Gastronomic tailoring: sweet flavors in clutch bags

As part of the vocational orientation, the DUN Association was inspired by the Pastry/Chocolate Making Activity presented by Portuguese partner Associação Social de Silveirinhos – ARCSS: a production of artistic chocolates packaged in pretty boxes. For this inspiration Dun planned to integrate the activities of the Multiethnic Tailoring Workshop with the Multiethnic Cooking Workshop. Women from the Cooking Workshop will be able to make cookies characteristic of their different countries, and women from the Tailoring Workshop will make small shoulder bags of various ethnic fabrics, which will serve as containers for the cookies. The fabric containers will be of two types: a cell phone holder and a pouch bag. Creating these artifacts will mean that the women will be able to leave a trace of themselves, their identity and their geographical place. In addition, the idea is to create an artifact that will be able to have a value independent of the consumption of the cookies, because the small bag will remain with the buyer as a symbolic container object and at the same time be functional and remain over time.

Educational activities based on multiethnic culinary arts, integrated with multiethnic tailoring techniques to support migrant women in self-awareness and empowerment projects, preparatory to a professional activity. The workshop will take place in the presence.

This workshop is addressed to migrant women of different nationalities of 20 to 50 years old.

The general objectives are for psychological support and care, social inclusion, and business start-up. The specific goals are to interweave the flavors and culinary traditions and fabrics of different countries.
To create training for future professionalism in catering and tailoring. The idea is also to create a fertile exchange between women who have chosen two different fields of training and creativity so that they can integrate them into a common activity. It is expected that the women beneficiaries will increase their self-awareness, empowerment and confidence in themselves and towards the community.

For the Cooking Workshop, food items needed to make cookies will be purchased.
For the Tailoring Workshop, fabrics and additional materials for sewing the artifacts/containers will be purchased.

For making cookies: have a professional and standardized space dedicated to cooking. Provide the women with all the food items needed for the making of the sweets.
For the making of the shoulder bags: have available a space dedicated to tailoring. Provide all the materials needed for the making of the fabric handicrafts.

Phase One: Meeting with all women from the two participating Laboratories (Kitchen and Tailoring) to describe the purpose of the project and the actions to be taken to realize it.

Phase Two: Each workshop makes its own product.

• Kitchen Workshop for the making of cookies:
  (a) each participant proposes a cookie typical of his or her country;
  (b) description of the different recipes;
  (c) provision of the ingredients needed to make the product;
  (d) preparation and baking of the cookies;
  (e) placing the cookies in food-safe wrappers.
• Tailoring workshop for making shoulder bags:
  (a) selection of ethnic fabrics typical of one’s country;
  (b) creation of the patterns to be made;
  (c) cutting the fabric;
  (d) preparation and sewing of the container bags.

Phase Three: The women from the two Workshops come together again to make the final product. The bags with cookies will be placed in the cloth bags.
In this phase it will be important to voice the emotions and experiences of this experience.

Phase Four: Helping women realize product sales. The idea is to be able to give visibility and sell these products through existing social platforms. Creating a business is an important goal to give dignity and recognition to the existence of migrant women who have to redesign their lives in the new country.

At every stage of the experience, close attention and listening will be paid to everything that happens and what the participants express about the experience they are having. This will allow continuous feedback on the creative act, which will put them in touch with deep, partly unknown aspects. This will lead to greater self-awareness and a deeper understanding of the relationship with the other. Touching personal and traumatic points can create moments of great emotion and emergence of fears related to migration wounds. In this regard, it is important to make available individual and group psychotherapeutic spaces in extra-laboratory settings dedicated to healing.

In the initial phase of the workshop, the working methods of the group are shared, which see:

• invitation to the group to make other proposals or requests.
• confidentiality;
• absence of judgment;
• free sharing of ideas regarding the overall proposal;

In the two contexts of the Cooking and Tailoring Workshops, although the number of women is substantial, it is not considered appropriate to divide the group because the purpose is to promote and create group dialogue, which creates integration among migrant women and cross-cultural comparison.

3/3 – The complexity of carrying out the proposed activity lies in the time it takes to make the two products: the food product and the tailoring product. The cookies require the time needed for preparation, baking and packaging in the food bags.
The shoulder bags require the time needed for choosing and purchasing the fabrics, choosing the pattern and making the paper pattern, cutting the fabric and sewing