Sewing It: The Sewing Machine Project Puts Stitches Back Together-CSMonitor.com |

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She learned to sew since she was a child, but the 2004 tsunami helped Margaret Jankowski understand the true value of sewing machines.

The scene of destruction attracted audiences from all over the world, but what moved Ms. Yankowski the most was the story of a woman who returned to a destroyed village in Sri Lanka and discovered that her sewing machine, her only source of income, was missing.

Making a living is more than just putting food on the table and depositing money in the bank. It builds pride and hope. The sewing machine project helps people do both.

"Without my sewing machine, I could easily make a living," Ms. Yankowski recalled. "This woman is not like this." She decided to send the sewing machine to Sri Lanka, thinking that she might be able to collect the sewing machines that people were trying to get rid of.

In the 16 years since then, Ms. Jankowski said that her organization's sewing machine project has shipped 3,350 machines to all over the world and throughout towns.

"Sewing is very powerful," said Gigi Salka of Zaman International, a nonprofit organization that uses machines donated by the Ms. Jankowski Sewing Machine Project to run sewing classes for refugee and immigrant women in Detroit. "You will see it in a group of people who have lost hope; the ability to create products is very powerful for them. They are so proud. They walked around and said,'I did this.'"

The tsunami helped Margaret Jankowski understand the true value of sewing machines.

Like many girls of her generation, she learned to sew at an early age. Her mother taught her to use the old singer featherweight, and she learned the basics by wrapping her father's handkerchief. As an adult, she bought her own clothes from the shelf, but sews for her first child, making small wool coats that impress other mothers. She teaches classes in a sewing shop, "preaching the gospel of sewing," she said, including how to make "pajamas comfortable enough for life."

Then, in December 2004, a tsunami struck Sri Lanka and other coasts around the Indian Ocean, razing communities to the ground and throwing wooden fishing boats far inland, killing 230,000 people. The images of destruction attracted audiences from all over the world. But what moved Yankowski the most was the story of a woman returning to her destroyed village. This lady has worked for many years and saved enough money to buy a sewing machine, so that she can be a tailor, and also gave her a future. Now it is gone.

Making a living is more than just putting food on the table and depositing money in the bank. It builds pride and hope. The sewing machine project helps people do both.

"Without my sewing machine, I could easily make a living," Ms. Yankowski recalled. "This woman is not like that."

She decided to send the sewing machine to Sri Lanka. "I think maybe I can collect some of these machines that people get rid of anyway," she said. She explained her thoughts on a local news program and was overwhelmed by the machine. She raised funds for voltage converters and transportation, and in 2005, with the help of the American Hindu Association, sent five boxes to five orphanages in India and Sri Lanka. Each box was filled with toys, Medical supplies, fabrics and the most precious goods-sewing machines.

"They are used to sew for children," she said. "They are also used to teach children a craft, which I think is really important."

The matter did not end there. Ms. Jankowski went on to start the Sewing Machine Project, a small organization that redistributes used machines. This is a mission that stems from the love of ancient craftsmanship and the belief in the practical and salvational possibilities of today. "We see ourselves as those who provide tools," Ms. Jankowski said simply.

For 16 years, the project has shipped 3,350 machines to all parts of the world and entire cities and towns. It was sent to coffee pickers in Guatemala, women helping disadvantaged girls in Guam, and war widows in Kosovo. It was sent to a sewer project that helped refugee women in Detroit, imprisoned women in Mississippi, and New Orleans Mardi Gras costumes. It has bundled them into the library.

In these and other places, unneeded machines have found new uses. In many places, sewing can be a livelihood, whether it is working in a factory or at home. Ms. Jankowski said that sewing “is a way out” for those who fall into poverty.

Gigi Salka said sewing is also a way forward for immigrant and refugee women in Detroit. Ms. Salka is the leader of the Zaman International BOOST training program, a non-profit organization that provides services to poor and marginalized women and children (including immigrants and refugees) in the Detroit area. In 2016, the group received 15 machines, plus an embroidery machine, a sewing machine, and an industrial sewing machine to provide courses for refugee and immigrant women from war-torn countries such as Yemen and Syria. Zaman began to provide a two-year sewing instruction program. Graduates usually make money by modifying and making custom clothing at home.

"Many of our clients have many barriers-language, transportation, childcare," Ms. Sarca said. "Entrepreneurship has done a great job for them."

