Khaw’s Story
Khaw is the other superstar stitcher. She and her family sought refuge in Kansas City from Myanmar three years ago. I first met her when David, the head pastor of the church, came to our studio to introduce her as another stitcher who had “some skill.” After our experience working with David’s wife Esther, we took his claims about Khaw’s skill very seriously.
Khaw and Esther always arrived at the studio together. Their masks, and the perfect craftsmanship behind them, were indistinguishable. I had to ask them to put their names on their masks so I could keep track of their work. While Esther would smile wide and bounce into the workshop to chat with the fabric cutters, Khaw would offer a quiet smile and wait for me to provide instructions, direction on the next task, or whatever other words she felt she needed to listen to. Since her English was limited, she would speak to me through Esther or David.
Before Madison Flitch, she found work at an automobile upholstery factory, working odd shifts in the afternoon and nights. She found time to make the masks between her work and watching her two children. Like Esther, she could produce hundreds of perfect masks in 2-3 days. We relied on her, and Esther, for fulfilling the most important orders, but I worried we were giving her too much work.
David always brought Esther and Khaw to the studio when they dropped off the masks. While Esther went off to chat, David would ask me how much work the fabric cutters had. “Do they have too much to cut?” “Are they very busy?” “Do they get tired?” Thinking he was concerned about their welfare, I always assured him we made every effort to make them comfortable. After many such conversations, Ru, one of the fabric cutters who spoke English and understood American ways of thinking, pulled me aside to tell me, directly, that David was asking if there was a job in the studio available for Khaw. The reason Esther darted away into the workshop was so David could ask the “Boss” for a job on behalf of Khaw.
We had begun the planning stages for Madison Stitch when Ru finally alerted me Khaw’s interest. I knew we needed help in the studio, so we brought Khaw in to learn everything about the operation and to see what she could do before we launched. During that period, she made a small handbag from the scraps of our linen dyeing experiments. The bottom of the bag was pleated, which made it bob on the hand with surprising whimsy. She could design, too.
Khaw is now one of our in-studio stitchers, working full time for Madison Stitch. She makes the face masks, still, but will make many of our hand bags in linen and leather — along with own her own hand bag, of course.
