Senior Sunila Steephen sews functional items such as laptop cases and pencil bags and pencil bags for her friends.

What inspired you to start sewing?

My friend Sadie Lidji actually inspired me. In sixth grade, for the talent show in middle school, she and some other friends sang a song on stage and part of their act was wearing these matching sewn skirts and I remember thinking that they were so cute and so cool. I thought, “If Sadie can do it, I can do it.”

Where do you draw inspiration for you designs from?

I usually draw inspiration from the things that people have around me—for example, on spring break, one of my friends had a really cool beach bag, so I’m looking into either sewing the bag or getting the fabric that the bag was made from. I also follow a ton of sewing blogs—both apparel and not—so whenever I see something really cool that I like and I think that I’d want to make, I usually bookmark it and try and make it later!

Do you think you would pursue this passion beyond high school or even college?

Yeah, definitely! I’m currently working for Sadie’s mom, a couture quilt designer, over the summer which is really nice because it exposes me to quilting which is a little different from just functional sewing or even apparel sewing. I think it would be really nice to take it outside of college because for me, clothing just fits kind of weirdly. It’s useful to be able to alter my own clothes. I think in that way, I do want to take it outside of high school and college and make my own clothes because I have a lot of pride in wearing something that I made.

– Neha Dronamraju – Asst. A&E Editor –