Hot Pads and Oven Mitts
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Viri’s mother was a seamstress by trade, has taught clothes making for many years and is working on sewing guides/manuals.
The students who wanted to learn to sew, want to learn in order to be able to make useful things and to repair clothes which they cannot readily afford to replace as they work their way up to making clothes they can wear or sell to make extra money.
Viri sources textiles which students can use from textile stores that want to get rid of sample swatches which are out of season and going to be thrown away. We take apart the binders holding the pieces of material together so that our students have materials to practice with.
They liked the idea of making hot pads and oven mitts because the majority of the community still cooks over open fires and they would have an immediate use for them after they have finished them as part of their training.
The more advanced students help make extra pairs of hot pads and oven mitts that can be sold to help buy materials for their further training.
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Although the pieces of cloth from the swatches are not very big, there are not many things that can be made from them, but they are a decent size to make pencil cases which can be used as a purse or make up bag which has been more popular than we expected, which is also very encouraging to our students who are eager to keep learning and applying.
