Creativity running wild

Well, When I arrived back this year after 7 weeks in oz, i was excited to see that Sinta, Novi, Ange and Anona had been trying new products while i was gone. (Anna has taken time off to care for her child)  And the creativity hasn't stopped.  It feels like each time i pop my head in they have a new design hanging up.  So ill show you some pics.  I walked in today and started to the left of the room and just walked around each wall taking photos of the new items since Dec last year.  Of course this doesn't include items sold already….

    As you can see they have been experimenting with lots of different clothing styles.  Its coming close to a big day here – Easter.  Which for most of them means getting dressed in their finest and attending a special service at church.  Apparently its a good excuse to buy a new outfit.  So Sinta and the others are trying to whip up some tempting fashion pieces.

They also did some rearranging of boxes and supplies a few weeks ago.  (Our room is rather cramped with not enough suitable storage yet.)  Anyway they came across some remnants of furnishing type fabrics which had been donated to us last year.   They measured out larger pieces and hemmed them into table cloths and door curtains.  Then the smaller pieces they started crafting into all sorts of handbag styles.  They are using details such as pleats, gathers, tucks, tabs, flaps etc.  I love it.  They seem to be really bouncing skills and ideas off each other.

Also, last but not least, i don't think i have shown you pics of the additions to their school uniform range.  Apparently some girls visited them wanting a full skirt made in their school fabric.  So they designed some skirts with large pleats in the interesting pumpkin shade….

And last but not least they made some tiny black school pants for early primary school students. 

I am overall very happy to see them stretching their abilities.  If only we could ship over some rolls of lovely cotton prints from India, we could start our own clothing line :)  Dreaming….

End of year figures

I love using excel.  Just thought id share that with you.  It does explain why i have a very detailed file with lots of separate pages of numbers and figures for all sorts of things related to bellekria.  Of course there is a costing page, which works out how much each item costs, and what profit you get for the suggested retail price.  Then there are pages to do with employee details including loans management, pay packet tools and prices of all materials.  Just to name a few
Anyway, of course the most important excel file is the monthly profit and loss.  Sinta keeps a daily paper record of all sales, and at the end of the month passes them onto me along with any receipts and a chart detailing what days each employee worked.  I enter all this data, and add in any extras including their pay.  I have just been using the same file since i opened the sewing room, and it has always been in the red by a few hundred (ok, 9 hundreds to be more accurate).  Anyway I thought I would try the novel idea of working out the profit/loss just from this current year.  I wanted to see how much the business had needed support each month to function.  So I entered the data in like this:
And then i averaged it out to see what the average monthly loss was –ok i admit it… I'm naturally pessimistic) and lo and behold I got a profit of around $3 each month!!  Wow!! So there you go.  It hasn't cost me anything – in terms of dollars and cents.
What a miracle – Thanks to God  and all the wonderful donations of materials which really help in a huge, HUGE way.
So aside from the numerical figures, together we have been able to give full time employment to 5 women (with feminine figures ha ha).  Three of whom have taken out home loans from us, making monthly repayments through their salary.
  Sinta, with her husband Apoli and two nieces are standing proudly outside of their newly finished home.






Ana also took out a home loan to assist in finishing her new home- pictured here with her husband, young son and lots of family to help celebrate moving in.
     

Novi has also taken out a home loan to help finish her house for  her husband and young daughter.





Amona (Nona) is very grateful to be employed.  Not only does it provide an income for her household, but it gives her a daily activity to help her cope with some difficult family issues.
 


Ange has been travelling from the other side of the city, and has been grateful for an income to assist with the costs of raising her 4 young children.

Rewards and encouragement

Here I am writing from a comfortable lounge room in Australia.  What an overwhelming world of abundance… However, i have some lovely news to share.  I was checking facebook, and noticed that the weekly sunset market had put up some images from their final night this year.  So i browsed through the photos and to my surprise saw this:
  At first I thought the photographer had made a mistake and put up a photo from earlier in the year.  But as I looked harder I noticed a new dress,  and started to think that the bellekria women actually made it to the market by themselves!! How cool.
Another exciting picture confirmed it …
Here is Sinta receiving a certificate for “Most Creative Handicrafts”… YAY!! Apparently there were 4-5 certificates awarded to stall holders for various things.  A great encouragement to Bellekria.  I am sure that they all felt very proud. 

Nappy covers? Covered!

A few months ago Bellekria received a shipment of boxes.  These included 2-3 boxes of PUL fabric remnants and a bulk load of special “fold over elastic” – it has a crease line down the centre so it can be used like bias binding, as well as stretched to produce gathering.   I bought it because it was such a bargain and I was sure I would think of something to use it for.   Anyway here’s one of the many ways we have used it so far:  Nappy Covers!

