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Pillowcase Project - 12. – 17. January 2009 by Ms. Corinne and Ms. Pinky
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As part of the team-building week, we wanted to do an activity where the girls would still work in pairs and would design, create and produce an item over the course of a week. We thought producing a pillowcase would be a simple straight-forward idea that could be made in a few days, but still allowed for creativity and scope. We had the added incentive that on the last day all the pillowcases would be assessed by a panel of judges and each pair of girls would need to present their design, where their ideas came from, how they chose the colours and the techniques they used, as well as the finished work. We suggested that the pillowcases would then be sold through the Sambhali India shop.
Firstly we explained the project, what was expected of them and the time limit of a week. We provided fashion/interior design magazines to help inspire them initially and said that we would print out any shapes/objects etc from the computer if they needed anything specifically.
Each pair of girls were given 100 rupees to provide the materials for the pillowcases. They needed to get the best possible price for the items they purchases where possible and provide receipts to account for the money they spent. We said that if they spent a lot less they would get a bonus point. They would also receive a bonus point if they finished on time.
One of the students presenting her design
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The girls all went shopping on the Sunday (their day off) and enjoyed the experience of buying the fabrics and bartering and joking with the shopkeepers to try and get a good price. They had a lot of enthusiasm and got on with the project very rapidly talking together in their pairs and in groups. Half way through the week, there happened to be a Crafts Trade Fair in Jodhpur which we took the girls to. It gave them ideas from the craft items and textiles they saw, which we encouraged them to record in notebooks for future use. They also said that by going there they could interact with new people and new situations.
The project was due to finish on the Friday, but some hadn’t finished and so we extended this to the Saturday (due to having one day at the Trade Fair). We gave a small prize to the winners and the runners up.
We felt the project was very useful to get the girls to interact in pairs (one from the older girls and one from the newer group). They had the independence of using the money given wisely, and designing and creating from scratch within a time-frame. However, only 3 of the pairs actually produced pillowcases which could be comfortably used. The others were very much embellished and would be more suitable for cushion covers. We gave feedback to the girls regarding each piece before we announced the winners. We would suggest that in a future project, the girls could be advised as they were working on the project what would work for that particular piece, whether it be pillowcase, cushion cover etc. and also have advice with the design as they went along and colour schemes etc.
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The winning pillowcase
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