Author: Glenna Wooten
Planning Unit: Perry County CES
Major Program: Promoting Healthy Homes and Communities (general)
Plan of Work: Unrelated to a specified County Plan of Work
Outcome: Initial Outcome
A local newly opened Recovery Center contacted the Perry County Family and Consumer Sciences agent about teaching their clients to sew. This request came from the clients themselves and they wanted to make a quilt. The director felt that would be a good project to teach teamwork and they would eventually have a quilt that they could auction off to provide additional funding for future programming. The clients and director had very little sewing experience and were only able to sew by hand. The FCS agent along with the Perry County Master Clothing Volunteer and a county clothing volunteer started meeting with the group to teach them to sew quilt blocks together by hand. They had to learn the initial skills of threading a needle, tying knots, sewing a straight 1/4 inch seam and ending a seam. The only way they could accurately sew a 1/4 inch seam was for the agent and volunteers to mark a seam line on each piece. That way all of the seams were close to 1/4 inch. COVID-19 came about which discontinued the face to face meetings, but sewing has continued through communication by phone, email, and virtual meetings. The agent continued to mark seams and dropped off packets at their door. Sections completed were picked up, taken to the office to be sanitized and then marked for the next seam. Even though all of the blocks are not finished yet, it is evident in the quality of the stitching from the first week until the present that they have really improved their sewing skills. The director commented that they really enjoy sewing (and there is about an equal number of males and females) and they are saying that it really helps them relieve stress. The clients are getting more excited as each block is completed. The plan is to complete the quilt top and then quilt it by hand.
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