Piece By Piece

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Words & Melody:  Mary Jane Field
Arranged:  Mary Jane Field & Miguel Heatwole 2006

Every December members of the Solidarity Choir join with the Fair Wear Campaign to sing modified christmas carols in Sydney's Pitt Street shopping mall. The familiar tunes carry a new message that encourages shoppers not to buy from companies that brutally exploit the women who sew the clothes for pathetically low wages. At these events we are joined by the outworkers themselves which always gives us a special feeling. Also present at these events is song writer Mary Jane Field whose remarkable song about the issue has been enthusiastically embraced by our choir. We feel honoured by our collaboration with her and with the Fair Wear campaign.

My rest will come at the midnight hour
When I make my quota of lines and seams
But sleep won't bring the rest I need
I keep counting pieces in my dreams

Each piece brings me closer to my heart's true goal
A home for my family with a room of my own
And a place to keep the bolts of cloth
In a corner where I tally up the pieces i've sewn

But piece by piece and day by day
My dream seems a little bit further away
Seam by seam and line by line
I get ahead then I fall behind
Piece by piece and day by day
I'm stitching up my story and I'll have my say

I never know where my pieces go
They're just one part of a fancy design
You may see them as a dress one day
But I'll only see them as a dream in my mind

And I never seem to leave this place
The light bulb tells me if it's day or night
I make my pieces, I count them up
And someone comes to check them to see that they're right

A fair wage you ask, but I don't know what that means
And I can't stop sewing so it's easier to stay
To stay right here with the pieces of my life
While the shuttle and the wheel mark the pace of my days