Islestyle

During our 2016 visit to Vanuatu we meet a young man named Stephen. Stephen took us for an insider’s tour of his village Mele. We spent the day meeting many wonderful people and we were able to immerse ourselves in the day to day lives of the people of Port Vila. At the end of the day Stephen took us to him home for a meal and to show up his workshop. Stephen is a tailor by trade and spends much of his time behind a small sewing machine making and mending clothes for his fellow villagers.

Over dinner Stephen told how he helps mend sails for local fishermen and some of the smaller boats that pass by. And how he would like to do more to help in this way. His sewing machine is just not up to the job so he must do this work by hand. His hope was to someday buy a “sewing machine capable of sewing sails, canvas and upholstery fabrics we could do repairs for the passing cruising boats.” As a way to thank him for his wonderful tour and hospitality. We promised and to bring it to him a sewing machine upon our return next year. His eyes lit up and said “only a year, what a wonderful thing to look forward to.”

Upon our return to California we began our search for a sewing machine for Stephen. Knowing nothing about sewing machines. We spent hours online and took a few trips to the local marinas to speak to sail makers about what would be needed. Most industrial sewing machines were much too large and expensive for us. We needed to keep the cost under $2000 and it needed to be small enough to fit in our checked bags. After much back and forth we settled on the Sailrite LSZ-1 sewing machine.

On April 20 2017 with the donations from our Islestyle friends. We were able to fulfill our promise and deliver to Stephen and his village of Mela a new Sailrite sewing machine with all the trimmings.