Sewing

Ok, this first picture has nothing to do with sewing, but I thought it was a great picture of Amy, out in back of the pig pen. This was plantin day, and she was checking out the kids planting corn and beans with Carlos and trying to decide if she was going to join in. You´ll see in a later post that, of course, she did.















Here you can see some real sewing going on. Susana (sometimes with the help of Monica, the eldest daughter) takes on occasional sewing projects to help bring in some additional revenue. Mostly it involves sewing the intricate beadwork into the blouses that the indigineous women wear.






Here is a better shot at one of the shirts she is sewing. The blouses are similar in that they have a row of beadwork and design around the collar and then another around the chest. The interesting part is how many different disigns and patterns they can come up with.

Another interesting thing is where everyone fits in the production chain. Susana could obviously design and sew the shirts to sell herself, but because she has never had the capital to purchase the supplies (and perhaps the time to leave her children to go to the market or to other cities to sell the goods), she has remained the laborer. Maybe this would be one situation where micro-credit would help her move up the chain.