Barbie and Margie lend helping hands

When Margie Hart was little she wanted to make clothes for her Barbies. Some fifty years later she is still making tiny outfits for the dolls, but this time for a cause.

"I was making some Barbie doll clothes for my great nieces, when I found out that a friend, that had recently badly broken her arm, was now strapped with hospital and surgeon bills," she explained.  

​"I decided to make and try to sell Barbie doll clothes and donate the money towards her medical bills."

She sells them a few bucks a piece and has managed to bring in a couple hundred dollars.

Hart said she has been sewing since she was four. Her mom, Irene Keefer made some clothes for the family. Hart says her mom didn't really like it as much as she does, but it was a skill that could help the family and one she passed on to her daughter.

"I think she was happy when I took over the sewing machine," Hart said with a chuckle.

Hart, the Family and Consumer Sciences teacher at Rocky Grove High School says "If my skills can be used to help others, then that's what I'll do."

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She also started making masks at the beginning of the pandemic. After a student was involved in an accident, she began selling her homemade masks to help that family.

She admits the masks are less fun to make than the doll clothes, but important. "I think they'll be needed for awhile still," she said. So despite making them feeling more like a sweat shop, she sits at her sewing machine under a sign that reads "Sewing Mends the Soul," Hart has made hundreds of them. 

​"It would be unusual if I didn't sew everyday," she said.

Her sewing room is her grown son's old bedroom that she has commandeered. She has also taken over the dining room table in another part of the house. Swarths of material are stacked and little outfits are intermingled. "It's the creativity," she said. "If I get something in my head I just have to do it."

Teaching sewing to high schoolers, she looks for a community outreach project for her students to sew for. This year she is having them make toys for local animal shelters. She says she is always looking for more material and is especially in need of some fleece. "It is hard for some of them to get supplies for sewing," Hart said.

She said anyone interested in donating can bring them to the school. Anyone interested in Barbie clothes or masks can message her through Facebook.