25/02/2026
Mom was a seamstress. For much of my childhood, she worked in clothing factories.
Mom taught me how to sew, though she didn’t teach me how to use her sewing machine. She was afraid I’d sew my small fingers right off (she owned a Juki, one of those huge industrial sewing machines).
She’d often bring work home and I’d meticulously watch her sewing along for hours.
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One day, I was home alone and decided to give her machine a try. I had been at it for a while when she came through the door. “¿Niña, qué estás haciendo (Little girl, what are you doing)?”, she exclaimed.
I proudly showed her my creation (more than likely something for my dolls). She allowed me to “play” with her machine after that.
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Growing up with a seamstress, you learn a lot about the quality of fabric/ clothes.
Clothes shopping with her was both educational and frustrating 😂
I’d bring her something I liked; she’d feel the fabric, inspect the stitching and compare the price. “This is cheap fabric. Hmmm this stitching “está chueco” (is crooked). That’s too pricey for the quality. I can do something better”. She was rarely satisfied.
Learning about the quality of fabric/ clothing, at an early age. Transferred to learning and appreciating quality vs quantity... not just in clothing, but also applied to anything and everything in life.
Additionally, learning that the very clothes mom was sewing were being sold at stores, taught me to appreciate the people behind every item I buy [although I may not know them individually]. It also taught me about price markups, meager pay for work, fast fashion, clothing dumpsters/ landfills... (but those are topics for another day).
I know that holding an item in my hands, has been possible because of the many individual hands that have contributed to and are part of a long chain of humans that helped create, transport and sell it. This also applies to food, services, technology, construction of any kind, etc...
The world is so much connected than we like to think/ admit...
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[Originally written February 2022]
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