Schools

Truly a Stitch in Time: Students Sew for a Cause

Eighth graders at Crone Middle School take cast-off materials to create much-needed clothing.

For most 13-year-olds, deciding what to wear each day can be a struggle. For Megan Phipps, the thought of having to wear the same clothing every day for a year just seemed like a very sad proposition.

When Phipps, 13, learned her sewing class would be making clothing for children in need, she was excited.

“I thought it was cool,” she said.

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Like Phipps, students in Jill Koulos’ 8th grade sewing class at learned there are children around the world who must wear the same clothing repeatedly because one set may be all they have.

Using their sewing skills while being environmental and recycling, the students in the sewing class are turning pillowcases into dresses for children in need.

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Koulos collected unwanted pillowcases from school families and enough cases were donated to make as many as 100 dresses, she said.

In the past, as one of the class projects students sewed wheelchair bags that were donated to area nursing homes. Koulos was looking for projects when she stumbled upon Hope 4 Women International and its Dress A Girl Around the World campaign.  

The goal of the program is to ensure that every girl has at least one dress. Dresses have been given to those in need in the United States along with 35 other countries.

“I thought, 'What a great thing we can do,'” Koulos said. “We can take something and turn it into something else. We can take a pillowcase and turn it into a dress.”

The pillowcases ranged from stripes and solids to gingham. Koulos plans to deliver 100 dresses to a local volunteer with the organization who will see that the dresses are given to those in need.

Cassie Zroback, 13, said she was excited to take on the project.

“I thought it would be good for the kids. I heard they only get one new outfit a year,” she said. “I never thought I would be able to take something so ordinary and turn it into something that means so much.”

Wednesday, students were learning how to take bias tape and use it to make straps for the dresses. Once Koulos explained what to do, the students began zipping away on the sewing machines.

Michael Widmann, 14, said the project was a little bit difficult and different than other sewing projects that had been done in the class.

When Widmann learned that some children are in need of clothing ,he said: “It made me feel kind of sad and made me want to do it [the project] because it is all they get to wear and it made me want to do it even more."

Samhitha Pasupuleti, 14, was taking a red gingham Ralph Lauren pillowcase and turning it into a dress. The pillowcase had a ruffle on the edge adding some frilly detail.

“It’s fun,” she said. “It’s nice that we’re doing this for other kids. I didn’t think you could make anything else from a pillowcase.”

She said her classmates were enjoying the project, “because we are doing this for other people and we have so much stuff already.”


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