoAnn Fabric and Craft store. With the leftover scraps, she makes scrunchies by hand and sells them two for five dollars. The completed hair scarves, sold for five dollars each, are dropped off at the purchaser’s mailbox, and for out-of-state purchases, delivered through mail.
Levin first learned to sew in sixth grade for the Self-Directed Learning (SDL) school project. Although her sewing machine had been relatively inactive over the past few years since then, she has recently started it back up.
“My dad first bought a sewing machine a couple years ago, and I did my SDL in sixth grade on sewing. I never really sewed since then, other than a class I had in eighth grade. But when my friend sent me a picture (of her hair scarf), I decided to hop on the sewing machine because I had all the time,” Levin said. “I just started really enjoying it because it took my mind off things.”
While at the moment Levin is focusing mainly on hair scarves, she is experimenting with other things she could sew and maybe sell. In the future, Levin hopes to start an account on Etsy, a website where users can sell handmade items and craft supplies.
“If I get a lot of sales, I could start (an Etsy). But right now, I’m just selling them to friends, so I don’t know exactly where this is going to lead me,” Levin said.
Levin encourages others to make use of this time to pursue new interests or start doing things that there wasn’t time for before.
“If you see something that you enjoy, just start doing it now because this is a great opportunity to do things that you haven’t done. You have all the time now and there’s no excuse for not having the time,” Levin said. “I didn’t have the time before to do any of this, but now, I have all the free time in the world. So I just sit down and enjoy sewing.”
Katherine Lee can be reached at [email protected]
