A Field Trip That Changed Me Stories of Strength, One Stitch at a Time

Earlier this month, I took a field trip to Jordan — a trip that was supposed to be about production planning, samples, and meeting our teams. But what I came home with was far more meaningful: stories, truths, laughter, heartbreak, and a deeper understanding of the women whose hands give life and soul to everything we create.

I wandered through the balad, got ripped off more times than I’ll admit, discovered new shortcuts, and sat for hours with the artisans who shape UrbanPal in ways we often forget to honor. I watched ideas turn into tangible pieces, and those pieces turn into moments stitched with intention. But the real gift of this trip came from the conversations — the ones shared over coffee, over fabric, and inside small homes that hold entire worlds within their walls.

Um Mahmoud (Baqaa) – A Legacy in Every Stitch

One afternoon, we visited Um Mahmoud in the Baqaa Refugee Camp — a visit that turned into a feast of chicken, waraq enab, juice, and coffee because she simply wouldn’t take no for an answer. Her home was humble, but warm in the way only a home built on faith, resilience, and generations of love can be.

She told me how she learned embroidery from her late mother-in-law, who had learned it from her mother, who had likely learned it from hers. A lineage of women passing down not only a craft, but a legacy.

As she unfolded her pieces in front of me, she also unfolded the truth of her experience: fashion houses that charged customers hundreds while paying her barely enough to survive. And yet, she embroidered with pride — not resentment — insisting on maintaining dignity in her work, even when dignity was not always afforded to her.

Leaving her home, carrying her stories with me, I found myself thinking deeply about Wafa in Syria and the other Um Mahmoud in Bethlehem — women I wasn’t with physically on this trip, but who somehow felt even closer as I moved through Jordan. Their lives, their challenges, and their strength echoed through every conversation I had on the ground.

Wafa – Stitching Through Hardship

I didn’t get to meet Wafa in person; she is in the Yarmouk Refugee Camp in Syria. But her presence was felt in every message, every photo, every idea exchanged.

When we agreed on the holiday ornaments she’d create, she asked softly if she could be paid in advance. Not out of mistrust — but because women had taken her work before and never paid her. Times are unimaginably tough, and every stitch she creates is tied to survival.

Her honesty shook me. And yet, her excitement never faded. Those ornaments — every bead, every thread — are more than seasonal pieces. They carry her story, her resilience, and her hope for better days.

Attaf – A Reminder of Why This Matters

During one of our long conversations, Attaf, shared a story I will never forget. She spoke of a partner seamstress whose young son ran across the street, overjoyed, when he heard Attaf was dropping off meat for Eid.

He hadn’t tasted meat in months.

These are the stories we never see on Instagram — the quiet realities that shape why we do this work. Despite everything, these women choose embroidery and tailoring because it allows them to provide for their families with dignity and pride. Their craft is not just art; it is livelihood, agency, and hope.

Um Mahmoud (Bethlehem) – Creativity as Resistance

My time in Baqaa also pulled my mind toward another woman whose strength never leaves me: Um Mahmoud from Bethlehem.

Recently widowed, she now carries the weight of sustaining her family. But her strength, creativity, and passion seem limitless. She focuses on sustainably creating items from across Palestine, and customizing pieces with her team of seamstresses and tailors.

She is building her own sustainable line — slowly, intentionally, proudly — while also taking custom requests from women across the region. Each piece she creates is shaped by her hands, but powered by something far bigger: a determination to keep going despite the daily hardships of a brutal occupation.

Her work is not just craftsmanship. It is resistance. It is survival. It is love stitched into fabric.

And somehow, even in the face of grief and struggle, she dreams boldly — imagining new designs, new collections, new futures for her family.

Heritage Carried by Women

Tatreez was once considered the embroidery of villagers — everyday threadwork rooted in rural life. Today, it has taken the world by storm. It is worn proudly, celebrated globally, and honored on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

But behind the global recognition are women like Um Mahmoud in Baqaa, Wafa in Yarmouk, Attaf’s team in Amman, and Um Mahmoud in Bethlehem — women who carry this heritage so it never fades, women who stitch history into every thread and resilience into every motif.

Every piece in Handstitched with Love carries their fingerprints, their endurance, their legacy — and the legacies of so many other women whose untold stories live quietly between each stitch.

This trip and those conversations reminded me that UrbanPal is not just a brand.

It is a bridge — between past and present, between struggle and opportunity, between heritage and hope.

And every stitch tells a story.