Glory Bags

Kind of a cheesy name, Glory Bags, but we are Casa Gloria....so I really couldn't think of anything better.

Anyway, I am excited to say that just from my last post  here on my blog we sold 39 bags. I have been planning to post it on Facebook, but needed to make sure we could actually produce the ones we've already sold first. And we can.

Here is the story-  I have always thought how beautiful the corte is. So many different colors, and patterns, and the long flowing skirt that our Pokomchi and Kekchi women make of it is stunning. This past year, lots of our volunteers thought so too, enough to even buy the full skirt. The corte is rather expensive and sometimes the family has to save up quite a bit of money to purchase one, but every Mayan woman has one or two or three. And I don't remember how the thought came to me, but it crossed my mind that it would be so pretty to have a purse made of the corte. And I thought to myself, "Well, I could never make one." And pushed it out of my mind. A few days later though I found myself envisioning a purse made of the corte again and I decided to use some leftover corte I had already and see if I could find a woman in the community who'd be interested in sowing it into a purse. It wasn't hard to find someone. She sewed and sewed and sewed and brought me back a purse, but I didn't really like it. So I looked around online and found an idea for a bag purse that had two bows on it and cinched in the middle. I decided I would try it myself and I sewed one and it turned out pretty good.
I got the lady back over here and taught her how to do it, giving her the one I sewed as an example and some leftover fabrics and she took it home and sewed it by hand, brought it back, and it was then I knew we had something.

The first bag we sewed.  (Sold out)

It turned out beautiful. So I decided we should go buy a corte and see what we can do. Turns out that one corte can make 12-13 bags. My sweet helper told me that "celeste" was a very popular color and she picked out this beautiful blue corte fabric. I took it home and we gave it to the woman who is sewing and this is what she brought me back:

Wilma presenting me with the second bag she sewed by hand.

At this point, game on. I knew that by making these bags, I would be giving work opportunity to women here in our community who otherwise may not be able to work due to things like having small children in the home, feelings of inferiority and low self-esteem, trapped in a cycle of poverty, etc. Sewing bags meant that the women would be able to work from home, hours that suit their needs, and they'd be creating a beautiful product and being paid a very fair wage. In Wilma's case, she wasn't working because of her small child, but when this opportunity presented itself, although she was very unsure of her abilities in the beginning, not only did she realize a bit of her potential, but her husband was very excited at the idea that his wife could contribute to their family income and encouraged her. He has even decided that he would like to buy her a sewing machine so that his wife does not have to sew by hand. He believes she will earn back the cost of the machine in no time. They have gone to the savings and credit association in our community to seek a loan. Now, every time she turns in a beautifully sewn bag, she smiles ear to ear. And so do I.

Turning in two more bags.
 

 

Blue/Black - Sold out.

 

 

Red - 3 left

 Once I announced these bags on my last blog, they started selling fairly well. At first, the amount of work it required made me nervous. I was not sure how we were going to fill all the orders. Cutting the strips of fabric requires a lot of time and patience. So I decided I would hire another woman from our community who may like to work. Last week I hired Odelia. Odelia came extremely nervous. She did not know what to expect working with "The Senora Gringa". We set her up a large work table in front of the big window in the nursery of Casa Gloria. I worked with her for two days straight showing her how to measure and cut the fabric. It is not as easy as you think and if you cut wrong, you waste fabric. I admit that the first two days of her working, I was thinking it was not going to work out for her. And the third day she came in with a small smile on her face and did a great job. No errors. As long as we continue selling bags, Odelia and Wilma will continue to have work.

 

 

 

 

Odelia cutting fabric at Casa Gloria.

Things are going well and we have almost filled the 39 bag orders. Now I am ready to post this again and see if any more of you would like to buy a Glory Bag. 100% of the proceeds go directly to the building of Casa Gloria, the children's home that we are building here in Guatemala for the orphaned, abandoned, abused, street children, children with HIV, and child mothers. We are more than halfway finished with construction. Lord-willing, Glory Bags could help us continue to move forward and are something I can see us selling long after we have babies in our home. I can see us teaching business skills to the older children and allowing them to run a Casa Gloria gift shop. I can envision empowering even more women in our community to learn sewing skills and cutting fabric. The opportunity to empower is in our hands and also in your hands.

Here are a few of the other bags we have available:

Black/Silver - 4 bags left.

Purple - 12 bags left.

Blue/Orange - Sold out.

All bags are lined with an interior.

So your options for the moment are Blue/Black, Red, Black/Silver, Purple, and Blue/Orange. The bags are $30 each. A check can be mailed to Mision Vida Nueva 305 Lancelot Ln Opelika, AL 36801, or you can pay through the "Donate" button on our website (www.misionvidanueva.info), just add $1/bag to cover Paypal's fee. Because the bags are expensive to make, we can only presell. We will bring the bags with us when we fly home in December and make sure that you get them. If you make an order, please go ahead and make your payment as soon as possible. Once we sell most of these, we will make more and I will post them.

Thank you for your love and support from all of us here in our rural little village in Guatemala and thank you on behalf of all the little hands and feet that will soon be running all over the place they will forever call home.

 

 

Love,

Jenna