Sunset market

Last year the department of tourism linked up with the organisers of Darwin’s sunset market, to commence a Timor version.  It started in the dry season, every week, and had stalls of local products, food stalls and entertainment.
The Sunset Fair was designed for tourists and foreigners living here.  It is also held at the “white skin” white sand beach called Christo Rei.  This is on the far side of Dili away from us, and combined with the fact that we didn’t have much spare cash or time we never attended.  I had asked a friend about the possibility of bellekria selling some things there, but she made a few inquiries and it seemed that the sellers needed to be a registered business or NGO, plus a stall space was $50 so we shelved the idea. 
This year as we have been expanding both with staff and product range, I have been seriously re-considering trying to get a stall at the sunset market.  So Sinta rang the organiser and was invited around immediately to sign up! We sent them along with $70 in case the price had increased.  They returned very excited as the organiser was a lovely lady who was  very encouraging about their sewing group.  The $50 fee is a one off cost which lasts the entire market season (till December).  They had to sign a contract and now they wait for their application to be approved and receive some i.d cards.  So next Friday may be our first market stall!  Of course i am racking my brains for other simple products to sell there.   I have found a sweet pattern for a child's fabric ball, as well as hoping to make lots of the cotton dresses, and more cloth books.  Word has been getting around about our books, so I think we may sell a few.

Cute smocked dresses!

    
Sinta loves whipping up small experimental designs.  One afternoon i noticed one of our neighbours small girls wearing a sweet outfit made from leftover bag fabric.  I was very impressed.  I mentioned it to Sinta, and she shyly explained how she had used up some fabric remnants to make a dress as a gift for this little girl.  I encouraged her.  After sourcing this new batik fabric, i began to think – hmm 100% cotton fabric (which foreigners look for plus the fact that foreigners love to purchase locally made products,  well– lets make cute girls dresses!!  So they came up with a simple smocked top/dress with straps tied on the shoulders.  They use the leftover pieces from the bags.
I think they are very cute.  The girls bought 1 roll of elastic thread for 50c which they wind onto the bobbin.  They made 6 dresses with the 1 roll.  I was in the sewing room as they finished the first 2 and hung them on the wall.  Soon after a neighbour wandered in and eyed them off.  She returned later to purchase both of them less than 30mins after they were finished!  Talk about products walking off the shelf :)  I bought them a couple of bulk rolls of elastic yesterday and we may begin making more children's clothing.

Op Shopping in a 3rd world country

A few weeks ago our neighbours needed to chop down 2 coconut trees – which is kind of ok as there are about 40 of them all around our house and we hear a coconut drop nearly every day, so a few less to worry about is a good thing.  (Although of course its a little sad to chop down a lovely fruiting tree).  Anyway, where was I….Ah yes,, so the the chainsaw man arrived and cranked up the RRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEE machine.  Right next to our house which doesn't have glass in many windows, so there is no way to dampen the sound.   A few hours later, as they were still RRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEing, I realised that they were also slicing the tree up into nice beams etc. and that they hadn't even started on the second tree.   Well no school today, and maybe we should go for a long walk.??  So Serenity and I soon agreed that a nice outing would to be to hike up to the closest market (only a handful of stalls) and “go opshopping” for the first time since March.  Off we went and enjoyed buying a few outfits, esp a wedding outfit for Serenity to wear to the upcoming wedding at our place.  It was a long walk, especially the walk home and we didn’t arrive home till around 4:00.  On the way home we lamented the fact that our local village didn’t have a “sack of clothes” shop we could visit.  We tossed the idea around about purchasing one ourselves……
Second hand clothes arrive in large cloth sacks about 1m wide and 1 m high.  In my browsing history it seems that most of these seem to come from China.  There is a wide variety in each sack from silk blouses to cotton tshirts and plenty of jeans thrown in. Anyone who knows me will know that its a special treat to go rummaging through second hand clothes.  I don't get to do it very often here though – maybe once every 3-6 months.  Prices vary from 50c-$4.  About the same, or a bit cheaper than Aussie Op shops.
Anyway, can you guess my thought processes???  Here we are in Bellekria, looking for cheap fabrics for our bags etc, and turning old clothing into new attractive dresses. 
On returning home I popped in to the sewing room to chat with Sinta, Novi and Anna.  I mentioned the idea of buying a sack.  They all perked up! OOH what a lovely idea!  We could buy it, open it up and sell the best stuff (after taking out our favourites of course), then, we could offer to alter the clothes to fit better $$. AND any large clothing or weird stuff we can chop up and turn into other things!  What a fantastic idea.

