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Four women sit on a wooden floor in a room, surrounded by pieces of fabric in various colors and patterns, sorting and arranging them. One woman wears a pink headscarf and a patterned top, another wears a light green top, a third wears a white patterned outfit, and the fourth wears a red top. A large open cardboard box lies in the foreground. In the background, there are shelves with bags and other items, a sewing machine on a table, and another sewing machine on a desk near a window with grilles. A chair with a patterned cloth draped over it stands near the desk.
  • 4 took part
  • 2 facilitators

Tuesday 8 September 2026

Techniques for balancing puzzle pieces

Facilitated by Mary Gracy and Shabana K H

What the work needed: people, time, money, space and materials.
What went in
Cloth pieces came from tailor offcuts from nearby tailor shops. They were cleaned and pressed.

What was done with those inputs, step by step.

During the Kantha workshop, the team faced challenges aligning puzzle pieces. They tried black and white contrasts and dark and light shades to balance the layout. Once the layout was final, participants developed technical precision. They ironed the fabrics and cut them into pieces measuring 4.5 centimetres. Then they sorted the pieces by colour palette.

What the activity directly produced: sessions held, people reached, things made.
  • Sorted pieces based on colour.

What the team will keep or change next time.

Lay the pieces out on paper before cutting fabric. Small differences in shade change how the whole layout reads. Paper is the cheap place to find that out.

LivelihoodStitching ClubMary GracyShabana K Haikyam space

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