This morning's post was about getting something for free. This afternoon it's about giving something back. When I was in Seattle, actually Puyallup, I met a very bubbly and energetic young woman who works for Mary Bridge Children's Hospital. They have a very interesting charity, pillowcases for the children who come to the hospital. The hospital gives out over 900 pillowcases every month. The children are allowed to choose their pillowcase from those that are donated. This was the sponsored charity event of the Sewing and Stitchery Expo held in Puyallup, WA this year. They have found that the pillowcases bring so much comfort to the children. I was especially touched by this and so I have decided to start making pillowcases. What I would like is to be able to donate a one month supply, 900 pillowcases. That's a lot of pillowcases for one person to make, so I thought I would ask and see if any of you would be willing to help. Even just 1 would be wonderful and appreciated. If this is something you would be interested in doing, email me at
sewbussted@yahoo.com and let me know that you are willing to help and let me know approximately how many pillowcases you think you can do. Don't worry, I won't hold you to anything, so just do what you can. Once you have finished your pillowcases, let me know and we'll work out where you should send them. I know this is a rather ambitious task, but nothing ambitious ever happens if we don't first set a goal.
I started the project this afternoon and within a very short period of time I made 5 pillowcases.
Isn't this just so cute?!!!
I'm calling this set of pillowcases, Kittys On Caffeine. I had the print with the cats along with the coordinating fabric and I found that some java print fabric I also had coordinated beautifully, so I just kept going until I had used all the fabric.
They are beginning to stack up.
Coming up will be cases from corvette fabric and aviation fabric and I'll also use up the cute poodle fabric.
I thought that we could work on this project over the next few months, but if we finish earlier, all the better. An end date of June 1st I think makes the whole project sound much more doable, but as I said, if we get the 900 cases finished before June 1st, FABULOUS!!!!
Here is a link to the pattern as well as the instructions,
http://siterepository.s3.amazonaws.com/00569201012271239106026.pdf Remember, it's just rectangles.
I'm extrememly excited about this project and I look forward to piles and piles of pillowcases!!!
Rhonda, are these to be regular sized or king sized? I see both mentioned in the instructions.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, I should have specified that they should be the regular size pillowcases. Thanks for asking Linda.
DeleteHi Rhonda,
ReplyDeleteI'm in. I've been busy with school and haven't done much sewing but pillowcases are easy and a great stash-buster. I'll e-mail with the details once I figure out what I can do.
Javie
You are great, dear Rhonda! I was a little apart from the task of commenting on other blogs sewistas because all available time was to finish my coat fuchsia and Sew Along, but now I'm back to this beautiful world and spreading love meeting you .... so to compensate for all this time I did not comment on your blog I'm going to participate in this wonderful project to make pillowcases ... I will send an email to you within a few hours. Kisses, dear friend.
ReplyDeleteRhonda, this is awesome! I manage Mary Bridge's social media accounts. Would it be okay with you if I linked to this post from our pages (www.facebook.com/marybridgechildrens and etc.)? halley.knigge@multicare.org.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, that would be wonderful! Never underestimate the power of social media :) please feel free to email me if you have any questions, sewbussted@yahoo.com
DeleteBy any chance, were you the young woman who was at the expo on March 3rd?
When I visited Puyallup in 2011 I took with me 5 pillowcaes for the Mary Bridge's collection all made up in Aboriginal prints with a cute koala toy clipped to them. Hopefully I made a child's day bright.
ReplyDeleteI know you did!
DeleteThis is a great idea and a good stash buster to boot. I'm in. I'll email you!
ReplyDeleteI am so excited about having you join me. So exiting. Thank you so much:)
DeleteHi Rhonda as I live in France (Europe) I think it is non sense to participate but I find it very nice of you. By the way your materials are very nice where have you bought them ?
ReplyDeleteThanks Dora:) the fabrics are from everywhere! Wherever I happen to be, I try to find a fabric store and see if I can find something unique.
DeleteHi Rhonda, I live in Belgium (Europe) and I am willing to take part in this wonderful project. I have two questions though:
ReplyDelete- instead of sewing the trim and accent part (1 - 1O"x 40" piece "trim" and 1 - 2" X 40" piece of fabric "accent", would it be possible to have just one piece of 12" x 40" - accent and trim in one piece ?
- did I understand it right and are we supposed to send the pillowcasees to the USA?
Thanks a lot!
france.parijs@gmail.com
Hi Rhonda! I am an avid sewer and teach sewing to children at our local Boys & Girls Club. This is an awesome project for them, and they have made these pillow cases before so they are familiar with the technique. I do have a question though...do they have to be made with the decorative trim strip? I usually have the kids just make the main body with the decorative 4' border. We'd love to help you reach your goal!
ReplyDeleteIt would be wonderdul to have the children help with this project!! Thank you. The cases do not need to be made with the decorative strip. Please take pictures of the children working on the project as I would love to do a blog post about them. Thanks again, this is very exciting!
DeleteHi Rhonda! I'd love to have my sewing students work on this project! They are familiar with this particular pillow case pattern, although I don't have them put on the extra trim strip. It that ok? We look forward to helping you reach your goal!
ReplyDelete