New Clothes, Nahuatl Style

I had been wanting a new Nahuatl outfit for a while, but I wasn’t finding the colors I wanted.  One day, I saw my skirt color in the local store and a shirt material to match it.  I quickly bought it, and put it away for when I’d order my new outfit.

Plans with one lady fell through, so I asked another lady to make my skirt.

I thought I might try my hand at making the apron.  I wanted to work on it little by little with one of my language helpers who has a sewing machine.  However, soon after I bought the material, she disappeared after her new husband and hasn’t come back.

So, another friend, Candy, who taught me to make the Nahuatl handbags, agreed to lend me her machine and teach me.  As we talked through the colors, she didn’t like what I had picked out for the apron color.  She grabbed her scrap bag and pulled out a fluorescent green material.  “THIS is what would be beautiful with your skirt,” she said.  “Here, I’ll give you some of this.”  And she ripped off a piece for my apron and gave it to me.  So, since I had an expert Nahuatl color matcher in front of me, I asked her opinion for colors for the flower block.  She said, “My cousin just came back from the coast with cloth to sell.  Go buy white or orange for the background and purple for the flowers.  Oh, and you’ll need green for the leaves.”  So, I went to the store to buy material.

The next day, armed with my material, thread, the yarn for the lista (the black & red stripes), and motivation, Katie and I showed up at her house early.

She was ready, and set up the machine just like she uses it, on the edge of the bed with a stump for a seat.  We measured material, “nailed” it together with a few hand stiches, and she showed me how to sew on her hand-crank machine.  It was a slow start, but I started to get the hang of it, and my lista got straighter and straighter.

Katie and Candy’s daughter, Marty poured over Candy’s notebook of flower designs.  They showed me a few and I picked the simplest design.  They then drew it out on the material and cut it all out for me.

After a while, one of Candy’s cousins showed up to visit with her little one year old girl.  Marty brought out her little sister’s dolls, dressed in traditional Nahuatl skirts.

I continued to slave away at the machine, hoping my back & arm would last until I finished sewing the lista.  As I finished the last red stripe, my back was killing me from bending over the little machine.  And, it was lunch time, and I was HUNGRY.

Despite Candy’s encouragement of “You’re almost done! The hard part is over.  Now, you just have to put on the flowers!”  I bowed out and arranged for another day to finish the apron.  As I was packing up my things, Candy looked at my assortment of American neutral thread colors, white, cream, tan, chocolate, gray, black, and red.  “Do you have any other colors?” she asked hopefully.

With my negative answer, she said, “Go buy more thread at my cousin’s store.  You’ll need green, orange, fluorescent green, purple and white tomorrow for the flowers.”  That meant a trip to the store in the afternoon in the rain.  But, at least I had colorful thread!

So, the next day, early, I “nailed” the flowers to the white material with a few hand stiches.  Then, gathering up my material and new thread, I headed once again to Candy’s house.  When I arrived, they set up the sewing machine again for me.  This time, elevated on a folded blanket.  The extra 4 inches really helped my back!

I began to sew and sew, and sew.  They grabbed their handbags and began stitching them.  After each step, Candy would show me how to do the next step, attaching the apron material, putting the little darts in the waistline, adding the tie strap.  FINALLY it was done!  Way past lunch time, but it was done!  And I “just” made a little apron!  These clothes are definitely a time investment!

It was a great opportunity to learn from my friend Candy and spend 2 full mornings with her and her daughter.