Region women stitch together humor in sewing project

SCHERERVILLE, Ind. (AP) - Singer sewing machines hummed as women of the self-dubbed United Nations Sewing Club stitched together holiday cheer for veterans and joked about the need for 60-something single men to pay them a visit.

It's all the laborious fruit of eight Region women who stitch away every week on hundreds of fabric holiday stockings and cloth goody bags - mostly intended for veterans, active duty military personnel and VA hospital patients - in the cavernous Schererville basement of Barb Thompson, 73.

It started three years ago with a challenge from Thompson to seven friends in her health club swimming group. She had been sewing for such volunteer causes on a smaller scale and wanted to expand.

It has morphed over the years into an eight-strong band of sister-seamstresses who jokingly dub their group the United Nations Sewing Club because of the many ethnic groups - Japanese, Korean, Italian, Polish and German - represented in their circle of good will.

The eight women range in age from 52 to 77 and hail from Schererville, Highland, Crown Point, Munster and St. John.

Each Tuesday, beginning in spring and leading up the holidays, the women gather in Thompson's basement and create scores of stockings and goody bags out of reams of donated fabric and hundreds of spools of thread. Most of their material brightens the lives of soldiers and veterans through the VFW, Operation Care Package and the Adam Benjamin Jr. VA Clinic in Crown Point.

But some of the stockings and bags also provide holiday cheer to region children's shelters and others in need of a smile.

Last year, the sewing crew produced 2,100 stockings, Thompson said. This year, as of three weeks ago, they were already at 2,060 and going strong. They're also on track to produce about 500 cloth goody bags.

On a recent Tuesday morning, Thompson's basement more closely resembled a fabric supply outlet, with bolts of donated cloth in piles throughout the room.

"This is our sweat shop," said group participant Nancy Kraus, 77, of Highland, as she sorted stockings last month in the basement where it all happens. "Please let the eligible elderly men know we're down here."

The crew gladly accepts donations of fabric, thread and other sewing supplies, which can be dropped off at the Griffith VFW Ladies Auxiliary at 301 E. Main St., Thompson said.

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Source: The (Munster) Times, http://bit.ly/1OA0RTF

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Information from: The Times, http://www.thetimesonline.com