USHA Silai Schools Are Breathing New Life To Discarded Clothes And Reviving Traditional Arts And Crafts

Sujani art was born out of necessity, when patches of old clothes, like saris and dhotis were stitched together to make swaddling clothes for newborn babies. These soft cloths were then embellished with motifs and designs, using colourful threads, and so, Sujani embroidery came into being.

The USHA Silai School programme has played a critical role in restoring and promoting traditional art and crafts, and some of the masters of Sujani now have their own silai schools.

The Sujani embroidery is now used for more than just babies' quilts. Sujani motifs now add colour and meaning to cushion covers, kurtas, sarees, dupattas and other items of clothing & home furnishing.

Sujani embroidery began by stitching together old saris and dhotis, and then sewing colourful threads onto them. So not only is its revival by the USHA Silai Schools keeping old clothes out of landfills, it is also empowering women in about 15 villages, including Ara, in the Bhojpur district of Bihar.

MURA COLLECTIVE with the help of USHA, is turning discarded clothes, which would earlier go to waste, into something useful and teching women the art of Shibori.

Learning Shibori will increase the quality and value of their products, enhancing their earnings and improving their lives. While making use of unwanted materials in the process will help reduce waste and promote recycling.

Shimray's idea was to recycle used clothes from the many villages near her silai school, to make fabric bags. She has been doing this since June 2021, and was joined by two women from nearby villages in collecting old clothes and stitching bags.

Shimray came to know about online training classes organised by USHA Silai School. She joined the class and learned many aspects of drafting and designing bags. Now she stitches the bags using traditional fabric that she weaves herself. Instead of simply selling traditional pieces, she incorporated some modern designs that helped her to enhance cash in-flow

Apart from bags, they also make children's dresses, shirts and shorts with the unwanted clothes collected from the village. The idea of recycling has brought a big turn-around in Shimray's life.