http://sweetpetite.bigcartel.com
Regardless of quantity purchased, 50% of every sale will go to the International Justice Mission.
will be taking orders until December 15, and will re-open the store after the New Year.
by Cheryl
I started stitching over the summer when I was looking for a creative outlet. I never considered myself a crafty kind of person (I don’t paint, draw, knit, etc…), and up until that point, my experience with a thread and needle was limited to sewing buttons, and rather poorly. So I thought I’d expand my sewing horizons by making hacky sacks for my son. And when I got bored of making those (one can only create so many hacky sacks), I moved on to the girly stuff… Like hairclips!
My daughter received a felt hairclip as a gift, and it looked simple enough to create on my own. Best of all, no sewing machine necessary! Raw materials are basic: contour hair clips, wool felt, embroidery floss, needle, and scissors, and most of the stitching involved is even more basic. The toughest part is the detailing, but I love how so much cuteness can fit in just a little over an inch.
There is no rhyme or reason behind the nomenclature other than the fact that I love the French language and that I think it sounds prettier than English. Just for fun, I named them “Petite Fille” (fille, pronounced “FEEY”, means girl), and there are (probably grammatically incorrect but whatever) variations depending on the design… A dessert like bubble tea would be “Sweet Fille”, a city-inspired one called “Urban Fille”, etc. Yay for franglais! Anyway…
A lot of folks have encouraged me to sell these creations, and I hope to do just that in time for the holidays, with 50% of every sale donated to the International Justice Mission – a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of sexual exploitation, slavery, and other forms of violent oppression. The IJM story is of the “good-triumphs-evil” variety that you’d find in a novel. Only this is for real. They organize victim rescue and aftercare, prosecute the perpetrators, and promote functioning public justice systems.
My heart breaks for these victims who are abused beyond measure and who are crying out for rescue. How can it be that centuries after the “abolition of slavery”, there are 27 million slaves in the world today? Most of them children?
These simple little hair clips, fun as they are to make, have become a vehicle for me to pray for the ones whose stories aren’t being told… to spread the word on an issue that gets no airtime in today’s “news”… to incite the able to help the unable. Did you know that it costs $500 to help rescue a slave? The abolition of the modern day slave trade seems worlds away, and I suppose for now I’ll start with a small step of faith.
What do you think?
photograph by Eric Kim
you’ll be able to purchase these clips soon online, we’ll update on the shop soon as its running…
painted by Yonnie Cheng…
one of my favorite things to do is paint and i love using Art to express my heart. i pray by painting also, i call it creative worship. painting is just one the mediums that i use to spend time with God. its a great tool to search out the heart and get your spirit to connect with God.
i really love yonnie’s paintings, you can tell her paintings are expressions from her heart, there is a rawness about it, which i really love. most of her paintings are straight forward with a message.
i will be posting more of her work in near future, also i am planning on using her paintings to make some prints, posters and cards…
