1/2 Manou invented Smock and Sewing, an event where you can have your smock decorated while you have a drink (photo: Megan Hanegraaf).
Anyone who celebrates carnival in Den Bosch knows: your Oeteldonk smock or jacket must be full of emblems. But often people don’t think about pinning it until a few days before the Eleventh. Manou (28) from Den Bosch saw that problem and came up with a smart solution: Smock and Sewing, an event where you can have your smock decorated while having a nice drink.
Manou only learned to sew herself two years ago, when she received her grandmother’s old sewing machine. “All my friends soon found me,” she says, laughing. “Can you make ten more emblems for carnival, they asked. People always come at the last minute, but I couldn’t say no.”
Normally, Manou would sit alone at home behind the sewing machine for days. Now she takes a different approach. Several volunteer seamstresses are waiting in a Bosch café on Saturday. Hand in your smock, add a drink, and while you chat, we work hard to fill the dozens of jackets and smocks.
“Many people take their jackets to a dry cleaner or sewing workshop, but it is so busy there for Eleventh of the Eleventh and carnival. Then there are hundreds of jackets hanging and I am afraid that mine will be lost. Here it is nice and small-scale,” says 28-year-old Bossche from behind the sewing machine.
“At many studios, the crowds make it questionable whether it will be finished on time. If you bring your coat or smock here, it will be ready on time.” And that turns out to be no unnecessary luxury.
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About 150 emblems have already been registered for this first edition. You pay 5 euros to have the emblem sewn on. The money goes to the café for the use of the space and supplies. So Manou earns nothing from it.
Some visitors come with one emblem, others with a whole stack. One of them was born and raised in Den Bosch, Daan (35). He comes with eleven emblems that all have to be on his jacket. “I can’t do it myself and every year I was too late to go to a workshop where they set them up for me. So for the past four years I haven’t had a single emblem on my jacket. It’s nice that it can now be done here and that it will be ready in time for the Eleventh of the Eleventh.”
Visitor Rowan (30) comes with two jackets: one from herself and one from her friend, who is going to celebrate carnival for the first time as a real Oeteldonker. “We met last year during carnival in Den Bosch. He had borrowed a smock from someone. But for the Eleventh of the Eleventh I thought he should buy a smock with personal emblems himself,” she says.
“For many residents of Den Bosch, the smock is more than just a piece of clothing. I really didn’t want one before, because I am officially from Boxtel. But now I really like it. Each emblem tells a story of a café, an event or a personal memory.”
“Everyone wants to belong and wear a smock.”
66-year-old Jetty sits behind the machine. She is one of the volunteers who attaches the decals. Throughout her life she sewed hundreds of carnival emblems on smocks and jackets. “In the past, the sewing studio where I worked was always extra busy around Carnival,” she says. Yet she sees a big difference from the past.
“It has become so busy these days during carnival in Den Bosch. Everyone wants to fit in and wear a smock. So everyone also wants to get those emblems on in time,” she says while she is busy with a smock.
The event was a one-off this year, but due to high demand, the next edition is already planned. Just before carnival. “This was a kind of test,” Manou explains. “But people are already asking if we are going to do it every year. Because it is fun, but people find it especially easy that they do not have to do it themselves.”
