We finished up our first sewing circle project yesterday! We ended up making 5 blankets and 8 curtains (16 panels) for the Dorcas House. This will allow them to put up curtains in the 6 windows they requested and have a few "spares" to use for other windows. I know they are going to be very excited to receive them! Also, Tandy donated a suspension curtain rod for them to use, which they really needed. (When I visited, some of the rooms had rods, but a few did not.)
Thank you to everyone who participated in this project. If you were at the sewing circle yesterday, you already know about the next project. If you weren't there, an announcement will be posted on the blog tomorrow morning. I will also try to get some pictures of our finished curtains hanging at Dorcas House once I deliver them.
Showing posts with label Dorcas House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dorcas House. Show all posts
Monday, August 9, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
First Sewing Circle Recap
The first meeting of the sewing circle was a huge success (even if I DO say so myself!). We were able to get all the curtains nearly completed and a few blankets completed. In addition, Kay M. got 30 blocks completed on her additional project that she brought. Not bad for just 2 hours of work!
Below are some pictures I took of the hard-working sewing circle participants. I witnessed a lot of older women encouraging the younger ones throughout the afternoon. I also personally learned a lot from many of you.
I'm so thankful to all the women and girls who came and worked hard yesterday. A special thanks to Mae for donating all that gorgeous drapery fabric and for sharing her expertise with the group.
We will continue this project next month (August 8th) and will try to finish the curtains and make some more blankets. If you have some fleece for the blankets that you can bring next month, please let me know either by e-mail or by commenting on the blog so I will know how much is coming. (The fleece should be in 2.5 yard lengths for the blankets.) We could also use some coordinating satin blanket binding to finish the tops of the blankets. I think a few women will be bringing sergers next time to finish the edges of the fleece. I'm looking forward to learning about that since I've never used a serger.
Thank you to everyone for a great start to this ministry!
Below are some pictures I took of the hard-working sewing circle participants. I witnessed a lot of older women encouraging the younger ones throughout the afternoon. I also personally learned a lot from many of you.
I'm so thankful to all the women and girls who came and worked hard yesterday. A special thanks to Mae for donating all that gorgeous drapery fabric and for sharing her expertise with the group.
We will continue this project next month (August 8th) and will try to finish the curtains and make some more blankets. If you have some fleece for the blankets that you can bring next month, please let me know either by e-mail or by commenting on the blog so I will know how much is coming. (The fleece should be in 2.5 yard lengths for the blankets.) We could also use some coordinating satin blanket binding to finish the tops of the blankets. I think a few women will be bringing sergers next time to finish the edges of the fleece. I'm looking forward to learning about that since I've never used a serger.
Thank you to everyone for a great start to this ministry!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Project 1: Curtains and Blankets for Dorcas House
I am happy to announce that the first project of the BCLR Dorcas Sewing Circle will be to make curtains and blankets for the Dorcas House. (Please don’t be confused by the name. Just because we share a name with this ministry doesn’t mean all our projects will be for them.)
Dorcas House provides emergency services like food, shelter, clothing, and crisis intervention to more than 400 women and children annually. I visited their facilities last week and took some pictures and measurements of their windows for the curtains.
THE DETAILS ON CURTAINS
The Dorcas House needs curtains to cover 2 windows in their library (preferably matching), 2 windows in ladies’ rooms, and 2 windows in boys’ rooms (age 9+). They don’t want them to be see-through, so if we use lightweight fabric, I'm thinking we should probably line them with muslin to make them heavier and less see-through. (Any thoughts on this? I'm just guessing here and I'm open to suggestions.)
The basic measurement of all the windows is 40”x63”. I’ve never made full curtains, but from what I gathered online, curtains should be between 1½ to 3 times the width of your window for the best coverage. So I’m thinking we should make 2 panels roughly 40” wide for each window. That way, we could use about 2 yards of standard 45" fabric (plus 2 yards of muslin if we lined them) for each panel. Here is a picture of one of the windows so you can see what they look like. They are all inset like this one.
I have 6 yards of fabric I can bring that would make good panels for either the library or ladies' rooms. If I can find the same fabric, I'll pick up 2 more yards so we can have enough for matching curtains in the library. I have enough muslin to make a couple of panels, so I will bring that too. If any of you have fabric that you can donate that would be suitable for the other curtains, please leave a comment so that everyone will know who’s bringing what.
THE DETAILS ON BLANKETS
This is where we can be more creative. The Dorcas House has 75 beds and they always need twin sized blankets. As you can imagine, some of the blankets get removed when people leave the facility and some are soiled or torn and have to be thrown out, so they can use as many blankets as we can give them.
