Sewing seeds of faith

By Tiffiny Woo
Published: May 9, 2008

Monica Pilgrim held up the red teddy-bear patterned dress and smiled.
Her first dress sewn for the needy children of Uganda passed inspection, as the seven other women gathered at Parkview Church ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed’ over the size-five reversible dress.
The group of women hopes to have 500 dresses and short-sets completed in June. They’ve already finished 300. Each year, Parkview hosts a children’s choir from Uganda, and the sewing ladies will present the choir with their completed clothes to take home.
Sewing the dresses as part of missions work was an idea inspired by Mary Beth Turberville, a school nurse in Phenix City. After attending a mission trip to Nicaragua, Turberville began to use her sewing skills to minister to needy children around the world.
Her dedication sparked a movement throughout Alabama and Florida as numerous churches and social groups began to form similar programs.
This is the third year the Parkview group has participated in the project, and it is the second year they will donate to the Uganda children. Sizes for clothing range from 1-10. They also collect underwear and t-shirts to donate with the hand-made clothing.
Though most of the ladies take their sewing home to work on during the month, all enjoy meeting together about once each month to enjoy the fellowship of the other ladies.
“We work well together,” said Ramona Richards. “Each person has a different part of making the dresses that they like to do.”
On Saturday, Richards was using the surge machine to cut and finish the seams on each item. At home, she enjoys watching her favorite television shows in the evening while she threads elastic through the waist bands of the boys’ shorts.
Others, such as Patsy McBride and Young Howle, enjoy cutting out patterns for the clothing. “It takes about 10 minutes to cut out the fabric for one dress,” said McBride, as she demonstrated her technique for cutting out and matching fabrics for the reversible dresses. “Everyone has their own thing, and it just gets done.”
Margaret Ferguson enjoys doing the finishing work on the clothes, attaching pockets, buttons or other embellishments that require tedious stitch work. Anne Glanton and Margaret Griffin enjoy sewing and stitching the pieces together.
“We have a sort of assembly line,” said Faye Watford as she worked on stitching the shoulders of a dress.
While many of the ladies are seasoned seamstresses, others join the group with little or no expertise. “It’s good fellowship and everyone learns something from everyone else,” said McBride.
The class is open to anyone interested, and all material for the clothes are donated by local individuals or organizations.
“We get cash donations to cover some of the things we need,” said Watford. “We get fabric from everywhere such as yard sales and through donations.”
Nothing goes to waste. They donate all of their scrap cloth to the women at Washington Street United Methodist Church to use in their quilting projects.
Sewing groups like the one at Parkview have sent clothes to needy children in places as close as home and as far away as South America, Africa and Russia.
“Knowing that we’re part of something like this is wonderful,” said Watford. “It all just makes you feel connected in some way.”