Today we’d like to introduce you to North Florida Sewing Center.
So excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Our Center had its birth through a Girl Scout project. A group of Girl Scouts from a troop in Alachua, Florida, wanted to make reusable feminine hygiene pads to donate to girls and women who could not afford them or had limited access to products. They had a great idea but didn’t know where to start. The girls didn’t even know how to sew! They partnered with a quilt guild in Gainesville, whose members taught the girls how to make a pattern and to sew. The goal was to make 200. It took them a long time to make 20, and they were awful. The girls then discovered an organization called Days for Girls, which had patented a pattern for the pads and inserts. We became a certified Days for Girls Center and provided reusable feminine hygiene products to women in Africa, South America, and locally. We were affiliated with them for 7 years. During that time, one of our volunteers realized how much waste we were sending to the landfill and suggested using the smaller, leftover fabric pieces to make scrappy quilts, and even smaller pieces to fill animal beds donated to area pet rescue agencies. Days for Girls reminded us that the primary objective of being a Days for Girls Center was to make and distribute reusable feminine hygiene products. At that time, we elected not to renew our contract with Days for Girls and established our own non-profit, the North Florida Sewing Center. We support Days for Girls through a yearly donation as they helped us to fulfill the vision of those Girl Scouts.
But now we are “More than the Pad”. We are a non-profit that makes handmade items that are donated to the various agencies in our community or globally. We make quilts that are donated to Habitat homeowners, long term pediatric patients, our local homeless shelter and other agencies. We make very small quilts for NICU babies, port pillows for Chemo patients, and microwave heating pads for Sickle Cell patients. We also make hats that are donated to Ronald McDonald House for children going through hair loss due to medical treatment or victims of disasters. We donate Angel Wraps to our local hospitals for babies who are born asleep or too soon. We still make and send the feminine hygiene products, Fidget Mats (busy boxes for adults) are donated to local Hospices for patients with dementia.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Initially, the struggle was having an idea and not being able to do it right the first time. The girls were impatient and wanted everything to just fall into place right away. Once they learned how to sew, things became smoother. For the first several years, we were fortunate to have donors who covered our rent. We started out in a very small building and as we grew, we had to move. We are now on our 3rd location, each one slightly larger than the previous one.
We don’t sell any of our products, so we rely totally on donations to cover our rent and to buy the items, such as the waterproof fabric for the hygiene products and batting for our quilts, which are not donated.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We are volunteer run organization. All of our volunteers have different skills that they share for the good of the organization. We have people who can sew, quilt, crochet, knit or teach a class. There are several quilt guilds in our area, but no does all that we do.
We want people to love what they do and do what they love. We have a variety of tasks that can be done in our center.
we offer Sustainable Sunday classes to make products to replace single use items , An example is unpaper towels, made with flannel and a terrycloth, to replace paper towels. towel.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
The variety of items that we make and donate to our community.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nfsewingcenter.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/255473677217589/
