The underside of an Opportunity for Women cushion

Behind every cushion are passionate hands

Each cushion offered by Opportunity for Women has been handmade by several passionate women: weavers and seamstresses. It is therefore unique and imbued with the history of these different artisans.

The story of the cushion begins in one of the cooperatives developed by Opportunity for Women

Each cushion is woven in one of the eight Opportunity for Women cooperatives, but the manufacturing stages and raw materials vary depending on the cooperative.

  • There Dokmai collection , is woven by the Lao ethnic group in Vietnam from locally grown cotton without chemicals and dyed with local plants. The sewing is done in Seine Saint Denis by women in rehabilitation . This collection has been audited by La Belle Empreinte, the complete label for land, jobs and customers ( more information here).
  • There Niamsa collection, is made of cotton (from a supplier in the village area) dyed with local plants. Women from the Cils ethnic group in Vietnam weave the threads to form traditional patterns. The sewing is done in Vietnam in a social enterprise who helps street children.
  • There Ede collection , is woven by women from the Ede ethnic group in Vietnam. The threads come from unsold Coats stock and are Oeko-Tex certified. It is also in a social enterprise that helps street children in Vietnam that the fabrics are assembled into cushions.
  • There Boni collection is made of polyester yarns from unsold Coats Oeko-Tex certified items. These yarns were woven by women from the Jarai ethnic group in Vietnam. In Vietnam, the fabrics are transformed into cushions in a social enterprise that helps street children.
  • The Deaf&Mute collection is woven in Laos by apprentices from the Deaf&Mute center in Luang Prabang. The threads are supplied by Ban Lue , a local community in the region that grows cotton without chemicals and dyes it with plants. The sewing is done by these young girls or in France by women in rehabilitation.
  • There Walang collection is made of cotton dyed by a craftsman from Phnom Penh. The threads are woven in Mondolkiri in Cambodia by women of the Bunong ethnic group. It is in Phnom Penh in a rehabilitation workshop created by the association PSE that the fabrics are assembled into cushions.

7 steps to make a cushion from the Dokmai collection

Thanks to the audit of La Belle Empreinte, we have identified 7 steps to make a cushion in this cooperative:

1. Cotton harvest. In this cooperative, the 5 women grow cotton themselves and harvest it in November. Cotton is an annual plant planted in June at the beginning of the rainy season. There is therefore no need for additional water. The weavers have committed not to apply chemicals to the cotton plantations.

2. Separating cotton from seeds. It is with a small wooden tool that women separate the cotton seed from the fibers that look like a flower.

3. Beating cotton. The cotton fibers are beaten with a piece of bamboo.

4. Cotton spinning. The cotton fibers are then wound around a rod and spun using a spinning wheel. The bobbins are then unwound around a rod to make skeins.

5. Cotton dyeing . The skeins are then dyed with plants. Each color has its own recipe (the  blue color, the  yellow color , the orange color ).

6. Weaving the threads . The weavers then install the threads on the loom, the weft (vertical threads that are knotted together to make 40m long!) and the warp (horizontal threads). It takes a day with at least two weavers for this step. Finally, they can weave the ordered patterns.

7. Sewing the fabrics . The cushions are then assembled in France by women in rehabilitation. On the program: checking the footage and weaving, transferring the pattern, cutting the unit, assembly and hand finishing if necessary, iron-on if necessary, piping and closing, final ironing, quality check. Which would take about 25 minutes per cushion.

So it takes about 2 hours to make a cushion cover from the Dokmai collection and it is similar for the other collections.

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