Bartamaha (Nairobi):- Sahro Noor, 11, carefully guided her fabric through a humming sewing machine Monday. Instructor Kristy Ouellette watched.

“Perfect. I think you’ve got it,” Ouellette said as the girl kept her eyes on her soon-to-be skirt. “Make sure you take out your pins,” Ouellette coached. “Very good.”

Along with other Somali girls, Sahro was getting ready for a fashion show Thursday at the Hillview Resource Center. The show will be put on by the girls’ Sew Fabulous 4-H Club, offered by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.

“This club came out of a need in the community,” said Ouellette, an extension educator who created the club in 2009. She and AmeriCorps volunteer Cassie Defillipo are teaching sewing as a way to help bridge Somali and American cultures.

“The girls at Hillview had been wanting to make their own clothes, wanting to learn to sew,” Defillipo said. Sewing is a Somali cultural value, she said. Most of the girls had sewn before by hand but not with machines.

Club members started preparing for the show last October. “The fashion show is kind of the culmination, the celebration,” Ouellette said. “They’re excited about it.”

The Sew Fabulous 4-H club is made up of 25 Somali girls in grades five through 12. They’re making and designing long skirts and dresses with head coverings, in keeping with their Muslim culture.

“At our fashion show, you won’t see any shoulders showing,” Ouellette said. “You won’t see short dresses. You won’t see strapless dresses. You’ll see dresses that are modest and meet their cultural needs and expectations.”

The show will provide a means for the girls to have fun wearing their creations, “feeling confident and beautiful in their own skin, while staying true to who they are,” Ouellette said. “That translates across cultures. That’s what all women want for their daughters.”

At one sewing machine, Khadija Mohamed, 16, showed off a soft-green, full-length dress she made.

A few feet away, Samawada Hirsi, 12, held up two outfits that she made. One dress was made of fabric with a black background with black and red flowers. A second featured a pink and blue paisley print that she’ll wear with a ribbon belt.

The 4-H club is a one of a kind, Ouellette said. It’s teaching the girls how to make their clothes and more, social and communication skills, how to work together and be part of a community. It’s giving some a better sense of worth, Ouellette said.

“We have girls who have never sewed before,” she said. “Now they’re going to be the center of attention, to show the entire community the things they’ve created.”

They’re also performing community service. The club has received a grant from Cumberland Farms to make pillow cases for sick children who are hospitalized, Ouellette said.

Noor said she was glad to be in the fashion show modeling her new skirt. “A lot of people will be watching me,” including her mother and younger siblings. “I’m proud to wear it.”

The show is open to the public. It will begin at 6 p.m. at the Hillview Resource Center. There will be a door prize and snacks.

The sewing machines and the material were donated by area groups and businesses.

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Source:- Sunjournal.

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