Buffalo Behind the Scenes: Stitch Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — What makes up the fabric of a community?

At Stitch Buffalo, it’s not a shared background, country or even language that sews community together. The people — more specifically, women from all around the world — make up the community at this Buffalo nonprofit.

Dawn Hoeg founded Stitch Buffalo a decade ago.

“I was spending a lot of time on the West Side in 2014 and running my errands seeing all the different cultures on the street — women waiting at bus stops wearing their traditional clothing,” Hoeg said. “And with my studies in textile history and textile arts and different cultures, and being a maker of textiles myself and teaching it, I thought, wow, there’s a real shared knowledge here that I could probably pull together in the means of a community workshop for women with the textile arts being the foundations. Not necessarily the language, not religion, not political … it was really about a creative foundation in textiles.”

The workshops started out as a weekly way to bring refugee and immigrant women together to learn embroidery. From there, it grew into the textile arts center it is today.

“Every day I wake up renewed and inspired to continue to push the mission forward and arrive particularly in this place where Stitch Buffalo has three programs,” Hoeg said.

In addition to the refugee women’s workshops, Stitch Buffalo has community classes open to everyone, as well as something called Second Stitch — which involves re-using and selling recycled textiles to reduce waste.

After bursting at the seams at its previous location on Niagara Street, Stitch Buffalo is now located on Plymouth Avenue.

When you walk in, you’ll be greeted by the sound of laughter and the sight of bright items like clothing, ornaments and jewelry. They’re all handmade by refugee women living in the Queen City.

“I was living in Vive La Casa, the shelter, and I met a volunteer there and she asked me, ‘What was your profession when you came here?’ ” said Munawara Sultana, a refugee from Pakistan. “I told her I was doing a business, it was a fabric business. I was doing hand-block printing with all-natural dyes. And she said, ‘Oh, I know somebody that has a place where you are totally going to love it.’ “

You’ve likely seen their products — even in the stands at Highmark Stadium.

“The most popular item you might be familiar with are the Water Buffalo Hats,” Hoeg said. “We make those here in Buffalo.”

After 10 years, Hoeg is now looking ahead at what comes next by finding additional ways to help all of the women behind the scenes. Because through them, the community of Stitch Buffalo is woven together.

“When we come here, we don’t have families here. And we Southeast Asians are so community-like, we are so socially together,” Sultana said. “So this place not only gives us economic empowerment, it’s social empowerment too.”

If you have any ideas where News 4 should go Behind the Scenes next, email us at [email protected].

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Marlee Tuskes is an award-winning anchor and reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2019. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter.

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