Nydia Novoa Sancho, Marylou Santoro & Arlene Brill

This week's episode features stories about family fabric arts traditions, sewing for charity, and the garment design industry with Nydia Novoa Sancho, Marylou Santoro, and Arlene Brill. Interviews with Ms. Sancho and Ms. Brill were recorded at the Pelham Art Center on Feb 29th. The interview with Marylou Santoro was recorded at Kennedy Catholic High School on Feb. 23th  with the Northern Star Quilters Guild.

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Sewing Community is part of ArtsWestchester's Folk Arts Program, made possible in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.   

Transcript

Nydia Novoa Sancho
Nydia Novoa Sancho. Currently I’m living in Southern Westchester, in Scarsdale, but it is really New Rochelle. My family has been here since about 1927. They came from Puerto Rico. My grandmother had been a teacher there because she finished High School and you could become a teacher after High School or the Middle School. I don’t even know what it was. She has a big diploma. Her name was Carmen Rodriquez Fischer. She came to New York. Her husband at the time was a man named Pablo Rosa. Pablo worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, what they call ebanista in Spanish, but its cabinet maker, on boats. Carmen came. She had been a teacher in Puerto Rico. She came by herself to meet him here. She worked in a factory on 106th Street and 3rd Ave. And then they thought she was very talented with the sewing so they had her assist the designer and she became the person that made the first dress for the designer. I love that part. From there, she went to work in the factories and she started organizing unions. ILGWU (The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union). And she also worked with a specific local, Local 91, the Children’s Dress Makers. She also worked for a company called Joseph Love at the time. They made beautiful children’s clothes. And my cousin worked there too when she came from Puerto Rico. My mother and my aunt used to make the hems on silk scarves. The whole family did that when they were young, in the 30s. And they had to make the hem by hand. So they all had the handy crafts of working with fabrics. This is what they learned. They knew how to do it and they would earn extra money. A nickel for a scarf or something like that. And my great grandmother did it too. So they all lived together in East Harlem. I grew up mostly in Queens, but first I lived in Central Harlem. Above 125th street. My aunt and my mother and my grandmother, they all lived in East Harlem and then they moved to the West side. It was alike a big deal, they moved to the West side. El Barrio, that is what they called it. Then my mother worked in the fashion industry because she was a bookkeeper. But then she brought my cousin in from Puerto Rico and she worked as a receptionist. She was very good looking and she could wear the clothes. They worked in a very famous company called David Crystal. It also was Izod Lacoste. They called it Izod Lacoste. And they had the little shirts with the alligator. I was telling Arlene…I said my father used to wear in the 50s and 60s these shirts with the little alligator and I thought it was so stupid. Little alligators! Because my mother could get them at a very low price. She worked on 7th Ave and 34th or 35th Street or something like that. And she used to buy me clothes. Bring me clothes and I would say “oh no mom. Nobody wears this.” They were very high fashion clothes and I didn’t know it. But once in a while there would be something that I liked. A very fine cotton. I had a great dress that was from there. It was a low  front and had a low back. Black. The little black dress. I had that in 1966, something like that. I used to wear that a lot. That was a really gorgeous dress and it was from David Crystal.

I am a crazy lady. When I was in High School I remember making outfits. One or two outfits I remember very clearly…going to a party with something that I made up. But the sewing…I have the sewing machine and fabrics in my basement because I am going back to it. My daughter was sewing in school. They gave it to her in Middle School. For Christmas I bought her a sewing machine and that was like the pride of my grandmother. She loved that. That my daughter would sew. Her great grandmother was like “she wants to sew?” But she taught us all how to crochet, we know how to knit. We know a little bit of weaving. All of us. We are all into it because of the family. A family of fiber arts people 

Marylou Santoro
Marylou Santoro. I grew up in the Bronx and lived there until I got married. Then moved to Putnam County and then relocated down to Westchester County. I currently live in Yorktown Heights. I got into sewing from a Junior High School sewing class. As a kid I was also taught to do some embroidery, knit and crochet. For a period of time I made my own clothes as was the custom until I moved on. I went to college and I didn’t have time for that kind of stuff. When I had my kids, I started sewing again because it was a fun thing to do…to make little baby clothes and little kids clothes. When my kids were all grown and out of the house and when I was working and doing different things, I started to get involved in some voluntary programs, where I began to knit and crochet and make dresses for different organizations. Basically, that is where I am right now. I look for different places where I can do something creative and find people who need some help. I’ve made sweaters. I’ve made dresses. Scarves, hats, and a variety of different things. 

 Currently, of course, is Project Linus where I make blankets, quilts, crochet, whatever. I’ve done things for an organization called Knit for Kids. I would make sweaters and hats for that. I’ve made hats for homeless shelters. Little dresses for Africa, which I still do sometimes when I have time and enough fabric to make dresses. Lion brand  yarn has partnered with an organization Stomp out Bullying, and I do blue hats and send to them. The American Heart Association used to collect infant red hats during the month of February. They are no longer doing that. But there is another organization that is called Period of Purple Crying. They make hats for babies who are colicky so that people understand that sometimes babies are colicky. I’ve supported them in different ways. I feel rather than just donating money, I’ve made something for somebody and I think that is more important.  Because I feel that an individual is getting an item of clothing or something they need. Money doesn’t always go to that resource. 

I thought it was a great opportunity to participate in a big art project. And after seeing some of the stuff online I was so impressed that I said “that’s what I’ve got to do.” I am looking forward to going down to White Plains. I would like to see not the completed project…I want to see as it goes up in construction, or however you display it. I am fascinated with the whole idea of doing something in textiles that is totally different. 

Arlene Brill
Arlene, and the last name is Brill. I grew up in Brooklyn, then Manhattan, then went to New Jersey, then went to California…Los Angeles area. And stayed in California for 30 years. Only came back last June. And I live on City Island. 

 I was a designer my whole career. As a designer you did everything. I know how to do pattern making…cause we had to supervise the sewing of the first samples. Anything that had to be done with producing a line…basically a line of garments. Picking fabrics, of course. And that would depend on what company you worked for and what you did. I ended up mostly in Children’s wear and a lot of knits. Knits work differently than wovens. I worked for a long time for HealthTex, which a lot of the older people know about. It was around forever and ever. And they did wovens and then later they did knits. 

 So I went to FIT. At that time it was a two year course and I was in the design area. So in that I learned draping, pattern making, basically making a garment, showing it, getting it into a show….cause that is what you did…like a runway show. 

When I worked in Manhattan, which was most of that time…it would be in a showroom setting. I had an office and I had a sample maker. Sometimes somebody to do the patterns for me. In the beginning, I did my own patterns. Then I got too busy so people did the patterns for me, cut them out and sewed them and I oversaw the whole thing. 

 So basically you have a pattern making program. You would have basic blocks, fronts, backs, sleeves, pants, skirts, dresses. From the basic block you would develop everything. Then of course, after a while, you didn’t go to the basic blocks. I had files and files of things that I did. Then you would say “this looks like that” and then refer to that, to make that. I also had people working under me and you would say, “use that pattern to develop that.” That was interesting because you are doing it on your computer and then you would plot it, pretty much like a blueprint. So you’d have a big plot, like a 36-inch plotter and that would print out the patterns. You’d cut them out and see what they look like true size. Sometimes, if it was complicated, I would just take the pattern and pin it together and look at it to see before I would cut it in fabric…somebody would cut it for me, but I would look at it. And you know it is funny, because you because you were asking me and I don’t even know what I know, but that is just because of working with it. That’s just experience. And it is different from home sewing. It is very different.