Sew much love to give

Their soul is fed by needle and thread. Seven members of the St. Edward’s/St. Eloi Council of Catholic Women (CCW) spent the past four months sewing dresses and shorts for the “Little Dresses for Africa” program.

And this wasn’t just a few dresses the ladies assembled. They easily topped last year’s total of 155 by amassing 238 dresses and 26 shorts for the “Little Britches” portion of program this year.

“We started sewing in January and went until April,” said Terry Van Keulen, the local coordinator and one of the seven women from Minneota, Ghent and Taunton who put the dresses together.

“A couple of the ladies sewed 80 of the dresses each.” Besides Van Keulen, the other “Seven Sewing Sensations” were Charlene Tillemans, Sue Johnson, Rita Engels, Colleen Noyes, Elaine Dressen, and Madeline Swedzinski.

They all attend St. Edward’s Church in Minneota or St. Eloi Church in Ghent. “We were very fortunate that most of the material was donated to us by a fabric store that was going out of business,” said Van Keulen.

“We had a 20-gallon tote full of material. I’d say that fabric was used for about 90 percent of the dresses we made. We added some scrap fabric that some of us had laying around to make the rest of them.”

The CCW women have been sewing for Little Dresses for Africa for the past five years, although it’s not always the same CCW women that volunteer their services for the Little Dresses for Africa project. Rachel O’Neill started Little Dresses for Africa in 2008 after seeing a need for the underprivileged children.

Since 2011, 132,949 dresses have been donated through her Little Dresses for Africa program. Their mission is to provide relief to vulnerable children throughout the continent of Africa and beyond.

Little Dresses of Africa sends out information to organizations explaining about the program and patterns, which are basic sleeveless dresses (because of the hot climate) for girls in small, medium and large sizes.

“We make the dresses in bright and cheerful colors,” said Van Keulen.

“We had some darker material, so we made the shorts out of that.” Each of the women sew in their own home and can make as many dresses and they have time for.

“I’d say each dress takes two or three hours to sew, depending on how fancy it is,” Van Keulen said. Van Keulen will take the completed dresses and shorts to Hutchinson, where the churches in the Diocese of New Ulm will hold its annual convention this year.

From there, they will be brought to New Ulm, along with other dresses made by church groups in the Diocese.

They will then be shipped to the Little Dresses for Africa headquarters in Michigan. Mission groups then deliver the dresses and shorts to the children.

“The reason the dresses are brought into these remote areas is twofold,” Van Keulen explained.

“First, of course, is to deliver dresses to the little girls who need them.”

“Second is to do some assessments of the area they live, such as if they have enough food, how the education there, do they need medical supplies, and things like that.”

Even though they don’t get to actually deliver the dresses to the little girls themselves, these women can almost visualize the smiles on their faces as they try them on. And that is what makes this hard work all worth it.

“We do it because it’s a good mission project,” Van Keulen responded when asked the reason they enjoy sewing these dresses.

“We need to do things for the poor and this fulfills that need.”