We all love sewing for ourselves and our families and friends. Making something “with love” is a great way to show people you care. If you have never sewn for charity, you’ll quickly find it’s a wonderful way to share your love of sewing, and help someone in need at the same time. Besides, who doesn’t have a bit of extra fabric in their stash? There are plenty of project options available, so you should easily be able to find a need that fits within your available time and skill set. Thus, we are proud at RMSV to add Sewing for Charity element to our UFO challenge this year.

Sewing for Charity

The Program

First of all, even though this is part of the UFO challenge, the items you make for charity do not need to be UFOs!  However, we will give you an extra raffle ticket for the UFO drawing held in December for those of you who show us a project you made for and give to a charitable organization of your choice.

You do not have to show your project at Sew Fun Show and Tell, but we certainly hope you will!

There are only two rules:

1. Items must be made by you.
2. You are responsible for getting the item to the charity.

Focus Areas

We will focus on 4 areas, one approximately every quarter:

• Children (ill, injured, in need) (February through April)
• The Sick (cancer, illness, hospice) (April through June)
• The Elderly (at home, senior centers, nursing homes, Memory care centers) (July through September)
• The Military (Active Duty, Veterans). (October through December)

These focus areas are only suggestions and if you only sew projects for a certain cause, for example, you certainly can bring in a completed project for that cause any time and be awarded a raffle ticket(s).

Raffle Tickets

Special raffle tickets will be given to those participate and send an item(s) to a charity of their choice. These tickets will look different than the UFO tickets, but will be the same size/weight as the UFO tickets. That way, when we draw for the $500 gift card in December, they will not feel any different from the UFO tickets.

You can donate as few or as many items as you like. Our intent is to reward your giving spirit with extra chances to win the $500 gift card in December. A raffle ticket will be awarded each month that you participate. If you show your items at Show and Tell, you’ll also get an additional ticket. (Of course, you still get your tickets for completed UFOs.)

Since the point of this program is to recognize and encourage our wonderful customers who put in their time, talent and money into worthy causes, we are so happy to do that by adding chances for you to win the $500 gift card in December.

Sewing for Children

The first quarter focus area is Sewing for Children. Sewing projects for infants and children are plentiful with free online patterns for a wide variety of projects. Premature infants are small and require tiny t-shirts, caps and gowns. Contact the charity prior to starting your sewing project for specifics on materials, closures and any restrictions or recommendations on the charity sewing projects you have.

Homeless shelters, children’s services and other similar organizations may provide “want and need lists” that contain items that are always needed, and items that a specific infant or child needs. Charitable baby showers are sometimes hosted for mothers in need and many children’s hospitals have specific programs for units in their facility. Child sized pillows with matching blankets, “Going Home” layettes and stuffed animals are just a few of the items that many children’s hospitals request.

Locally, there are several local charities that accept handmade items. Click on this pdf file to see a partial list of charities that support sewing for charity. Check back often as we’ll add addition charities as they become known to us.