Repurposing

That’s a modern word for chopping up some article of clothing and making it into something new.
When some of our visitors arrived they brought some treasures…. Among other lovely things, they brought over some bright colourful dresses a number of sizes bigger than the Timorese women.   Of course we immediately saw possibilities.
Sinta and Novi held one up to their chest and pulled a bit here and tugged a bit there and a cute little party dress began to take form.
A few hours later they had produced a young woman's party dress, as well as a child's version complete with bow!
Delightful.  They were quite cocky about the fact that the fabric was free, yet they could sell the dress for about $10.!!  That's a good profit margin hey?  A few women are already eyeing it off and it seems like it may sell soon.
 

Visiting the Ermera Library

  
I had the pleasure of visiting the library at Gleno. We were impressed with the place before we even entered the front door!  And then the kids room was just stunning!  Our gorgeous cushions made the room so cheerful!
 And a whole stack of our cloth books were on the shelves just waiting to be picked up by small hands.
We had a good look at the whole place and highly recommend a visit if your in the area.  You can see more info about what they do on  The Ermera Library's website

This is one of their photos showing a librarian using one of our cloth books.  They visit the hospital each week and have a short program with new mums about the benefits of reading to their children.  Its a great program and we are proud to be connected with them!

Child labour!

almost….
This past week was the start of school holidays.  Some young girls had been asking if they could start training during this time, so on Monday afternoon when i arrived in the sewing room, i discovered three, very young, (barely teenagers) girls taking turns pumping away on the treadles.  One is Emily, a very sweet girl who Serenity loves hanging out with.  She was a natural, and had the rhythm immediately! much to Sintas surprise (and pride – she is her niece i think!)
Sinta started them without the machine threaded, so that they could get used to making the treadle pump the foot in the forward direction.  Then a few afternoons later they were sewing along pen lines.  Sinta arranged it so that only 2 came at one time, as we only have 2 treadles.  I am hoping to find some tables that we can install the aussie singers to, but so far haven't been able to find any.  What with Anna and Novi on the 2 electric machines, the two girls learning on the treadles, and Sinta overseeing, teaching and using the overlocker, it is very full and busy!     
I showed some surprise at the young age of the girls and she explained that their mothers wanted to learn as well, but it was too hard for them to find time, and as their children complete schooling  with no exposure to any practical skills etc, the mums decided to take matters into their own hands and send them along to us.  So far we haven't charged them for this, and I am hoping to be able to use their new skills to assist with simple products in the future.

Patchwork

   
Last year I tried to suggest to Sinta the concept of doing some patchwork with all the leftover scraps of fabric we collect.  I even made up a few small samples to show her the concept.  But it didn't jell for her.  Then a few weeks ago, Serenity mentioned how she has seen a number of patchwork bags in the city centre.   So I finally had a moment chatting with Sinta, and I mentioned what Serenity had said.  Sinta immediately brightened up and told me a little story…
A week or two earlier, on a return trip from the sewing shop, Novi and Sinta were offered to share a taxi with a foreign lady.  The lady was particularly large well built, so that Novi had to half sit on Sinta’s lap to fit in, but as it turned out, Sinta was so close and snugly that she got a good look at this foreign ladies bag – it happened to be a bright patchwork bag, joined simply by overlapping the edges and using a zig-zag stitch.  So Sinta was very keen to try it as she thought it was a very attractive bag…. And so the next afternoon she proudly visited me at home after closing to show me this beautiful bag!