Hit me with a pillow

One of the many ways that YOU can help out down here is with a simple gift!!  Currently we are making pillow cases for pillows that we can give away around the community here in Ciudad Juarez.

At the moment of this post, I do not know the cost of a pillow, but I imagine that you can find them from $10 to $100.  Depends how therapeutic you want to get.  We can also use some more fabric to make the pillow cases for the pillows!!  Again, I don’t know the cost of fabric.  I assume it could be priced much like the pillows.

If you are interested in being invloved in this project, you can mail the pillow or fabric down here, or donate the funds specifically to the project!  Either one works for us!!

Pillow connections

We are regularly hosting a sewing “class”.  I have class in quotes, becuase it’s more of a group learning session with no REAL teacher!  Esmeralda and I are not seamstresses.  I am definitely not one.  None the less we meet.  We sew.  We talk.  We cut out bad stitching.  We laugh. We learn.  It’s a good time.

We have a variety of ladies that come.  Each week the “class” is hosted at Reuben Renteria’s home.  We have enough electricity to run two machines.  No lights, only machines.  Once dusk begins to arrive, sewing finishes.  Patty is the hostess, she invites different ladies for each class.  They range from the older lady with a blind eye that barely sees enough to sew on her own, to young girls still in middle school.  What a great bunch!  Even when it’s hard to sew, the joyful smiles that float around the room are addictive!!

The most recent project has been pillow cases.  They are so simple, I could probably make one!  I was a bit surprised that this is what we were making.  I figured curtains for windows made sense; curtains are expensive, but pillow cases?  Even though I am here and I see the conditions and I know some of the stories of need and poverty, I am still a foreigner.  I do not understand.

Imagine having to make a choice between eating this week and buying a pillow case…I would probably go with the food myself.  What a joy to have the blessing of free fabric and use of machines!!  The pillow cases are far from store quality, but they are good and free!

The last “class” we had; ended in a conversation about giving.  Giving the gift of pillows and cases!  We thought that if we could make a handful of cases and then find a store that would be willing to donate pillows, we could bless a few families!  What a wonderful idea.  So simple.

So this is where we find ourselves…looking for pillows and planning on making cases!