Sew What! Community Sewing Group Sews Cute Flowers

Yesterday was another day of sewing class for our Sew What! Community Sewing group at the Jeffersontown Library.  Our regulars are so faithful in showing up month after month, and yesterday was no exception!

The class centered around making "Cute Flowers" from a class that I taught at Austin's Sewing Center in March of this year, and at the Bullitt County Cooperative Extension office in June.  These flowers are all made by hand and are great for embellishments on headbands, on purses and tote bags, as brooches, or any other application your creative mind can envision.  The rick rack flowers are taken from Kari Mecca's book, Sewing With Whimsy.  The book can be purchased on her website at www.karimeaway.com., or if you live in the Louisville, KY area you may purchase it at Austin's Sewing Center in Fern Creek.


Sew What! students had a fund workday learning new techniques on making three different flower projects: felt flowers, sheer ribbon flowers, and rick rack flowers.

 We made four layers of petals cut out of felt, then stitched them together in the center to make a pretty flower to use as embellishment on headbands, totes, purses, or as a brooch with a pinback sewn onto the back side.

This flower was made complete when some black eyelash yarn was added to the center behind the button.  (I forgot to take a photo of the completed flower - sorry!  It really looked finished with the yarn.)

 Here, students are working on cutting the felt flower petals and layers of organza to place in between the felt layers for their project.

My students are so very creative and I really enjoy seeing what ideas they come up with after I've given them some hands-on instruction!

This felt flower is the sample I made as I was going over the printed instruction sheet.  I layered the felt petals with some organza and some sparkle bridal tulle to give it a different look.  It will look good on a lilac knit top I have, or on my pink one, don't you think?

 This student had just completed her rick rack posie flower project from Kari Mecca's book.  We ran out of time to complete the other two rick rack flowers I wanted to teach, so we'll continue this class next month.

If you'd like to learn how to make these cute flowers, please join us on the fourth Thursday at the Jeffersontown Free Public Library from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.  We'd love to have you join us!

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!

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.

Community Service Sewing

Wow!  I've just finished over a month of volunteering for our church's Easter Pageant, which ran for 13 nights!  I was part of the most wonderful team of costumers who had already made all of the costumes for the 300-person cast of this fabulous production!  All that was left to do was to sew the remaining 60 garment bags for costumes that didn't have bags, yet.  I lost count of how many I made and helped make.

I came in during the first week of March and helped get the last minute sewing caught up before the first dress rehearsal that took place on March 14.  There were three nights of dress rehearsals and on the night before opening, we had a "Community" performance where bus-loads from homeless shelters, orphanges, families of cast members, production team, costumers, etc. - the sanctuary was full!  The crowd loved the production - they cheered and yelled in excitement when Jesus ascended above their heads up into the third balcony and into a fog-filled opening with a bright light emanating from it to depict heaven.  It was quite exciting for everyone to see it with their very own eyes!

During the production run, we costumers were always back stage ready and able to sew up any rips, re-sew loose velcro, come up with additional head wraps, etc.  It was amazing to learn about some of the back stage activities and needs that would arise.  On Friday nights, we would each take home a group of costumes to our own laundry rooms for washing (Is that with an "r"?  That was the joke going around the costume room many nights!).  On Sunday, we had to return the costumes by 3:00 p.m. so they could be placed on their proper rack for the actors to retrieve by 4:00 p.m., when they would arrive to have their makeup applied.  The play didn't start until 7:30, but everyone had to be in their places at least an hour ahead of start time.

The production ended last Friday night, April 1, with the usual closing night sadness.  To make it worse, there was a torrential downpour going on outside as the play ended.  There was even some real thunder and lightning which added to the simulated thunder and lightning at the very moment of Jesus' death on the cross.  It really intensified the realism of the message of the Cross.

Yesterday, my husband, Lee, and I went back to church to help clean up the four costume rooms, including the sewing room, and to bring home 32 Roman soldier tunics for the laundry!  They have all been washed, as of this afternoon, and are hanging to dry in our basement.  We'll return them, folded, and ready for the next prodution.

What an experience this has been, what a blessed experience it was!  To be a part of such a professionally, well-done production that's put on by a cast of 400 actors and over 1,000 others who are all volunteers! A truly God-blessed event that has touched so many lives with His gospel!  All glory and praise be to God!

Comfort Caps Delivered

About 45 comfort caps were delivered this week.  The majority (35) were delivered to the cancer center, where patients receive their chemo treatments, in the same building that houses the radiation center.  A nurse friend told me about the chemo treatment center, that they might really have more need than the radiation center, so I took her advice.  The person in charge was very appreciative of the donations of caps.  Next stop was the radiation center.  My contact person was also very appreciative of the cap donation.

Today, was our Sew What! community sewing class at the library, and I reported to the ladies about how well their comfort caps were received.  Three of them brought more caps that they had made at home - 29 in all!  Way to go, sewing students!  We'll make some more at our June or July meeting out of cotton knit for summer wear that won't be hot, but will keep the wearer's head comfortably warm in air conditioning.  I'll post photos of the caps soon.

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.

Sewing and Serging Comfort Caps at Sew What!

Our Sew What! Community Sewing group had a service project sewing day for our February meeting on the 24th.  There were 10 regulars and one visitor who came to learn how to sew Comfort Caps (chemo caps) for the radiation center at Baptist Hospital East.  17 caps were sewn, some were embellished with hand-made fabric flowers (from a lesson I taught last fall), purchased ribbon flowers, rick-rack and buttons.  All were serged around the outer edge, which allowed us to use only one layer of polar fleece and no lining.

The ladies had so much fun sewing the caps and consulting with each other on how to decorate their individual creations!  Everyone did a wonderful job sewing their caps, and most made at least two caps each!  We will do another service project in about three months, and will probably make more Comfort Caps out of cotton knit fabric for warmer weather.

Our project for March will be a lesson on how to put in invisible and regular zippers.  We meet at the Jeffersontown Public Library on Watterson Trail on the fourth Thursday of the month, January through October, from 1 - 3:30 p.m.  If you live in the Louisville area, please join us for a fun afternoon of sewing with friends and new friends!