New design, New store, and a new face!!

The newest design...AFRICA!! I've been wanting to unveil our newest design for many months now, but we've been so busy filling orders for people and stores! What a great problem to have, being busy.  We have had a great response over our new design, Africa.  We hope people who purchase the Africa bibs will feel the love that we're sending from Uganda.  The LIFTED ladies were very excited about sewing on the continent of Africa and celebrating their beautiful country Uganda.  It's also been a wonderful geography/map lesson for the ladies.  We have been able to discuss where Uganda lies on the map as well as other African countries. 

The newest store..........MISH MASH! It's been such an amazing time in LIFTED these last few months.  We are now in 2 stores in Kampala, Banana Boat and now Mish Mash.  If you live in Kampala, UG. or are planning a visit, I hope you can pop into these stores and see all the unique and funky crafts for sale.  The best part of all is the crafts sold in these stores are all hand made by Ugandans and a few Kenyan groups.  By purchasing these crafts you are supporting mama's, aunties, jaja's (g-ma's/g-pa's), fathers, and young girls.  With the money received from their handicrafts they are able to provide for their families.  Before you head to Target or Wal-Mart and buy baby bibs, think about making a purchase that is TRULY making a difference in people's lives.  LIFTED baby bibs are a bit more expensive than your average factory made bib, yes for sure...but you can KNOW that your hard earned money is going to women who are struggling daily to eat and give their kids a brighter future.  The next blog post I'll be sharing about the difference LIFTED is making in the lives of the 4 ladies on board. 
 

The newest lady........CAROL!  Due to our increase in orders in the States and here in Kampala, we were privileged to welcome another lady into LIFTED.  Meet Carol and her son Felix.  I met Carol a month and half ago after our good friends at Sojourn had gotten to know her and felt she'd be a great addition to our group.  We couldn't agree more and we are excited to have her with us as she's already shown us she's a hard worker and a quick learner.  Carol is struggling to make a better life for her children and also trying to help out with caring for her mother in the village.  Carol is already receiving some small income from the work she's done since being trained at LIFTED.  Her hand stitching is improving every week and she's excited to be able to create the beautiful LIFTED baby bib on a machine of her own one day. 

Stay tuned for more bib designs and hopefully an expansion of products.  We are also hoping and praying about purchasing a industrial-style sewing machine so the stitching can be faster and stronger and allow us to make the bib design even better. 

Thanks for supporting the LIFTED Uganda moms: Miriam, Jane, Mary, Medina and now Carol!!!!

peace & love,
Katie B.






 

LIFTED Uganda update

          LIFTED Uganda has amazing and wonderful news!!!! 

Since the beginning of the idea of LIFTED Uganda I have dreamt of one day getting our ‘crafts’ into a very big tourist store here in Kampala.  I can’t say I really thought it would happen because I wasn’t sure how far the bibs would go as far as popularity.  Well, dreams have come true and prayers have been answered for me, my sister, and the LIFTED ladies!!!




Mary training Miriam, another LIFTED lady!



Jane, our newest LIFTED lady!!

The LIFTED Uganda bibs have made it into the store, Banana Boat!! After a lot of hard work from the women, we managed to build a stock pile of about 30 bibs.  I wanted to have 50 bibs on hand but they have become so popular that I kept selling them to random people along the way.  I dropped off the samples to the manager and waited for the email to let us know if they would accept them and sell them in the store.  Within 1 week I got a response and the owner purchased 14 bibs!! I told the LIFTED ladies to pray hard that the bibs would sell and that the store would want to order more.  Two weeks passed and I didn’t hear back from the owner until finally I got an email with an order for 36 bibs!!!  YAY!!!    We were so stoked!!! But since it was just before the holidays we didn’t have many bibs available, so the sew fest began!!! I had 2 of the ladies who were the best trained, come to our house off and on for the week and they busted out all 36 bibs.  It was a lot of work at once but it gave the ladies the chance to perfect their sewing skills and gain some speed too.  We even decided to start practicing on the electric sewing machine that I was given.  We now have 1 lady who is doing very well on the electric machine and another lady who is fantastic at hand stitching.  Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Paska since the stitching and sewing was too difficult for her, but since we gained this store as a hopeful consistent client we were able to bring 2 other ladies on.  We now have Alice in Arua, Mary, Medina, Jane and Miriam all from Kampala who are a part of the Sojourn Community/church. 





Medina is practicing stitching



We are super thrilled about this chance to spread the word about LIFTED bibs! Banana boat is a very popular tourist shop that has 3 locations throughout Kampala.  The store attracks many tourists from around the world and it’s awesome to think that LIFTED bibs are being worn by babies in China, Australia, Spain, Ireland…..the list goes on!!! How cool is that!!



Mary, Katie, and Jane at our house during our SEWFEST!!