****Latest News**** Archives
July 6, 2010
We found this year’s annual meeting and celebratory luncheon of the New Mexico Women’s Foundation a veritable harvest of opportunities for Sew Right and especially for our advanced students.
Olivia from Eritrea has been making stylish pillows, cushions, table runners and mats. Upon meeting the NMWF honoree of the year, Natalie Fitz-Gerald, founder of the acclaimed Santa Fe design shop, Casa Nova, we made plans to visit her to exchange ideas, to determine if Olivia’s skills could be used to produce distinctive home furnishings designed by Natalie. Less than a month later Olivia has been commissioned to construct beautifully bead designs for pillows as signature pieces of Casa Nova.
Iptasam from Iran will also be producing products for the shop and home for her clients. Duka from Bhutan was ready to display table runners woven by Duka and her mother on the tables at the luncheon. She has designed recycled bags made from empty rice bags and beautiful fabrics one might expect to see in a sari.
Lucy from Mexico and several of the students are making upholstered tuffets that will be featured at the Santa Fe Rag Festival sponsored by NMWF where Sew Right will make their first appearance August 13-15, 2010. We are excited to make new contacts and display the beautiful work of the Sew Right students.
By Cheryl Cathcart
July1, 2010
Advanced student Lucy Cook is our very good next door neighbor. She and her husband keep an eye on our school, alerting me to any problems, and even putting my garbage out for pick up on the correct day. Lucy’s daughter, Crystal, was too little to be allowed in our classroom when I first met her. Now that she is six, she can join her Mom and learn how to sew.
Lucy got a great sewing contract within her Hispanic community. She told Sorocco, owner of the local Mexican market, about her sewing skills. Sorocco told her granddaughter who told her English teacher at Albuquerque High, who was looking for someone to cut and serge serape scarves for graduation. Lucy was anxious about taking on this big job and needed assurance that we “would not let her fail”. Since completing this lucrative job, I have seen Lucy’s confidence grow.
By Pam Gibbons
June 28th 2010
I first met Olivia Selama August of 2008. Her friend Nkasi from Global Pathways brought her to Sew Right to meet me and check out the school. Olivia seemed quite depressed. She was homesick for her county of Eritrea and was struggling with her ESL classes.
She had been placed in a janitorial position at a local hospital. First stop employment for many newly arriving refugees. Olivia was very popular with the nurses and patients, but she had a hard time meeting the requirements of her supervisor. Let’s face it, at 50+ and in ill health, 8 hours a day 5 days a week on her feet was just too much.
Unemployed, sitting at home all day, fully dependant on her adult son, was not her dream of coming to the US “where the government is good” and “People help each other”.
Betwel has many struggles of his own. He was inscripted into the army at 14. Olivia did not see him again for 6 years. I can’t even imagine his lost years. He now holds down 2 full time jobs in hopes that his sweetheart may join him.
Olivia thrived at Sew Right. Completing 101 with ease, student teaching, making new friends and earning her own money. Her English improved, allowing her to share her feelings- “sometimes I can’t think.... I’m remembering the bad things that happened in the war”. “My son is picking better friends. I cook for them” “ I feel so happy, happy now”!
I like to think that her involvement with Sew Right has also helped her relationship with her son. He can breathe and hang out with his own friends knowing that his Mom is busy doing her own thing.
By Pam Gibbons
March 20, 2009
Advance student Margarita Saenz now has her own business license. Here she is near completion of a re-upholstery job with her two eldest son’s and possible future business partners. Albuquerque offers full orientations in Spanish on taxes, which gave Margarita extra confidence in taking this big step.
February 2, 2009
Upholstery class- Kay Juno of Lasting Impressions, successful business women with her own workroom in Rio Rancho, does a lot of work for the film industry. With a winter lull in filming, a single mom she was happy to contract with Sew Right to teach a much in demand upholstery class. This very challenging class was graded. Four successful graduates received a certificate of completion signed by Kay. This class was funded by the NM Women’s Foundation.
Jan 5, 2009
During the holiday school break Sew Right hosted an exciting craft camp for African refugee children. Our usual enrollment is four to six students for six three hour classes. We ended up with 14!
It turned out that the young women we enrolled were the family baby-sitters and needed to bring younger siblings. Well, if they could reach the petal, we knew from experience that they would want to learn how to sew too! We were also joined, at the last minute, by a group of African-American teen helpers from UNM’s pre-college math and science program. They also learned how to sew! How did we pull this off? Teacher Pam Gibbons and student teacher Olivia Selama relied on their love of children and sense of humor. Our Sew Right Board members all pitched in, taking turns providing lunch, transportation and clean up. We also relied on Doug, of At Home Sewing and Vacuum, to do overnight repairs on our machines. Without him we would have been shut down within two days.
December 22, 2008
We just received our determination letter from the IRS approving our application for non-profit status! This was well worth a lot of work for Pam and pro-bono attorneys at the UNM Law Clinic. Now Sew Right can apply to larger foundations for funds. And individual donors can contribute through United Way.
September 3, 2008
On a beautiful fall morning, Margarita made her first site visit to a clients home.
Here she is making needed measurements for new seat cushions.
And in this photo below she is creating a template for the top cushion. Each piece to be crafted will need its own template. The template acts as a pattern and is used during several phases of contruction.
Notice of Nondiscriminatory Policy: Sew Right Inc. admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin, age and gender to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at our school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color , national or ethnic origin, age or gender in administration of it's educational policies, admission and staffing policies and scholarships.
Date |
Article |
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|---|---|---|
September 3, 2008 |
Margarita makes a site visit to a client's home | more |
August 8, 2008 |
Sharon's Story | more |
August 1, 2008 |
Margarita's Story | more |
May 27, 2008 |
Our Mother/Daughter Class Begins | more |
March 25, 2008 |
2008 Graduation Tea Party | more |
March 14, 2008 |
Pam and Alison's trip to DanDy Home Fashions | more |
February 5, 2008 |
Sew Right opens its doors February 5th!
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more |
Notice of Nondiscriminatory Policy: Sew Right Inc. admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin, age and gender to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at our school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color , national or ethnic origin, age or gender in administration of it's educational policies, admission and staffing policies and scholarships.