Great news that caught my eye this morning--New York City will make menstrual products available free at shelters, schools and prisons! What fantastic news! I sincerely hope other cities will follow their lead.
I'm so glad the hardships caused by periods are seeing the light of day, being discussed, and solutions sought. An American woman typically spends $7 to $10 a month on tampons and pads, necessary protections if she's going to fully participate in life. That's about $18,000 in her lifetime. Difficult when you're struggling to make ends meet, and tampons and pads are not approved for purchase with food stamps. Fifteen states still tax tampons and pads. Toilet paper, considered necessary for hygiene, is provided freely in public rest rooms. But other than in NYC, no free feminine hygiene supplies.
I was contacted over a year ago by a young woman who was in on the ground floor of creating a nonprofit to provide feminine hygiene products to homeless women in Lane, Benton and Multnomah Counties. It is called Rosie or Rosie Center, and they have office space above First Place on Amazon Parkway at 19th. All of the staff is volunteer, and they are UO and OSU students (male and female!). They've done their homework, and the articles on their blog are interesting and informative. As their donor base and funding grows, they hope to expand their recipient list to other women living in poverty--not just those in shelters.
A bit late, but in honor of Fathers' Day, you might enjoy this article about wearing pads, from a man's point of view.
If you've ever struggled with the tension on a serger, you might want to read this blog that explains very clearly what adjusting each knob one way or the other will do to a particular thread. Good photographs.
I hope none of you went to Our Sewing Room on Father's Day, because June is the one month that we don't meet on the 3rd Sunday. Our June work day is this upcoming Sunday, the 26th. We'll be at Our Sewing Room from 10 to 5. Please join us if you can.
We always need people to serge, but if that's something you'd like to do this time, please bring your own serger. Ours are being rather uncooperative. We have lots of fabric to press, lots of fabric to cut (please bring your rotary cutter with a sharp blade if this interests you). There are many other jobs--some that require sewing skills and many that don't. Most of us who sew are most comfortable working on our own familiar machines. If you'd like to learn how to use the Accuquilt die cut machine to cut out our shields, or affix snaps with the snap press, please let me know.
As we age, our desire to receive "things" as gifts seems to decline. If you'd like to give someone a gift by donating to our Days for Girls chapter in their honor, please let me know. I have a little acknowledgment paper you can present saying that a contribution to Days for Girls has been made in their honor.
It's been six weeks since our last workday. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone on the 26th! If you can't join us, but want to drop items off, you can stop by Sunday, or leave them with Mary Jo at Our Sewing Room on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday. If none of those options work for you, let me know and we'll figure something out.
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Busy
Our May workday was a busy one with lots of first-timers joining the regulars. We had 20-some volunteers on the 15th, including folks from Portland, Corvallis, and Junction City, as well as lots from the local area. We got so much done! My van was very full on the way to Our Sewing Room and even more packed on the way home. Thanks to everybody for all of your careful work, donations, dedication and camaraderie. As usual, I forgot to take pictures most of the day--please remind me in the future! I promise I won't think you're self promoting! Photos make the blog look better!
These few photos show just some of the tasks accomplished--pockets prepared for the shields, miles of fabric pressed, bags sewn, liners serged.
Last week, I completed putting snaps on 6 dozen shields.
My 4 year-old granddaughter asked to help, and it turns out she's a whiz at putting the caps of the snaps in the pre-poked holes of the shields.
Our shields are typically sewn in batches by color, so the seamstresses don't have to change the color of thread on their machines too often. Consequently, it was easy enough to give her a handful of caps of a particular color for each batch. She was even great at putting the second cap on the correct side--making fewer mistakes than some of us adults do!
I'm pleased to announce that the Duck quilt that Patty made to raffle off for us brought in over $100. (Here's the aforementioned Snap Assistant holding the quilt that's much larger than she is.)
Fittingly, the lucky winner was Henry, an active member of the Springfield Lions Club, which has been so supportive of our group. Thanks again, Patty, for being so generous with your time, and thanks to all of you who supported us by buying tickets. And, congratulations to Henry!
Laura continues to do such a wonderful job on dying our undies. She's recently been experimenting with tossing in some pretty fabric that is too light. Of course, to save on labor and dye, we prefer that the fabric we work with already be great stain-hiding colors, but when it's a donation, it's worth a try to make it darker. These all had white backgrounds, and are now useable for our components, thanks to Laura!
When I went to pick up the most recent dying batch last week, Laura gave me a bag of fabric a friend of hers had donated. Here are some stain-hiding pieces in that donation.
