We'll be back

Just realised it's been ages since I last wrote. Since joining MaGIC's (Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre) Accelerator Programme - Social Enterprise Track, it's been a hell of a roller coaster ride. We're down to the last 2 weeks of the programme, so hustling mode is on! We promise to be back after our Demo Day!

Meantime, do follow our Facebook and Instagram (@stitch.a.giggle) pages to follow our journey.

Have a great & giggly-filled weekend :-)

Come visit us at The Littlest Funfair

Yay we'll be participating in our very first event. If you're looking for something fun to do with your kids, hop on over to The Littlest Funfair and come say "Hi" to us :-)

Date: Sunday, 14 August 2016
Time: 12pm - 6pm
Venue: Space.Toccata, SS2 Petaling Jaya

Here's a sneak peak of what's in store for the little people:

1. Make an octopus softie - engage your crafty side and make your very own octopus softie. If a 6-year old can do it, so can you :p

2. Play a game of 5 stones (batu seremban) - do you remember how this traditional game is played? Fear not, we'll be there to refresh your childhood memories. Teach your kids to play too, and challenge them to a game :-)

3. Buy a charity bear, and support our charity bear drive. For every bear purchased, one will be donated to children undergoing long-term treatment in our local hospitals!

We hope to see you there!

What is a Waldorf doll?

We will be making Waldorf-inspired dolls. We want dolls that are made for children, not plastic "Barbie" that exposes young children to stereotypes. We want to make dolls that are cuddly, have simple faces and that our children can culturally identify with. There is a lot of hard work and love that goes into making such dolls, but we believe that the effort will be worthwhile when we see the smiles on the children's faces.

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What is a Waldorf doll?

An extract from "A Waldorf Doll and its Role in a Child’s Development" by Daria - NobbyOrganics

A Waldorf doll is a type of doll used in Waldorf education. It is usually handmade from natural fibers and materials like wool, silk, and cotton, using traditional European doll-making techniques. Natural fibers are warm to the touch and feel more real, compared to synthetic and plastic materials used in the commercially produced dolls.  The wool stuffing absorbs the child’s warmth, producing a soothing effect. Its facial features are intentionally made very simple, which helps to spark the child’s imagination. Depending on the child’s mood, the doll can be happy, sleepy, sad, or even angry and crying. 

A Waldorf doll is much more than just a toy; it’s a link between two worlds, the child’s and the adult’s. Children have a natural desire to imitate their parents’ behavior. They love to pretend to be doctors, teachers, cooks etc. and dolls usually become the first props in their pretend play. Doll play helps to develop language and social skills, making children more creative and less aggressive. By dressing and feeding dolls, children also further develop motor skills and coordination. Doll playing allows children to practice their future roles as adults, helping them develop love and care for other people. A Waldorf Doll becomes a friend, a true companion with whom a child shares her (or his) feelings, hopes, dreams, and adventures.

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I also love these quotes, which so aptly summarise the beauty of the Waldorf doll.

“As the child nurtures & mothers the doll, he is – not simply metaphorically but also in reality – caring for himself. It is important therefore, that we offer a doll that closely resembles him/her, not so much in features but rather in proportion. The child’s “felt experience” of the doll will remain with him/her. So let’s keep the doll simple, proportional & tactilely truthful.” - Shariffa Oppenheimer in regards to Waldorf dolls

“When they are fashioned simply, they make the entire range of human appearance possible through the child’s imagination.” - Jaffke Freya, Toymaking With Children

“They are real ‘child dolls’ not because they mimic exactly the features and form of an individual as many of the tough plastic toys available today try to do, but because they reflect the inner softness and warmth both of their maker and their owner.” - Maricristin Sealey, Making Waldorf Dolls

I also love this video by Bamboletta on how a Waldorf-style doll is made. We hope to make a similar video of our very own doll-making studio one day :-)

Stay tune for our upcoming Charity Bear Workshop

Here's a snippet of what you'll be learning in our upcoming Charity Bear Sewing Workshop, which is part of Project Rainflower, our first community project :-)

Stay tune for details of the workshop!

Introducing Project Rainflower: A Charity Bear Project

Putting together a product portfolio takes time, finding the right community partners to work with also takes time. We will hence start with small projects. Every project will be dedicated to a specific charitable cause that is children related of course :-)

We'd like to introduce our first project.

Project #1: Project Rainflower

Project Rainflower is a charity bear drive dedicated to the brave young children undergoing long-term treatment in hospitals across Klang Valley, to provide them with much-needed comfort, distraction and joy while undergoing a difficult and often scary experience during a hospital stay.

