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What It Takes to Make a Bag

impactcommunity
Sep 21, 2016
2 min read

The materials needed to make IMPACT Bags are not available in our area, and trips must be made hours away by plane, train, and automobile to buy the needed supplies in bulk.

Last week, Regina and Emily made the trip north to Rajasthan to shop for fabric to be used to make these bags. This trip involved traveling by train to Hyderabad, by plane to Jaipur, and by bus to Ajmer. Once the shopping was completed, the two intrepid travelers lugged back approximately 50 lbs of fabric and other supplies back south via a 30-hour train trip.

Jaipur is a shoppers paradise, especially for fabrics. The first stop was Rangotri Block Printed Textiles, where they met with the founder and owner Mr. Joshi. The business is a wholesale exporter of traditionally made hand block printed fabric, but IMPACT was allowed to browse through the smaller pieces of “scrap” and purchase at a discount.

The second stop was Baquat Fabrics, a family-run fabric shop that offered a wide variety of ethic print fabrics sold by the meter.

The last stop in Jaipur was in a downstairs shopping area known as Sikar House. There, hard-to-find animal print fabrics were in ready supply and the sellers were anxious to bargain.

The next shopping destination was a two-hour bus ride away in Ajmer. Now that Regina and Emily had a large supply of printed fabrics for the outside of the bags, it was time to shop for lining material and buckram for the inside of the bags. Ajmer was the best place to buy these supplies at a reasonable price.

The two women navigated the shopping lanes of Old Ajmer, while dodging enthusiastic Ganesha Chathurthi celebration, to find the perfect colors for the IMPACT bags. They had taken small swatches of printed fabric to match up lining colors.

On the whole, it was an exhausting but rewarding trip. The ladies at the sewing center were quite excited to go through all the fabrics that had been brought for them to use in making IMPACT bags. Ideas were already flowing for mixing and matching the fabrics into their latest creations.