I’m envisioning fleece ones like these:
These particular blankets measure 66”x90” but since most fleece comes in 60” width, I’m wondering if it would be okay to make them 60”x90”? Does anyone have a twin bed so they can measure and let us know if that would work? If we made them 60” wide, we could use 2.5 yards of fleece for each and either hem it or bind it (or serge it? I don’t have a serger so I don’t know if that’s a good solution or not.).
I don’t want to narrow it down to just fleece, either. Flannel or some other material might be just as good (and less expensive). Any thoughts on this? I can tell you Hancock Fabrics is having a sale this Saturday and their Glacier Fleece Prints are 60% off, which would help quite a bit on the cost.
WHAT I NEED FROM YOU
I need to have a rough idea of how many people are coming to the sewing circle on July 11, how many are bringing sewing machines, and how many are bringing fabric, so that I can make sure we have enough material there for everyone to get to work on something. I will be bringing a large cutting mat and rotary cutter and my iron and ironing board in addition to my sewing machine.
Please leave a comment on this blog entry (or e-mail me) to let me know if you will be coming and if you have fabric to donate.
My plan is to give a definite end date for each project so that anyone working on items at home will know the deadline. But since this is our first project and I'm not sure what to expect, I'm not going to put an end date on this project yet. We'll see how it goes on the 11th and then I'll go from there.
As always, if you have thoughts, questions, or suggestions for better ways to make these items, please leave a comment so we can learn from each other's experience.
Dorcas House provides emergency services like food, shelter, clothing, and crisis intervention to more than 400 women and children annually. I visited their facilities last week and took some pictures and measurements of their windows for the curtains.
THE DETAILS ON CURTAINS
The Dorcas House needs curtains to cover 2 windows in their library (preferably matching), 2 windows in ladies’ rooms, and 2 windows in boys’ rooms (age 9+). They don’t want them to be see-through, so if we use lightweight fabric, I'm thinking we should probably line them with muslin to make them heavier and less see-through. (Any thoughts on this? I'm just guessing here and I'm open to suggestions.)
The basic measurement of all the windows is 40”x63”. I’ve never made full curtains, but from what I gathered online, curtains should be between 1½ to 3 times the width of your window for the best coverage. So I’m thinking we should make 2 panels roughly 40” wide for each window. That way, we could use about 2 yards of standard 45" fabric (plus 2 yards of muslin if we lined them) for each panel. Here is a picture of one of the windows so you can see what they look like. They are all inset like this one.
I have 6 yards of fabric I can bring that would make good panels for either the library or ladies' rooms. If I can find the same fabric, I'll pick up 2 more yards so we can have enough for matching curtains in the library. I have enough muslin to make a couple of panels, so I will bring that too. If any of you have fabric that you can donate that would be suitable for the other curtains, please leave a comment so that everyone will know who’s bringing what.
THE DETAILS ON BLANKETS
This is where we can be more creative. The Dorcas House has 75 beds and they always need twin sized blankets. As you can imagine, some of the blankets get removed when people leave the facility and some are soiled or torn and have to be thrown out, so they can use as many blankets as we can give them.
I’m envisioning fleece ones like these:
These particular blankets measure 66”x90” but since most fleece comes in 60” width, I’m wondering if it would be okay to make them 60”x90”? Does anyone have a twin bed so they can measure and let us know if that would work? If we made them 60” wide, we could use 2.5 yards of fleece for each and either hem it or bind it (or serge it? I don’t have a serger so I don’t know if that’s a good solution or not.).
I don’t want to narrow it down to just fleece, either. Flannel or some other material might be just as good (and less expensive). Any thoughts on this? I can tell you Hancock Fabrics is having a sale this Saturday and their Glacier Fleece Prints are 60% off, which would help quite a bit on the cost.
WHAT I NEED FROM YOU
I need to have a rough idea of how many people are coming to the sewing circle on July 11, how many are bringing sewing machines, and how many are bringing fabric, so that I can make sure we have enough material there for everyone to get to work on something. I will be bringing a large cutting mat and rotary cutter and my iron and ironing board in addition to my sewing machine.
Please leave a comment on this blog entry (or e-mail me) to let me know if you will be coming and if you have fabric to donate.
My plan is to give a definite end date for each project so that anyone working on items at home will know the deadline. But since this is our first project and I'm not sure what to expect, I'm not going to put an end date on this project yet. We'll see how it goes on the 11th and then I'll go from there.
As always, if you have thoughts, questions, or suggestions for better ways to make these items, please leave a comment so we can learn from each other's experience.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)