Piecework

This installation explores how the domestic sphere—long framed as a symbol of feminine confinement—was also a dynamic site of economic resilience, creativity, and survival. Through the intimate acts of sewing, quilting, embroidery, and mending, women transformed their homes into entrepreneurial sites and artistic workshops. One key form of this labor was piecework—a system in which women were paid per garment, allowing them to earn income from home while juggling caregiving and domestic responsibilities. Yet despite its cultural and economic value, this labor was often dismissed as unskilled and was grossly underpaid, revealing the broader systemic devaluation of women’s work. A contemporary version of piecework still prevails today. By drawing parallels between historical textile labor and today’s resurgence of craft-based livelihoods, this project honors the ingenuity of domestic work while confronting enduring inequities in how gendered labor is seen, paid, and remembered. 

I’ve created a wall quilt telling the story of a home turned workshop. This piece is my own ode to women’s craft that has been predominantly confined to domestic settings. From the kitchen table becoming a sewing station, old bedding being cut into a dress, women have been resourcing the tangible evidence of their domestic confinement into beautiful new articles. As a home becomes a workshop granting the opportunity for payment, then the question becomes: has the economy of domestic craft become empowering or exploitative? I am visualizing the time, labor, and creative talent that has gone and still is predominantly undervalued and underpaid through my own textile based art. 

This wall quilt is a visual ode to the home-turned-workshop. Inspired by stories of kitchen tables doubling as sewing stations, and worn linens reborn as dresses, this piece commemorates the resourcefulness and beauty forged from constraint. As domestic space becomes a site of production and income, I ask: has the economy of women’s craft become empowering—or exploitative? Through my textile-based art, I aim to visualize the time, labor, and creative brilliance that has long gone underrecognized and underpaid, yet continues to stitch together women’s survival and autonomy.