Obviously, yardage is easier to work with than small pieces, but in quilting-weight cotton, we can use smaller pieces. Our minimum size of fabric to use for pockets measures 4.5" x 5". What we work with most easily is strips 5" wide. We fold those in half lengthwise, press wrong sides together, topstitch 1/4" from the fold (in matching polyester thread), then cut into 4.5" pieces for the pockets. Pocket fabric must be busy and dark enough to hide stains. If you have some that qualifies and want to make it into pockets for us, that's fantastic and very much appreciated. Just remember the fabric design restrictions (see previous post). When putting the shield pieces together, it's nice to be able to choose already-sewn pockets that look great with the shield's main fabric.
I was at JoAnn fabrics a few days ago, and came across a floral flannel I hadn't seen there before. My coupons weren't that great, so I didn't buy it, but went home and found it on their website. All fabrics were 60% off for 2 days, but unfortunately, this one was excluded from online sales. I think it'll be outstanding for liners--busy, stain-hiding colors, pretty, and no animals!
Yesterday, my neighbor alerted me to an excellent article in the BBC online. It's one of the most detailed I've come across about the menstrual issues challenging women and girls around the world, and some of the other groups which are also working to eliminate them. Please take the time to read it.
I hope you're able to join us this month. Throughout the year, we meet at Our Sewing Room on the 3rd Sunday of each month. Except this month! In June, the 3rd Sunday is Fathers' Day, which would cause conflicts for many. So, in June only, we're meeting on the 4th Sunday, June 26th. Please join us for as much time as you have available. Some stay the whole time, others for part of the day, still others just drop off contributions. Some bring lunch and others eat at one of the fun restaurants in the downtown area.
My 4 year-old granddaughter asked to help, and it turns out she's a whiz at putting the caps of the snaps in the pre-poked holes of the shields.
Our shields are typically sewn in batches by color, so the seamstresses don't have to change the color of thread on their machines too often. Consequently, it was easy enough to give her a handful of caps of a particular color for each batch. She was even great at putting the second cap on the correct side--making fewer mistakes than some of us adults do!
I'm pleased to announce that the Duck quilt that Patty made to raffle off for us brought in over $100. (Here's the aforementioned Snap Assistant holding the quilt that's much larger than she is.)
Fittingly, the lucky winner was Henry, an active member of the Springfield Lions Club, which has been so supportive of our group. Thanks again, Patty, for being so generous with your time, and thanks to all of you who supported us by buying tickets. And, congratulations to Henry!
Laura continues to do such a wonderful job on dying our undies. She's recently been experimenting with tossing in some pretty fabric that is too light. Of course, to save on labor and dye, we prefer that the fabric we work with already be great stain-hiding colors, but when it's a donation, it's worth a try to make it darker. These all had white backgrounds, and are now useable for our components, thanks to Laura!
When I went to pick up the most recent dying batch last week, Laura gave me a bag of fabric a friend of hers had donated. Here are some stain-hiding pieces in that donation.
Obviously, yardage is easier to work with than small pieces, but in quilting-weight cotton, we can use smaller pieces. Our minimum size of fabric to use for pockets measures 4.5" x 5". What we work with most easily is strips 5" wide. We fold those in half lengthwise, press wrong sides together, topstitch 1/4" from the fold (in matching polyester thread), then cut into 4.5" pieces for the pockets. Pocket fabric must be busy and dark enough to hide stains. If you have some that qualifies and want to make it into pockets for us, that's fantastic and very much appreciated. Just remember the fabric design restrictions (see previous post). When putting the shield pieces together, it's nice to be able to choose already-sewn pockets that look great with the shield's main fabric.
I was at JoAnn fabrics a few days ago, and came across a floral flannel I hadn't seen there before. My coupons weren't that great, so I didn't buy it, but went home and found it on their website. All fabrics were 60% off for 2 days, but unfortunately, this one was excluded from online sales. I think it'll be outstanding for liners--busy, stain-hiding colors, pretty, and no animals!
Yesterday, my neighbor alerted me to an excellent article in the BBC online. It's one of the most detailed I've come across about the menstrual issues challenging women and girls around the world, and some of the other groups which are also working to eliminate them. Please take the time to read it.
I hope you're able to join us this month. Throughout the year, we meet at Our Sewing Room on the 3rd Sunday of each month. Except this month! In June, the 3rd Sunday is Fathers' Day, which would cause conflicts for many. So, in June only, we're meeting on the 4th Sunday, June 26th. Please join us for as much time as you have available. Some stay the whole time, others for part of the day, still others just drop off contributions. Some bring lunch and others eat at one of the fun restaurants in the downtown area.
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