She's Threading The Astoria Community From A Room On Broadway

ASTORIA, QUEENS — On a recent Thursday morning in Astoria, Claudia Germain was the head of a table surrounded by women with thread and needle in hand. One of the women even had a cooing baby in her arms, rocking her child to sleep while focusing on Germain's manicured but busy hands.

Germaine gathered the women, some of them recently arrived from Central America, to teach them a valuable skill that can save them a pretty penny in the city: sewing.

A seamstress at heart, Germaine is hosting free classes every week for the community at the Salvation Army in Astoria. The 65-year-old is threading longtime residents with newcomers lesson by lesson, from learning how to sew on a button to hemming a pair of pants.

"We’re underestimating how many people don't know how to sew," Germaine told Patch. "It's good to pass it on to younger generations. I was forced to learn, but I’m grateful my mom taught me."

Germaine, an employee at The Salvation Army, first started the class five years ago after the Astoria location received a donation of sewing machines. Shortly after, the 65-year-old moved to Newburgh, but she restarted the class in Astoria when she returned last fall.

For migrants arriving from Ecuador, Mexico and other countries, the branch on Broadway has become a small supplement via word of mouth. The food pantry and free classes are temporary life hacks for people regaining their footing in a city overrun with inflation and cavalier personalities.

Many of the women were enjoying a hot bowl of sancocho, a type of meat stew, served by the staff on a rare chilly May day before locking in their attention to Germaine's class. Although the lessons welcome both sexes, only women showed up that day.

One of them served as a Spanish translator for Germaine, who teaches the class smoothly despite not speaking the language. That day, she had six students eager to learn how to hem their pants. Tailors make the same alterations for anywhere between $15 to $30.

"It's so hard to buy clothes that are actually made for my body type, since I’m short and the clothes here are too long," said Mitci Macias, from Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas in Ecuador, now living in the city. "I don't have to go to the tailor anymore, and this saves me a lot of money."

Germaine, who's also a pastor in several Salvation Army locations, took a pair of her husband's pants to the class and showed how to cut, pin, and stitch the bottom ends properly. The students mimicked her moves on a separate piece of cloth.

She used her pastoral umph to evoke a sense of urgency and agency during the hour-and-a-half class, reminding the women how this basic skill can go a long way in a city bereft of people who know how to sew on a button.

Germaine's sewing talents started more than 1,500 miles away. She was born and raised in Antigua, where her mother was a seamstress and made clothes for the slew of tourists in the Caribbean island.

By the time Germaine was 13, she was already a pro. She moved to the US in the late 1990s with her husband and is now settled in Long Island.

She spends most of her days helping out in shelters in Queens and Brooklyn, but she sees her sewing class as something much more than just a job. Despite being on vacation in early June, Germaine still showed up to the Astoria location to give the class and keep the sense of community alive.

"My motto is ‘each one teaches one.’ If I teach them what I know, they can teach somebody else," Germaine said. "The economy is bad, so they can use this to bring in money for their families."