YAY for New York City!!

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.