Sew What! Community Sewing Group is at it Again!

Our community sewing group, that meets at the Jeffersontown Public Library every 4th Thursday, has been hard at it making shoulder bags for our 2012 community service project.  So far, the students have made 167 bags since January! 

The original intent was to send bags to a Haitian orphanage to be used for school bags by the children so they would have a bag of their own for their belongings.  It turned out that the school master let us know that they had enough bags for the current school year, so I needed to look for another group who has need for the bags.

As God would have it, a group at Walnut Street Baptist Church is planning a mission trip to Applachia later in the month of May.  The group leader had asked me for any extra bags that wouldn't be needed for Haiti, so I called her and told her that I could provide her with 24 bags.  Needless to say, she was thrilled!

 One of my students called on a Saturday to say she had 11 more bags finished and could she meet me at church for pickup since she couldn't come to our April class.  I picked them up and then delivered them to Walnut Street the following Monday.  That made 35 bags for the Appalachia trip!




 

 So, at our regular class meeting last week, two more students brought plastic bag, after plastic bag, full of more shoulder bags - 132 in all!  They also brought a bag full of more Comfort Caps for two of our local cancer treatment centers (our community service project for last year)!







All of the fabric for these bags was donated to our group by a fabric store in a neighboring county.  I want to throw out a tremendous thank-you to everyone who has contributed the fabric, thread, and their sewing time to this project!  What a blessing all of you are, and will be, to the recipients who will have their very own bag for personal belongings!

I'll post another picture of the bags as soon as I can get them sorted out for a photo-shoot.  Check back in a few days to see how beautiful these bags are!

Still More Comfort Caps Delivered!

My student, Patsy, called to say she delivered 56 more comfort caps to our new hospital drop off, day before yesterday!  She and her sister, Bonnie, had made that many more and since she was going to be in the area of the hospital, she went ahead and dropped the caps off at the cancer treatment center.

Thanks so much to both of you.  You are truly amazing!

Comfort Caps Delivered!

Today, Lee and I delivered 82 comfort caps to the cancer treatment centers at Baptist Hospital East and at Suburban Hospital.  Both centers were in great need of more caps for their chemotherapy treatment centers.

Thank you so much to my Sew What! students who have made almost 200 caps, to date, for donation to the treatment centers!  You're all amazing and are a blessing to those in need of head coverings after their hair loss!

More Comfort Caps Made by Sew What! Class Member

More comfort caps!  

This is the second of my posts to brag on my Sew What! community sewing class attendees.  Patsy, one of my regular students, made more comfort caps for donation to those who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy or other reasons.  Patsy brought about 12 caps to our November class, and these 21 caps were brought to our January class.  Patsy has become a comfort cap-making machine!

All of the caps have been embellished with either iron-on or sew-on appliques or flowers or buttons.  As you can see in this photo, we love the University of Kentucky!  Go Cats!

These caps will be divided between two locations at Baptist Hospital East: the radiation treatment center and the chemotherapy treatment center.   This week, I found out about a third location that needs caps, at another local hospital's cancer treatment center.  So, I'll be donating a portion of the caps to them, also.

Thank you so much, Patsy, for your wonderful work and willingness to donate your time, fabrics, appliques and effort for those who are in such need!

More Comfort Caps Delivered to Cancer Treatment Center

We delivered 21 more comfort caps today.  The cancer treatment center got 11 and the radiation treatment center got 10.  In June, we delivered 25 caps to the cancer treatment center.  91 caps have been delivered since march!

There were only two cotton knit caps, like the stripe one, left from the original batch, so I went ahead and took in mostly polar fleece caps.  I've been told that the fleece caps are comfortable even in hot weather for those who go into cold air conditioning, or for wearing during the night. 

Lee and I took three caps to a friend last Monday, who has been newly diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer.  I let her choose what she wanted from about six different colors/styles.  She had just gotten her hair cut short, because it had started falling out after her initial chemo treatments.  We thought it would be good for her to have some caps available when the rest of her hair comes out.

I'm hoping to get some more of the cotton knit caps made and delivered during this hot season, and then we'll go back to making the polar fleece caps for colder weather.

More Comfort Caps Sewn and Serged!

Yesterday was another work day as a Master Volunteer at our Extension Service office.  There were five of us who were able to attend.  We made 30 more caps in less than 3 1/2 hours!  I'll be taking them to the radiation center to donate to anyone who needs a warm covering on their sensitive skin. I pray that through these caps, that were made with loving hands, God will bless the wearers and give them a comforting sense that there are people who really care about them and their well-being.

Comfort Caps and Baby Blankets

Our Master Clothing Workday was a great success today!  There were 11 or 12 volunteers who made 58 comfort caps (chemo caps) and 10 baby blankets for our community service sewing project.  We had an assembly line going.  Some cut out caps, some sewed caps, some serged caps.  I serged a 3-thread balanced stitch around the outer edge and some tied off the ends of the thread chains and hid them in the seam.  We spent about 4 hours completing our projects, while visiting with each other, catching up on our activities since our November training.

We had a very nice lunch, then grouped together for our "show and tell" session, presenting and discussing projects we made in our individual classes at training and some other projects we've worked on since we were together last.

Our group is made up of wonderfully talented, experienced and qualified volunteers.  Together, we log an enormous number of volunteer hours teaching others in our communities to sew.  Some of our volunteers work with children through the 4-H program and others work with adults.  We all have a love of sewing and teaching others the skills we've acquired, and thoroughly enjoy our work with the Master Clothing Volunteer program.

I plan to give these two caps to a high school classmate who was recently diagnosed with colon cancer and has been undergoing chemo treatments.  I hope she likes them and they give her some comfort.