Sewing With Nancy

When a child is seriously ill or going through trauma, the gift of a handmade doll often represents love while providing comfort. Please welcome Jan Householder, the founder of the Giving Doll project, a remarkable organization that provides encouragement to so many. Welcome to Sewing With Nancy, Jan. Thanks for the invitation to come and share the Giving Doll program with your viewers. The Giving Doll is a nonprofit that I established in May of 2006. Our mission is to give faith, love, joy, hope, and comfort to children at times of special need in their life by giving them a handmade doll. These dolls are so comfy looking and cozy, and their hand-embroidered or machine-embroidered faces. And tell us a little bit about how this started and then how you make them. Okay. The inspiration, really, was a little 11-year-old girl who was the daughter of one of my student teachers. I'm a former family and consumer science teacher. And in December of 2005, she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. In 2006, she was-- went into a program at St. Jude's, and she came back in March and said, "Jan, the kids are so sick there. Is there something you could make that I could give?" Sure. So we came up-- together, we came up with this doll. And it has pockets. The girls have pockets in their aprons and the boys have pockets in their cuffs, because she wrote poetry. And she only wanted 12. So I made 12, thought I was good to go, and she came back and she said, "Um, Jan, the kids are so sick there. Could you make some more?" - Sure. So that's when I knew I needed help. So as far as the construction, yeah, they are all handmade. The faces are embroidered, and some of my groups, I do have groups now in ten different states, they hand-paint the faces. They're all-- there's nothing that a child could get injured on. Everything is child-friendly. Now, you mentioned you have ten organizations that stitch-- volunteer sewers that stitch and cut and embroider as well as possibly paint. And you've made-- in this short period of time, a remarkable number of dolls. Share that with our viewers, please. Yeah, well, since we started, we're now approaching 39,000. And these dolls have been given to children in every state and 64 foreign countries. So it's just a remarkable program. And it's not just for the children in hospitals, because, as I mentioned, children going through trauma or their parents are deployed-- you also have dolls for them. Correct. We made 'em for Katherine for St. Jude's until she became an angel 11 months later. But because she wanted so many, I started a group at our local senior citizens center. Mm-hmm. - And we started networking. Because people would come in and say, "Well, there's a little boy in our area whose father's being deployed." Or there was a house fire and the children lost everything. So we networked and then once Katherine became an angel, we decided our mission needed to continue. So it's basically, "Does the child need comfort?" And that is a whole scenario of different events. Sure. And you have some-- that you have on your-- I know in your office right there, you have a doll that has pink hair. Right, right. We have a doll that has pink hair. And these are given to children whose mother is going through breast cancer treatment. And then you also in that-- you also include a quilt and a tote so that they have a little place to carry the doll in. Right. The program expanded, and we have included a little quilt. It's just 24"x24". Can be crocheted, knitted, or the no-sew. And then also there's a little tote bag. So the doll and everything fits right in the tote bag with the blanket. Now, Jan, you have a mission, and that is to have a chapter in each state or to have 50 chapters. Oh, we would love that. Right now, we have ten. We would love to, you know, be able to give dolls in certain areas, you know, have that chapter established. We have been able to give dolls in every state. One of our programs was, we made dolls with red feet and gave them to at least one Ronald McDonald House in every state in memory of the kids that became angels at Sandy Hook. So we made 12 girls and 8 boys, and they all had red feet because Ronald has red feet. And the other chapters in the other states then were able to cover their Ronald McDonald Houses. And at the end, we received notes and messages, and I put together a scrapbook, sent it to the principal at Sandy Hook, and she goes, "Thank you for thinking of our angels in such an important way." Well, Jan, this is a remarkable program, and you give all the dolls away. They're never sold. They're very specifically given to children who need them, and what an admirable organization. Thank you for joining us. Well, thank you. Thank you very much for having us and letting me tell the story of the Giving Doll. And I hope-- I'm sure you'll reach your goal of 50 chapters. Thanks, Jan. Well, thank you. Thank you for joining us today during this program "Sewing Today's Fashion Trends, Making a Tunic." You can re-watch this program at NancyZieman.com and join us on Facebook and other social media platforms. Thanks for joining me. Bye for now.