90 year old granny still uses her 1952 sewing machine to make clothes
Taking a customer's measurements. PHOTO/CHEBET CAROLINE
What you need to know:
- Unlike her few surviving age-mates who may not be strong enough to peddle a sewing machine, Lucia Mwihaki Kamau burns her mid-night oil cutting fabrics and joining the pieces together to come up with great designs.
- She says that poverty and the need to dress her seven children neatly drove her into tailoring and design.
- Her husband bought her a Singer sewing machine in 1952 which she uses to date.
- Though slowed by age, Lucia’s love for sewing never died and she has now retreated to her bedroom inside her daughter’s house at Kiamunyeki farm where she sews as a pastime activity.
Lucia Mwihaki Kamau is a 90-year-old grandmother whose tailoring hobby has not waned.
She spends her evenings sewing clothes in her bedroom.
Unlike her few surviving age-mates who may not be strong enough to peddle a sewing machine, Lucia Mwihaki Kamau burns her mid-night oil cutting fabrics and joining the pieces together to come up with great designs.
At her advanced age, Lucia gets a good number of orders and delivers them on time and perfectly done.
She says that poverty and the need to dress her seven children neatly drove her into tailoring and design.
MACHINE BOUGHT IN 1952
Realising his wife’s dreams, her husband bought Mwihaki a Singer sewing machine in 1952 which she uses to date.
The self-trained tailor said she learnt sewing all types of clothes including men’s trousers and school uniforms for boys and girls through buying ready-made clothes and undoing them to discover how the patches were cut.
She would then buy a roll of cloth and apply what she had learned from the ready-made clothes to come up with new dresses, shorts and shirts.
With time, she started making her own designs and got orders from her workmates at the now defunct Nakuru Municipal Council.
Her career in tailoring grew to attract orders for school uniforms from different schools within the municipality.
Though slowed by age, Lucia’s love for sewing never died and she has now retreated to her bedroom inside her daughter’s house at Kiamunyeki farm where she sews as a pastime activity.
Apart from sewing, Lucia who walks with the gait of a person 30 years younger works on the farm and weeds on the hedges around the house during the day.
She also helps in taking care of livestock on the one-acre farm.
She attributes her great condition to working hard and advises the youth to engage in sustainable in-come generating projects instead of idling and engaging in the consumption of illicit brews and drugs.
She ends by saying that hard-work has never killed anyone, therefore nobody should fear work.
