Greensburg Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Church sewing group clothes girls in hope

Jan. 29—Calling someone a "so-and-so" is not a compliment, but change the spelling to "Sew 'n Sew," and the term takes on a new — and positive — meaning.

It's the name adopted by a group of women who meet monthly at Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Greensburg. At home and as a group, members make dresses, blankets, quilts, hats, dolls and other items for children in impoverished communities in the United States and abroad.

The Sew 'n Sew Group was organized about 10 years ago by church member Paula Sykes of Greensburg. She had been making dresses to donate on her own for about two years before that.

The group has sent thousands of items to relief organizations in the United States, Africa, Central America and Asia, along with homeless shelters in Greensburg and Pittsburgh. Recently, they have been sending items to the Oglala Lakota Nation at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

"When Paula approached me about beginning this ministry here, I was just so grateful and said, 'Yes, please, do this,' " said the Rev. Brian Chaffee, the church's pastor. "The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has a great reach, and our dollars are often given to Lutheran World Relief and Lutheran Disaster Response, and it reaches around our country and the world.

"But this ministry finds us with our hands, here in downtown Greensburg, literally clothing the world," he said.

Sew 'n Sew has a continuing partnership with a Michigan-based nonprofit, Little Dresses for Africa, that since its founding in 2007 has gathered more than 10 million dresses destined for girls around the world and has branched out into building schools and well systems.

Sykes connected with the organization after hearing its founder, Rachael O'Neill, talk about it at St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Youngwood.

"We get help from all over the world, so when you remember a local group, it's because they do beautiful work and help us with shipping costs and really make it easier for us to do our work," O'Neill said. "The Sew 'n Sews are very good about sending us beautiful things."

Creative household

Growing up in Irwin, Sykes and her sisters learned sewing from their mother, who worked from home as a seamstress.

"We always had two sewing machines up at the same time, and we sewed all our own clothes," she said.

It was a very creative household, but their mother expected excellence, said Sykes' sister, Pat McCaughtry, who lives in Greensburg and is a member of Sew 'n Sew.

"Our mother encouraged whatever we wanted to do, but it had to be perfect," said McCaughtry, the group's resident crochet expert.

Sykes hadn't sewn in many years when, about 12 years ago, she decided to make a great-niece a dress as a birthday present. The sewing bug bit her once again, and, before she knew it, she had 12 completed dresses.

"I knew that my niece didn't need 12 dresses, so I asked a friend what she thought I should do with them," Sykes said. "She said, 'You can make them for little girls in Africa.' "

That started the roundabout journey to connecting with Little Dresses for Africa.

A friend told Sykes that Community Methodist Church in Harrison City was collecting dresses for missionaries to take to Africa. She started buying fabrics and other supplies at flea markets, thrift stores and yard sales.

As individuals and church groups heard about her project, donations poured in — more fabric, notions and even two sewing machines — and the idea of starting a sewing group at Zion's was born.

Many of the Sew 'n Sews are members of Zion's; others are friends of Sykes who wanted to help. Some have sewing and crocheting backgrounds; others are learning or are there to help with finishing tasks.

"I'm here for Paula. She's my sewing buddy," said Carol Struble of Greensburg during a Jan. 23 meeting of the group.

"I love any kind of creative handwork," added Helen Bell of Greensburg, who also sews dresses. "My grandmother was a seamstress and milliner, so I must have got those creative genes."

The members work on individual projects at home, then gather at the church to deliver the goods or to work on tasks that require more than two hands.

Form of protection

"The dresses are little ambassadors that help us go in and form relationships with the villages and their elders," O'Neill said, which leads to bringing in clean water systems and classrooms. "We've dug 96 wells, each of them serving 3,000 people."

For a girl in a poor community, having a new dress is not just a source of joy. According to Little Dresses for Africa, it's also a form of protection.

"Girls wearing clean new dresses are less likely to be abused, sexually exploited or kidnapped," Sykes said. "The reason is that they look like someone cares for them and they would be missed if they disappeared."

Little Dresses has strict guidelines for donated dresses. They should be made of colorful fabrics and without zippers. Buttons can be used for decoration but not as closures.

"If a zipper breaks, the dress is ruined. If a button is lost, there's no way to replace it," Sykes said.

Chaffee recalled a time when someone left a bundle of white fabric on Sykes' porch.

"The dresses need to be of colorful patterns, because a white dress is going to get dirty and stained and not be something you can be proud of," he said. "So as grateful as Paula was for the offering of the material, she thought, 'What do I do with that?' "

Chaffee saw a divine hand at work.

"I believe it was that day or the next that she received an email from her connection at Little Dresses, and this was following the earthquake in Haiti, saying they desperately needed white burial gowns," Chaffee said. "Can such a thing be coincidence, or has God literally reached down to that porch in Greensburg with that gift?"

Sykes said she thinks the Sew 'n Sew Group blesses her as much as it does those who receive the fruits of its labors. When it started, she was struggling with personal issues.

"When you feel at your worst, the only thing that makes you feel better is to help others. Sewing for the little girls brought me joy again," Sykes said. "To give something to a child who has absolutely nothing, not even a pretty dress, gives them hope. Even that little dress can give a child hope for a better life."

Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley by email at smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .