Sewing With Nancy

cc Many of us know from experience that parents truly enjoy receiving sewn-with-love items for their newborn babies. But when a child is born premature or stillborn perhaps specially made clothes carry even greater importance. Quilts of Love director Sissy Davis from Watson, Louisiana, is my Nancy's Corner guest to tell us the tender story of the beginning of this special organization and how we can participate. Please welcome Sissy, who joins us via Skype. Sissy, welcome to Sewing with Nancy. Thank you, Nancy, and thank you for having me. You're very welcome. When we spoke earlier, you told me, as I mentioned the tender story of the beginnings of Threads of Love. Could you share that with our audience, please? Yes, I think God had prepared me for this a long time ago because when I was 13, my mother delivered a little boy that only lived 8-1/2 hours. When the call came that they needed stuff at one of the charity hospitals, I immediately said I would like to do that. It gives me a chance to begin that closure of never having seen that little baby brother. I think he only lived 8-1/2 hours but his 8-1/2 hours counted for something. Threads of Love has patterns for day gowns and burial gowns, obviously. I can see many sizes behind you. You make them in groups. Tell us about the chapters that you have in the United States as well as around the world. We have two in Canada, one in Newfoundland one in South Africa, one in England, and one in Panama. The rest of them are here in the United States coast to coast. There's a total of 125 chapters. Correct. This is a lot of heirloom and specialty sewing. Tell us about a typical meeting that you have where you create the gowns. Well, when they sign on as a chapter some chapters start out making stuff for the NICU for the babies in the NICU. In my chapter, we do the interment gowns because that's the type of sewing that my ladies like. We gather once a month, the first Thursday of each month and the ladies bring their sack lunch and their sewing machine and their supplies. They get to the workshop, and everything is already cut out and they just pick up a little dress whatever color they want to work on, the size and they go to the lace box to pick out their trim and they sew. We just have a great time of fellowship and sharing. The ladies come and learn new techniques they share that with the other ones. I find the older ladies will usually take a younger mother under her wing and teach her her skills. It's a great way to learn skills and you're really doing a wonderful service. You know, we usually talk on Sewing with Nancy about things that we make on happy occasions but this is real life. This is what we need to do. You mentioned patterns. Tell us about the patterns that you have. We have two patterns on our website. One is a little burial gown. It's made like a little christening dress. Then we have a little day gown. Now, the clothes that you see behind me are all copyrighted for the Threads of Love chapters. Sure. If someone wanted to join a chapter they'd go to your website which we will list at sewingwithnancy.com. Then they could join. Do you ever have people send in a gown that they make from the pattern on the site to your local chapter? Oh, yeah, I get ladies all the time that like to sew and say their grandbabies are too old to sew for and they like to sew. So, I try to connect them up with a chapter that's close to them because I like to see their stitches of love stay in their state. What a smart idea that you have that. You've been doing this a long time, Sissy. Tell our viewers how long you've done this volunteer work. Well, 20 years this September I raised my hand at church and said I will help. Then God got involved and it's become a non-profit sewing ministry. How many people do you have in your organization in your local chapter? If everybody showed up, I'd have probably about 35 ladies. I do bring in ladies that can't sew because we have older ladies that want to be a part of this and I find jobs for them. They can sort, package, and sew labels on. It's important for these senior citizens to feel like they're still useful and it gives them a chance to come and fellowship and fill their days. Sissy, what a charming story. What a great way to help others who really need a lot of love and compassion at a difficult time. Also a great way to pass along information to our viewers. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. You're very welcome. I hope you've enjoyed this section. As I mentioned earlier, you can go to nancyzieman.com where all things Sewing with Nancy are found. You can re-watch this program. You can watch any of the 51 shows that are there. I hope that you'll join us again. Bye for now.