The Seamstresses

We seamstresses have a different history than the rest of the group. We were members or daughters of members of another group that had been formed to look for solutions for some of their needs.  After  that group had accomplished their original goal of acquiring sinks for each woman's house (they had access to water but no sinks to help them in washing dishes or clothes) they decided they wanted to learn to sew on a sewing machine. Some of the women wanted to pass this opportunity on to their daughters, so our seamstresses include some of the earlier group's members and some daughters.

We learned to sew on pedal sewing machines that we still use, and eventually joined with the women of the MayaMam group to do the sewing.  In addition to the sewing, we are responsible for coordinating the production of all the sewn products. This means making sure that all the materials are available as well as coordinating the hand embroidery that is the signature of our products. Although we began with simple straight sewing, little by little we have learned more complex techniques such as mitered corners, inset zippers, lining, and  inset pockets. We have also learned to use the electric serger and make buttonholes on an electric machine. The pedal sewing machines are practical because we often lose our electricity, but we would like to get more experience n the electric machines so we can do our work a bit faster.