Dec
In my mind a warm hug can cure everything. Ok maybe not everything. But it sure makes hard times easier to handle.
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There are a total of 5 blankets. The remaining two (not pictured) are variations of the black and white one.
Can you spot the ‘Poonchh’ logo on them? š
These blankets are a gift to my four legged friends at ‘The Voice Of Stray Dogs‘. And as such are much more than a warm hug. They are one more link in the chain of ‘Paying it Forward‘ that I started a few years ago. I used up old T-shirts that were not really fit to be worn by anyone anymore. They had holes in places, were torn and stained. Their best bet was to be relegated to being used as a floor cloth or the dustbin it would be. I have a tiny problem of wanting to use/re-use/up-cycle anything and everything before I feel I have the right to throw that perhaps still usable piece of anything away. So after some careful cutting I got to work.
These blankets did something else. They allowed me to give vocational training to two local girls from a village near my apartment complex. I did some stitching, taught them how to do some and then paid them fair wages for the same. The backing fabric on all of them are a set of curtains I had lying around for the last four years that had never been used. The girls learnt how to use a ‘needle and thread’ and then progressed to using a sewing machine. The joy in their eyes when they get the ‘stitch line’ straight is unbelievable to witness.
These blankets are not polished pieces of work. Nor are they new material. They have memories of family in each square inch. There is my shirt somewhere in there. One that I have slept peacefully in for many nights while I dreamed of possibilities. My son’s ‘BenTen’, my daughter’sĀ ‘pink’ and my husband’s ‘geek’ are in there. And of course some remnants of fabric from the first ‘The Poonchh Collection‘. They hold within their folds the tentative new beginnings for two girls who hopefully will go on to own their own future with training, skill and hard work. It is empowerment. It is a little less to worry about in a landfill somewhere.
They are layered with memories of many lives and will hopefully go on to give warmth and succour to a few more. They may not last very long. But they served a purpose infinitely more than just having started out as a new factory made t-shirt.
(The cute little doggie is Rimba š )
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
what a great idea! god bless!
What a beautiful thought!…Wish it had struck me too!!!
š Not too late- you can still do it @ Lalitha and @ Pallavi
great work. happy new year. š
love
how inspiring and touchy…!
i recently gave two of my old blankets- one to my maid and one (the slightly more withered one) to the dog that stays outside our gate.. the security guard picks it up every morning and puts it for the dog (Kallu) every evening, though he does it with lots of discontent..