A little history
2008 I moved to India- I had a lot of time on my hands and so each day worked at a Street Kids Project. Idea was to get kids off the street and into school, after school each day we would help with homework, play games, and then have a nutritious lunch.
Parents were so grateful, and I came to know quite a few of them.
Illiterate parents face a mountain of obstacles trying to get their kids into school- financial – paying for uniforms and books, loosing a helper to earn money is the most obvious one, but think about it, you can’t read, you can’t fill in the forms to get your kid into school and you are embarrassed, some teachers are not supportive….
Challenges.
I was helping as I could and then saw a guy go by with a huge load of saris- I followed and met the neighbour who was a tailor and turned second-hand saris into garments.
Ohh boy, what could I make from them?
I started an Etsy shop, I thought if I taught some of the Mum’s to stitch it could become an income stream for them…
After some wins and many dramas there came a day where I had these stitched panels.
I thought they would be great components for Crafting People to turn into treasures.
All the wonderful colour from silk saris and amazing hand stitch would work a treat.
Then I made a few samples to give people ideas of what they might do.
This jacket was the first thing, then pillows, quilts….and soon I had a mountain of stitched panels to sell.
I realised the women could not sell them, but I could in my travels and teaching venues…. somehow this all lead into what The Stitching Project is now.
We still upskill people- especially women, we upcycle saris and our cloth offcuts, we make gorgeous clothes based on Hand Made components. Hand made cloth, hand blockprint, hand stitch, natural dyes.
The jacket idea took off, but people wanted a finished garment not the pieces to make one, so we followed that direction.
When I recently moved back to Australia, I found a stash of things I used to sell at Textile Fairs, and these were in the pile.
So, hoping to clear them out and send them onto good stashes to be used up….
Useful Little Bag
Dowry Bag- over lock the edges or pipe them, turn in…. then lash stitch the edges together to make an envelope shape, add a long string for closing- needs to be long enough to go around purse twice and tuck in.
Corner tassels or beads to be pretty?
Great to store kindle, electrical bits when travelling, small sewing kit.
Magnificent wrapping for gifts or all your gold and jewels.