Here they are called popok’s and are used with a piece of folded cloth inside.  They don't even have safety pins, let alone fancy “nappy snaps” or even fancier modern fitted cloth nappies.  So they are really excited about this product.  We made some samples and the same afternoon a visitor popped her head in and ended up buying 2.  We took some to the market and have had a few people question if we actually made them ourselves – here in Timor.  Because they look like something imported.  In other words they look too good to be produced here in Timor! I think that is a compliment to us, but its a bit derogatory to poor little Timor Leste.  We charge the very expensive rate of $4. About an average days wage. But word is that alternatives sell for around $11 in the supermarkets.  So i guess we are providing a bargain!
They are very simple to sew, apart from the fact that you need to stitch the elastic with a special zig zag stitch, which is only available on an electric machine, which only works when the power is on…Oh well.  We still manage to make them!
A funny note, in Australia you can buy velcro by the metre in separate sides, so that if you need more of one side eg the soft side you just buy more of that half.  Well here, it comes together.   Even when i tried to buy a whole roll of the soft side, they refused.  SO I have had to buy an equal amount of the hook side which unless i come up with some very creative ides may end up being thrown out….But I think its cheaper to buy both rolls here than to buy a roll of the soft side in OZ.

Tardy tardy – late late

Oh its been so long since I've posted a blog.  Our internet has been quite frustrating and then the times when it is working well we are pushing just to catch up on emails and maintain our main blog (bacons ba timor) , so my poor bellekria blog has been sadly neglected.  Things have been humming along, and our time here this year is coming to an end.  We are flying to Australia this Saturday for about 6 weeks.  We are hoping to return here late January.  I have had many discussions with the women, and still aren't sure what to do while i am away.  They suggested the sewing room close down until i return.  Its tempting, as its just makes it simpler for me.  But I am not sure its best for the business side of things.  I'm guessing they would be happy to have a few weeks off.  So we are still undecided whether to cut down to 1-2 days a week, or open full time for a few weeks, or closed, but Sinta available by phone…. Ahh i really need to organise this!  My concern is that i will not be here to pay them at the end of the month.  (as of today the plan is they stay open and i pay them when i get back.)
Anyway – the market trips had some interesting stories the last 2 weeks.  Two weeks ago we arrived and set up, and soon after nightfall the power went out – no lights! Made       window shopping a bit difficult in the pitch black :)  We all got out our mobile phones and lit up the wares as buyers bravely walked around.  However by 9:00 it was still a black out, and word was not encouraging the possibility of it returning, so we packed up early and came home – not much had sold at all but i guess that's the nature of life.
This past week we had quite a variety of truck issues.  Kind of funny when you stand detached from it.  (We are currently trying to sell the truck and have some funds donated to purchase a better vehicle) Anyway we still sold $50 worth of products which is a nice boost, and helped clear out some stock.  A number of customers oohed and aahed over the products which is always so encouraging to the girls.  

Custom clothing – your wish is my command

 
None of the women have had much previous experience with sewing clothing.  Earlier this year they developed the school skirts and then the school shirts. And of course we had the cheif’s wedding dress.  And the batik smocked dresses. … And with the amazing influx of beautiful fabrics inspiration has been bursting out of the boxes! :)
We also had some visitors in September requesting custom clothing. So they have slowly been trying more and more styles. 
 
Israel was desperate to get his dream designer pants sewn up.  And he was very proud to wear them!

Sinta and Novi work together to produce some lovely garments.  They are always improving in their shaping/cutting and finishing, although i still have “Oh Dear'” moments. ;)
It has been very exciting watching their creativity flow, and seeing their skills develop.

Our First “franchise” effort…

I just realised I haven't shared this exciting story with you all yet…
Mateus is a young Timorese man we have been assisting a little.  He has been developing a children's education centre in a village called Liquidoe.  He employs 6 people to run an extra curriculum program after school a few times a week.  They also provide a very nutritious meal to the children.  He has been wanting to give his employees extra work, and asked Bellekria if we could train 2 of the young women to sew.
So two very shy women arrived to soak in as much as they could over 3 days.
Sweet Sinta was very excited to host them, and Novi and Anna all pitched in to help them develop “soft feet” as they call it.  Getting the rhythm of the treadle machine.   They worked hard at it, and by the last afternoon were able to create a shoulder bag and a small purse each to take home.  Sinta asked me to print out a certificate, which i did (on pink cardboard of course!)    We had a small semi formal presentation of the certificates (Level 1) with Sinta and Mateus officiating. :)
They left very excited and thankful, and Sinta was stoked that our sewing room was spreading out into the mountain areas.  Which is part of both our dreams.
They may come back some time for another 3 days.