> [!NOTE]+ Meta > Reference:: Mark E. Balmforth, ‘Riotous Needlework: Gendered Pedagogy and a Negotiated Christian Aesthetic in the American Ceylon Mission’ in S.Anandhi and Aarti Kawlra edited, Review of Development and Change Vol. 23 No 2 (July - December), pp. 63-92, 2018. > Date:: 2018 > Tags:: #warp #textiles #SriLanka > WeftLinks:: [[Equity value of craft]] > Claim:: [[Claim - Craft provides empowerment for women]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > Needlework enabled Tamil women in Sri Lanka to develop their identity. ### Highlights It was ‘the promise of jacket’ or respectability and freedom from the rules and restrictions of caste, that lured many lower caste girls, who were otherwise forbidden to wear a breast cloth, to learn sewing in Sri Lanka. The use of  distinctive stitches, colors, and motifs, including devotional verses in Tamil, found in the needlepoint samples of the Oodooville group, demonstrates that the trainees were forging a new subjecthood and identity for themselves.