Written by HB from Makers Unite– 30 april 2019

I started with making bags
Girls here will need bags I said
Big bags
Small bags

When I say making
I mean making
not designing
I don´t like talking about it
sketching – drawing
being to serious
life is not about that

It is about the act
about the doing
Do you get me?

In the shelter I saw them immediately
The sewing machines
They can do something
I can do something
Return them their clothes
(coming here with almost nothing)
return them their unique self.

I wanted to keep myself busy
Why not a fashion show
to keep us all busy

So Bags – big and small
Clothes for the young girls and boys – the babies
Pillowcases
Long dresses for prayer of course.

My mum was a designer
but it was not for me
she said
being a clothes designer is easy
it is for people with no education
I´d better be a journalist (my mum loved this anchorman on TV)
I´d better be a doctor (my dad saw how I felt my brothers and sisters temperature when they felt bad)

But you have to be patient
my mother taught girls how to sow
I was curious
What were they doing there
During their break or when they had finished
(you had to make sure they were finished)
I would sneak in
Are they really gone?
How beautiful it is
to make something out of nothing

My mum warned me before
she told me
it has needles
a needle will hurt you
blood will come out
human blood

But in the end
she let me be.

I have ideas for everyone
If you are not comfortable with my idea
tell me what you want
show me a picture on the internet
but I might say
we can do better than that

I measure you with my eyes
bodyshape
height
weight
size 10/12/14
a random design comes up in my mind
immediately I start cutting
intuitively
in the moment
right away.

My favorite colors are
green
red
and white.

With green I relate to nature of course
and red?
With red I relate to blood
human blood
humans
White stands for being clean
for people having something clean in them
Everyone should try to have a white heart
a clean heart
How can you have a clean heart?
by being kind
Always put yourself in the shoes of someone else
their unique shoes.
´If I say this, does it make her uncomfortable?´
´If I were in her position, then what?´

I can make two or three outfits a day
My friends sit in my room and wait for it
staring at me
at my work
wanting
awaiting their unique outfit.

This one time
I just learned how to ride a bicycle
and I fell
I was injured
But I kept on sowing
they still sat in my room
wanting
awaiting
their unique outfit
for their unique self.