The pandemic disrupted the classroom, but it also created new opportunities for women. "We gave them cloth. They took the machine home. They made masks," Ms. Sarka said. "In a group of five dollars that is very different, any extra income, any extra dollar is one dollar they can have."

Ms. Sarca said that sewing has also helped these women in other ways. "Sewing is very powerful. You saw it in a hopeless crowd; the ability to create products is very powerful for them. They are so proud. They walked around and said,'I did this.'"

The idea is being tested in Rankin County, Mississippi. A local woman, Renee Smith, persuaded prison officials to allow her to start a sewing program for women at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. Her goal is to help girls in countries such as Uganda and Haiti produce reusable menstrual pads. Girls in these countries often do not go to school during menstruation or drop out of school altogether because of lack of hygiene products. Ms. Smith and the prisoners prepared backpacks filled with menstrual pads and cotton underwear.

She said that the prisoners were happy that they had something to do, but sewing for female students from afar gave them a sense of mission. Sometimes she will bring photos of these distant beneficiaries. A prisoner posted a picture of a Ugandan girl on her sewing machine. "They know they are changing other people's lives," she said. "It's huge to me."

Some of the biggest beneficiaries of the sewing machine project are the Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans, an African-American community known for the exquisite feather and beaded suits they wore for Mardi Gras. This effort also started with a disaster. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the city and hit the African-American community particularly hard. Cherice Harrison-Nelson, also known as Queen Reesie, was also an early collaborator on the sewing machine project. She said that making carnival suits was an important cottage industry in the city, but many people lost their machines in the hurricane.

"When you don't have a sewing machine to create your hustle and bustle, or your side business, this is [a] economic challenge," she said. Since the Hurricane, the Sewing Machine Project has distributed hundreds of machines in New Orleans, many of which are for creators of Mardi Gras costumes.

The other machines eventually got closer to home. Trisha Juisto was released from Sauk County Prison to a halfway house in Madison, where she participated in a sewing class in an effort to overcome dependence on methamphetamine and cocaine.

She was nervous at first. In high school, she failed in home economics, partly because she hadn't completed the pillowcase project. "I still remember that I messed up when I was a kid, and I don't know how to sew."

But she persisted. She learned enough basic knowledge and finally sewed a handbag with shoulder straps and three pockets, two on the outside and one on the inside.

"My bag got a lot of compliments," she said. "It makes you feel very good." She hopes to learn enough that one day she can take the machine home and sew herself. She has children and their clothes need to be repaired and changed; she also hopes to make money by working for other people. "I want to learn how to fix clothes," she said. "This is a big deal."

The sewing machine project is not going well. There have been setbacks along the way and lessons have been learned. It has to tighten the donation guidelines; the machine must be fully functional. It found that programs that teach sewing, such as Zaman International in Detroit, only like one type of machine; the hodgepodge of Singles, Brothers, and Berninas only complicates learning. This is why in 2018 Ms. Jankowski asked Brother Sewing Machine Company for a gift of 500 new machines, 25 of which went to Detroit.

Ms. Jankowski and a small group of volunteers ran the sewing machine project outside the Lutheran Church on the south side of Madison, just across from Monona Lake. On a recent morning, Ms. Yankowski and Annette Bollig, a long-time volunteer, were there to pack the machine and prepare it to be sent to Guatemala. The machines on the racks filled the room. The machine is tested and lubricated before it leaves the factory; those who fail will be banished to the corridor. Large plastic boxes containing large amounts of sewing supplies are stacked against the wall.

When the morning sun poured in, the two women wrapped the machine in bubble wrap and placed them in a cardboard box. Then, they pack as many fabrics and supplies around as possible-spools, buttons, tape measures, spools, slitters, and other necessities. "We loaded a lot of supplies in this shipment because they live in a remote place," Ms. Yankovsky said.

She wants to do more. "I might receive 10 to 15 emails from international organizations every week. The content is'Can we buy some sewing machines?'" she said. "We have no money." She dreamed of opening a sewing school in the country, but she said, "We can't do it now." Nevertheless, she was a little surprised when she recalled how far the project has gone since it started. , Really, after the 2004 tsunami, on an impulse.

"In the beginning, I didn't know if there was enough demand," she said when the day's packing work came to an end. "Gosh, there are so many needs."

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Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct attribution errors. Zaman International’s comments were published by Gigi Salka.

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