{"id":1470,"date":"2013-09-28T16:11:49","date_gmt":"2013-09-28T21:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rachel-chapman\/?p=1470"},"modified":"2013-09-28T16:11:50","modified_gmt":"2013-09-28T21:11:50","slug":"new-clothes-nahuatl-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rachel-chapman\/2013\/09\/28\/new-clothes-nahuatl-style\/","title":{"rendered":"New Clothes, Nahuatl Style"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had been wanting a new Nahuatl outfit for a while, but I wasn\u2019t finding the colors I wanted.\u00a0 One day, I saw my skirt color in the local store and a shirt material to match it.\u00a0 I quickly bought it, and put it away for when I\u2019d order my new outfit.<\/p>\n

Plans with one lady fell through, so I asked another lady to make my skirt.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
My new skirt made by a Nahuatl friend who does beautiful detail work in her sewing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I thought I might try my hand at making the apron.\u00a0 I wanted to work on it little by little with one of my language helpers who has a sewing machine.\u00a0 However, soon after I bought the material, she disappeared after her new husband and hasn\u2019t come back.<\/p>\n

So, another friend, Candy, who taught me to make the Nahuatl handbags, agreed to lend me her machine and teach me.\u00a0 As we talked through the colors, she didn\u2019t like what I had picked out for the apron color.\u00a0 She grabbed her scrap bag and pulled out a fluorescent green material.\u00a0 \u201cTHIS is what would be beautiful with your skirt,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cHere, I\u2019ll give you some of this.\u201d\u00a0 And she ripped off a piece for my apron and gave it to me.\u00a0 So, since I had an expert Nahuatl color matcher in front of me, I asked her opinion for colors for the flower block.\u00a0 She said, \u201cMy cousin just came back from the coast with cloth to sell.\u00a0 Go buy white or orange for the background and purple for the flowers.\u00a0 Oh, and you\u2019ll need green for the leaves.\u201d\u00a0 So, I went to the store to buy material.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>
Candy taught me how to sew with her machine and helped me through every step of making my apron<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.\u00a0 We measured material, \u201cnailed\u201d it together with a few hand stiches, and she showed me how to sew on her hand-crank machine.\u00a0 It was a slow start, but I started to get the hang of it, and my lista<\/em> got straighter and straighter.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The lista - the black & red stripes that decorate the hems of the Nahuatl outfit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Katie and Candy\u2019s daughter, Marty poured over Candy\u2019s notebook of flower designs.\u00a0 They showed me a few and I picked the simplest design.\u00a0 They then drew it out on the material and cut it all out for me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Katie & Marty drew out the flower design and cut it out for me<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a while, one of Candy\u2019s cousins showed up to visit with her little one year old girl.\u00a0 Marty brought out her little sister\u2019s dolls, dressed in traditional Nahuatl skirts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Nahuatl barbies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I continued to slave away at the machine, hoping my back & arm would last until I finished sewing the lista<\/em>.\u00a0 As I finished the last red stripe, my back was killing me from bending over the little machine.\u00a0 And, it was lunch time, and I was HUNGRY.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
All finished for the day - well, my back was finished for the day...<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite Candy\u2019s encouragement of \u201cYou\u2019re almost done! The hard part is over.\u00a0 Now, you just have to put on the flowers!\u201d\u00a0 I bowed out and arranged for another day to finish the apron.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 \u201cDo you have any other colors?\u201d she asked hopefully.<\/p>\n

With my negative answer, she said, \u201cGo buy more thread at my cousin\u2019s store.\u00a0 You\u2019ll need green, orange, fluorescent green, purple and white tomorrow for the flowers.\u201d\u00a0 That meant a trip to the store in the afternoon in the rain.\u00a0 But, at least I had colorful thread!<\/p>\n

So, the next day, early, I \u201cnailed\u201d the flowers to the white material with a few hand stiches.\u00a0 Then, gathering up my material and new thread, I headed once again to Candy\u2019s house.\u00a0 When I arrived, they set up the sewing machine again for me.\u00a0 This time, elevated on a folded blanket.\u00a0 The extra 4 inches really helped my back!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Setting up the machine for another morning of sewing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I began to sew and sew, and sew.\u00a0 They grabbed their handbags and began stitching them.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 FINALLY it was done!\u00a0 Way past lunch time, but it was done!\u00a0 And I “just” made a little apron!\u00a0 These clothes are definitely a time investment!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
My apron with my new Nahuatl skirt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a great opportunity to learn from my friend Candy and spend 2 full mornings with her and her daughter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had been wanting a new Nahuatl outfit for a while, but I wasn\u2019t finding the colors I wanted.\u00a0 One day, I saw my skirt color in the local store and a shirt material to match it.\u00a0 I quickly bought it, and put it away for when I\u2019d order my new outfit. Plans with one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":304,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[423],"tags":[1094,6670],"class_list":{"0":"post-1470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news-article","7":"tag-language-culture-study","8":"tag-village-life","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rachel-chapman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rachel-chapman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rachel-chapman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rachel-chapman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/304"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rachel-chapman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rachel-chapman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rachel-chapman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rachel-chapman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rachel-chapman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}