Hey guys good evening , I hope everything is going well. I'll be writing about how I started off creating tote bags for others to sell and assisted those who already knew how to sew before deciding to start sewing my own and selling it to people, particularly college students.
In Calabar, I joined an NGO called AIESEC in the beginning of 2019. I collaborated with people that share my interests and we worked as a team to complete specific local projects. There, I also met new pals. When asked to discuss skills we had learned during one of our meetings, I mentioned my knowledge of tailoring and how it had benefited me thus far.
Here is a picture of AIESECers during on of our physical meetings.
I was obviously new to the group when a friend approached me after the meeting and inquired about how well I sewed. I informed her and showed her my work.
She then explained to me the difficulty she had in getting someone to sew for her because she enjoyed doing it. Normally, she had a plug in Lagos, but she was attending school in Calabar and couldn't afford the cost of a waybill. So I agreed to try it even though I had my doubts. I had concerns like, "What if it turns out badly?" and "What if you get to spoil the bag?" and I was really afraid. But I just had to get over my anxiety. All I had to do was seize the bull by the horns and act.
I eventually built something for her, and she was quite appreciative of my work and made the required adjustments. It inspired me to work harder, and I also discovered new stitching techniques on YouTube.
Attached here is a picture of my first bag used by my junior brother and the pictures were taken by me using Infinix hot 6.
I put in additional hours at work and gradually began assisting others. Once I started, I sewed for my friends and earned a little money from it.
I sewed this for my lawyer friend in university of calabar.
I also posted my creations on WhatsApp and Instagram, though I wasn't always consistent there, but I received little publicity from it. Here are some examples of what I sewed, but for cresting, I made my own designs and gave it out for creating.
Pictures attached here is also my work for a friend I took the pictures with Infinix hot 6.
I decided to be more creative so I came up with an unusual design like sewing a tote bag but with a design of a keyboard I made that specially for my brother since he is a lover of music and he plays keyboard so I decided to come up with this.
This bag really took my time because I needed to be changing from black to white thread to be able to get it perfectly. I also used the bag to school then.
I also came up with more creative designs using Ankara but unfortunately I loosed most of my works and pictures because I changed device and I didn't back them up.
Materials used for sewing the tote bags are:
Combat material (black)
White cotton material
Sewing machine
Thread.
This would be my first post after my introductory post I made weeks ago I hope it would be welcomed here not minding the facts I didn't post pictures of the sewing methods reasons been that this bags were sewn between 2019 and 2021 while I was in the university, and I haven't really had time to sew since I moved to a new location.
Thanks for reading.