Sewing With Nancy

It goes without saying that vacations are a wonderful bonding times for families. Today's Nancy's Corner guests and their kids take their time off far from camp grounds or theme parks. Recently, they traveled halfway around the world to teach disadvantaged young girls to sew. To share their remarkable journey please welcome Brett and Kristy Moore from Montavilla Sewing in Portland, Oregon who join us via Skype. Brett and Kristy, thanks for being with us today. Thank you for having us. You have a remarkable story how you went on a trip to Thailand but then wanted to do more. Tell our viewers how you ended up teaching in Thailand but it started as a vacation. Well, it's interesting you bring that up. We have been a third-generation business and we've been in this a long time, 64 years. We were given a trip by one of our manufacturers to Thailand. During that time, we were at a place where we felt compelled to try to give back more and make our business more missional. We were given this trip to Thailand and we just tried to ask or open doors for how we could be of use in Thailand. We ended up stumbling upon an organization called Remember Nhu. You went back to Thailand with your kids. Yes, we went there with our kids. We went on this manufacturer trip first and stayed on there with the kids and sewing in the summer of 2012 at the Remember Nhu home. Kristy, your teaching conditions weren't exactly prime. No, they weren't. You sat with the girls. These girls are fairly disadvantaged. You saved them from a life of something we don't want any of our children to have. No, it was absolutely horrific. Remember Nhu, what they do is they have the ability to find different girls and boys that are going to be sold into the sex trafficking and they're able to see which ones are going to be most at risk. They can do this by various methods depending on the culture and what it is or why it is the culture would do this. But they will rescue these kids out and put them in one of these homes. They'll give them clothing, food as well as schooling. So, what we did, was we brought machines and transformers or anything else that's needed to be able to actually give them a vocation so when they graduate from high school they have a way and a means to be able to make money instead of, again, being into the sex trafficking. It's humbling to learn of this. One of the items you made, or the girls made is a bag with cording. Yes, it's kind of a fun project, because it involves a lot of people. The cording had to be bought by the kilo. It's always just a big mass of knots. So the little girls had the chance to untangle that and cut the strips, and then they did the casing. The whole project was just a lot of fun for them. Brett, you take new machines out there, not used machines. Absolutely. I might do it differently when we go to Cambodia because I got there and I realized we had the only new machines in the country there.

all laugh

Very prestigious! Then you teach the boys how to repair them. Yes, they had some old sewing machines around that weren't working so we spent some time taking them apart and showing them how to do timing and tension and how to repair machines. Kristy, you said that your kids were the photographer and the journal keepers respectively, I believe. Yes, my son was in charge of videography and my daughter was in charge of photography. Of course, while they're actually capturing the various moments their hearts, in the process, were being captured. It was really an incredible experience. One of those things that you just can't even compare it. They have to experience it for themselves. You told me a very touching story earlier when you would ask your kids what they thought of this experience. Could you share that with our viewers, please? Yes, it was when we were on our trip to Thailand. We were at the airport coming back home after we had been there for several weeks. I asked them both, I said, what did you think of our trip. They said, well, mom and dad, this is what's going on. When we see Grandma and Grandpa, when we go back to the States and they look at us, and they'll see our faces they'll recognize us. But if all that they could see was our hearts they would no longer know us. Well, what a touching way to end this interview. You really are doing wonderful service, a mission as well as teaching your kids great value. Thank you for being with us. Thank you, Nancy. If you would like to learn more about Remember Nhu

go to our website

nancyzieman.com. Click on Nancy's Corner. You'll find information listed there. We would like to thank you for being part of this two-part series. It's the first of a two-part series on "Ultimate Serger Techniques." Pam will be back next time to share more interesting ways of using an overlock and cover stitch serger. Thanks for joining me. Bye for now.