By Tanisha Naik
Juniors Wells Stribling and Zara Hebb “have been making bank” selling a variety of sweatshirts with handmade designs. During lunch, in the plaza, I spoke with these two entrepreneurs about their journey and the story behind Little Star Apparel
This idea to start a sweatshirt business came to the two during a lunch at The Daily. Zara had made Wells a sweatshirt with a star on it for her birthday that looks a lot like the ones they produce now. As they chatted and enjoyed their meal, inspiration struck and they thought: “Why not turn this into a business?”
So they quickly started to brainstorm ideas of things they should make. That simple conversation led to the creation of Little Star Apparel.
When I asked how they came up with the name, Wells was quick to jump in. “The name was actually my idea,” she said. Wells’ family takes an annual trip to Montana, where there’s a favorite restaurant called Star.
However, when Wells and Zara tried setting up an Etsy account, they ran into a small roadblock. “We found out we couldn’t use Etsy because we’re not 18, and the name Little Star was already taken,” Zara said. Determined to make it work, Zara started trying random usernames until she landed on Little Star Apparel and then “boom, that’s how we got the name,” Zara said.
Sewing has been a part of both of their lives for years. Wells has been ewing her whole life but then she took a break for a while. When Zara said she has been hand sewing since she was six, Wells did not believe her. “You are not a child prodigy,” she told Zara.
Obviously having a business takes a lot of organization and time. For Zara and Wells, if they continuously work on a sweatshirt, it’s around two hours, but sometimes they have to spread it out over a couple weeks because they are busy with sports and school. They also try to meet most weekends to work on the sweatshirts so that they can split up the work. For example, “Zara does the hood and pocket stitching, and I’ll do the hearts or stars,” Wells explained. This also gives them a chance to help each other.
Their designs mostly consist of a simple stitching on the hood or pockets and either stars or hearts on the sweatshirt. You can check out their awesome instagram page @littlestarapparel or find people at Lovett wearing their designs.
Some of the work is hand sewn and some is done with a sewing machine.
As we talked about how their process has evolved over the past few months, Zara couldn’t help but bring up one of Wells’ early attempts at making a sweatshirt.
“Last year, Wells tried to make one for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and it just didn’t look really hot,” she said with a laugh. Wells was quite offended by this. “ I cannot believe you just said that,” she said. Zara quickly tried to save herself. “You improved though, but I stayed the same,” Zara said.
Luckily for Wells she has definitely upgraded her materials and is improving her designs. Zara and Wells are open to new designs which are requested by their buyers. They couldn’t tell me where they get their materials from because “It’s classified,” Wells said.
Not only do Wells and Zara spend hours working on these sweatshirts, Wells donates the proceeds to the Make a Wish Foundation, to help sick children.
As their business continues to grow, Wells and Zara are always thinking of new ideas. They really want to try “printed t-shirts with cyanotypes where the sun helps create the design.” Wells explained.
All their designs vary but the most popular is layered hearts, for which they’ve had multiple orders. Their favorite sweatshirts they have made is grey with two different shades of blue stars and the gray sweatshirt with red hearts.
On their Instagram. You’ll find some pretty cool stories and posts. Zara mentioned about how she has random photos on her phone that she will put on the story with some music. “So if you see a photo of my face really zoomed in with Fetty Wap it’s Zara,” Wells said.
With the number of orders they are receiving, they’re considering raising prices. “We had like seven orders in two weeks,” Zara said. “And we don’t always want to spend our entire Saturday doing this so people need to understand why we charge what we do because it takes a long time to make these.” They want to come up with a better system that’s more time effective.
As for the future? They plan to keep their business running throughout high school and keep their friendship just as strong. “We’ll keep making sweatshirts and maybe one day, expand to something even bigger,” Wells said.
With their lighthearted banter and awesome design skills Little Star Apparel is off to a great start.
To order a sweatshirt, check out their Instagram and fill out the Google form in their bio. But act fast! Their designs are in high demand, and they’re not about to spend every Saturday behind a sewing machine.