This is how you can help:

(1) Come join us in our Charity Bear Sewing Workshop

• Learn to sew a bear for yourself or your loved one
• All materials will be provided - you may choose to bring home your bear or donate it to the Project
• For every paid participant, we will donate one charity bear to the Project

Our very first workshop series will be done in collaboration with Sewist Nest. Noor has kindly offered us a few slots to run our workshop at Petrosains, under Petrosains "The Good Workshop Series". Stay tune for details of the workshop.

(2) Engage your crafty side and sew a bear softie for the Project. Please email us at stitch.a.giggle@gmail.com if you wish to participate, including the number of bear softies you'd like to pledge, or any questions you may have.

Happy stitching & thanks a giggle!

Survey: Demand for handmade toys for young children

We, as mothers, know what we look for when buying toys for our kids. I'll reserve that for another post as I think there is a lot to talk about when it comes to choosing the right / best toys for young children. Just to make sure that we don't 'shiok sendiri', we're currently doing a market survey on the demand for high quality handmade toys. We would appreciate if you could spare several minutes of your time to fill up our survey, and forward the same to your friends with young children (and also nudging them to respond). This will help us greatly in developing our business plan to move the project forward.

The link to the survey is as follows:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NVRTV9X

Thank you in advance for your valuable feedback :-)

Who's behind Stitch.A.Giggle

I generally prefer to work behind the scene. Friends who know me know that I loathe being in the spotlight but sometimes you have no choice. Especially when you're in business, people want to know who's behind the brand. So here goes...

We are a sister duo - Li Ai (aka momstermommy) and Lynn.

• Li Ai previously worked for a boutique management consulting firm. After spending more than 10 years advising corporate clients, she now wants to focus on building a business with a social conscience. She will be responsible for business and market development.  
• Lynn is the founder and principal of a well established preschool in KL. She is extremely passionate about early childhood education and is a strong proponent of learning through play. With her artistic and natural flair for all things crafty, Lynn will be the creative director of Stitch.A.Giggle.

We're also supported by Poppy Sara, our very talented mom (she can bake. she can sew, she can dance, etc.). If anyone deserves a "Best Mommy of the Year" award, it would definitely have to be Poppy. She's the best mother and grandmother you can ever have as we can always count on her to stand in for us, especially me who's extremely hopeless when it comes to running household errands. Our sewing journey would also not have started if not for her. She was the one who showed us how to set up and operate the sewing machine, and taught us the very basics to get started.

Looking for women artisans

Now that we've gotten the basics of how to construct patterns for soft toy making, we're ready to embark on our next step, i.e. to find potential sewing partners. We would like to work with single mothers or underprivileged women who'd be interested to work with us to handcraft our toys. Since we do not currently have the capacity to conduct training, we'd preferably like to work with those who already know how to sew and/or have their own sewing machine.

We've so far gotten in touch with Sewist Nest, YWCA Vocational Training Opportunity Centre and PSPK Sewing Training Centre. Hopefully we'd be able to work something out...

If you know of any women from our target group who may be interested to be our sewing partner, please contact us a stitch.a.giggle@gmail.com

Thanks a giggle :-)

Helping underprivileged women and why skills training is not enough

Sewing is so addictive. The more I sew, the more I want to sew! I feel so inspired looking at all those creative ideas out there... how do people function before google and pinterest?!!

Hubs said he's never seen me so satisfied and happy with my previous job as a management consultant. Mom jokingly commented today how she finds it funny that someone so educated ends up wanting to sew for a living. I'm not sewing for a living, mom, I'm building a social enterprise. I want to help others sew for a living, to empower women :-)

While searching for NGOs and other social enterprises to work with (we want to engage underprivileged women as sewing partners), we found that there had been many programmes / NGOs that offered skills / vocational training in sewing for underprivileged women. However, most programmes have terminated due to a lack of success. Many women who have been trained have not had any success in making a decent living with the skills they acquired.

Why?  
Two main issues we see: (1) Lack of understanding of customers' needs; (2) Lack of market access.

You can be a good sewist, but now knowing what to sew (i.e. what's in demand and what sells) and not knowing how to brand and market your products will not get you anywhere. It's akin to teaching someone to fish but not giving them access to waters to fish...

Here comes Stitch.A.Giggle :-)

We do not wish to replicate the good work that is already out there. We want to leverage on existing programmes and platforms, e.g. for the provision of training. Our forte is in market research, product design and marketing. These are the areas we want to focus on.

We want to create a strong brand that is associated with top notch design and quality, to create children products that are highly desirable by mothers and anyone looking for that special gift for newborns, birthdays, etc.

That is our dream... we will get there slowly but surely. Now back to more sewing and experimenting with new designs :p