Sew Blessed group seeks to aid young and old using recycled items

Every Monday, a group of women gather in the Haxtun Church of the Brethren basement with a spiritual presence that involves sewing, recycling and laughter. The resulting projects offer more benefit than these simplistic descriptions. The women, working under the moniker “Sew Blessed,” spend their Mondays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. sewing items that serve youngsters and the elderly at home, and young people around the world. The sewers recycle items such as T-shirts and pillowcases to create new, usable clothing and specialty items. 

“If Grandma or Aunt Grace want to clean out their house, we will take whatever they want to give us,” said Sew Blessed founder Maureen Waite.

In addition to Waite, the group includes Kay Wernsman, Teri Wernsman, Barb Wernsman, Kathy Schaefer and Alice Mathews, all of Haxtun; Maxine Brandt, Linda Alberts and Loretta Gibbs, all of Holyoke; and Jeanette Poos of Imperial, Nebraska.

Donated clothing and other material comes from places like the Haxtun United Methodist Church’s store, Retread Threads; the Haxtun Community Food Bank; and individuals such as Brandt, who previously belonged to another sewing group. When that group stopped meeting, she ended up with a lot of leftover supplies that she proposed donating to Sew Blessed. 

“I told her we wouldn’t take her stuff unless she came with it,” Waite said. 

Brandt’s “stuff” included 200 welcome zippers, an item that has become very expensive in stores. She is now one of 10 Sew Blessed sewers.

Sometimes, the group purchases material when they discover a bargain. Recently Waite purchased 500 zippers at 10 cents each from a Holyoke woman.

Useful creations

From this donated and purchased material, Sew Blessed members create a wide variety of useful items. They sew young girls’ dresses; young boys’ shorts; and infant caps that ship to places like Africa, Honduras, Guam and the Philippines. As of last week, they had made and shipped a total 536 dresses, 142 shorts and 133 baby hats. Waite stressed that they have never paid shipping to deliver these items to other countries.

For nursing homes in Haxtun and Holyoke, the women make pillowcases, walker bags and dignity bibs. Through last week, the women had delivered 30 Halloween pillowcases, 50 generic pillowcases and 60 dignity bibs. Then last Monday, a request for pillowcases from Pat Rahe, a housekeeper at Haxtun’s Extended Care Unit, resulted in 30 additional pillowcases, six walker bags, 22 scarves, four stocking hats and two sleeping bags. Waite said they are happy to fill requests like that anytime.

Earlier in the year, the staff at Haxtun’s daycare, Little Sprouts Learning Center, requested berets for the facility’s children to wear when they marched in the Haxtun Corn Festival Parade. The women delivered 30 berets. They also made and delivered six pillow covers, 15 quilts and 10 toddler blankets to the daycare facility.

Recently, in an effort to encourage people to use cloth bags instead of plastic, members began making and giving out shopping bags to carry purchases home from stores like Haxtun Super’s and Dollar General. Thus far, they have made and given out over 100 bags. Waite stressed that people may take the bags free of charge. 

“We don’t do retail,” she said. “We donate everything. We operate on a very low budget.”

Sew Blessed members also sew quilts, some of them given to individuals in the places mentioned above, and others they donate to non-profit groups to sell for fundraising. Recently, members made six afghans for a Catholic Charities fundraiser and they have made quilts for Holyoke Hospital’s fundraising. They have donated 25 quilts for fundraising so far and have 14 quilts in storage for when they are needed.

Waite said Teri Wernsman came to the group with no experience in sewing quilts, but she is now in the process of completing her first quilt. 

“It has been hit and miss,” Teri said.

The group makes items for any purpose they hear about, and they seek out material and used clothing to use in those endeavors wherever they can find it. They also find ways to utilize any scraps of material they end up with. They recently started utilizing scraps to make small purses that can be used for carrying makeup or other small items while traveling, and also craft fabric games for the ECU residents who then attempt pushing a marble through a maze sewed into two pieces of fabric. Linda Alberts donated the marbles for the games. 

“Members are always coming up with ideas for items we can make,” Waite said.

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