My grandmother was gifted with her hands, from cooking, baking, cleaning, to what she loved the most, sewing. In Jamaica, my grandmother worked in a garment factory, where she spent her days using a sewing machine to stitch a specific part of a shirt on an assembly line. There she honed her craft with precision and skill. At home, she would use her hands to create handmade clothing and mend holes, as store-bought clothing was often expensive. I vividly remember the sewing machine sitting on my grandmother’s bed, surrounded by stitched skirts and laces on chairs waiting their turn to be worked on by her hands. Often, during a few stolen moments in the day and especially at night, I would find my grandmother bent over her machine and hear the rhythmic “clack clack” sound as the fabric glided through. This shirt is one of the many that my grandmother made. She often used bold colors and flowery patterns to make her clothing. Even when she came to the U.S.A. and was able to financially afford store-brought clothing, she would still sit at her machine, contemplatively humming away.  

– Simone Gordon

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant