EXCHANGE: Librarian's Pillow Project teaches sewing skills

DANVILLE, Ill. (AP) - With social media and video games preoccupying many middle schoolers these days, it's a little unusual that eighth-graders at North Ridge Middle School in Danville are clamoring for a chance to sew the old-fashioned way with needle and thread.

Librarian Kimberly Blodgett started the Pillow Project last year as a way to keep children who were excused from physical education busy while they were in her care in the library.

After the children grew bored of playing Scrabble and games on the library's computers, Blodgett decided to share a hobby of hers: sewing.

Word spread around the school about the Pillow Project going on in the library, and Blodgett found herself fielding requests from both boys and girls alike to take up sewing during their lunch period.

"They're calm while they are working on their pillow, they help each other out, and they like it here because they're not in a noisy cafetorium," she said. "When the bell rings, no one wants to stop."

By the end of last school year, 72 seventh- and eighth-graders had designed and sewn their own pillows, she said.

"I was buying fabric on my own until (Superintendent) Dr. Geddis told me there was money available for that," she said.

Blodgett applied for and received a $500 grant from the Danville Public School Foundation that helped defray the cost of the materials and allowed her to expand the Pillow Project to all 300-plus eighth-graders this year.

"It's not only a girl thing," she said. "I just had four boys sign up for the next session."

It takes about a week to create a pillow, and Blodgett can accommodate 10 children at a time for a sewing session.

"They pick out the fabric. They have to take a ruler and measure it and cut it," she said. "They design their pillow and sew it, and they have to at least sew a button on it."

Not only is the Pillow Project a math lesson in disguise, but the children hone their fine motor skills and gain a life skill of learning how to sew.

"Three boys were making camo pillows last year and their stitches were getting too big, so we had a contest to see who could make the smallest stitches," Blodgett said of encouraging the children to sew neatly.

Blodgett allows the students to be as creative as they like when embellishing their pillow. Most of them use fabric paint to write their initials or name, or they decorate their pillow some other way. One girl broke open colorful markers and created a tie-dyed effect on the fabric of her sugar skull pillow.

"Five kids so far this year have made pillows for their moms," she said.

This year, Blodgett is encouraging the children to add a small note while stuffing their pillow.

"They could write what their dream is for their future or something they love about their mom on a little sticky note in the stuffing," she said.

Eighth-grader Krista Hurst was finishing a pillow with treble signs and music notes all over it. Krista said she selected that particular fabric because she is a cello player.

As she sewed one end of the pillow closed, she said, "My mom taught me how to sew one time, but I didn't get it."

"I'm debating whether to give this to my mom or my teacher," Krista said of her creation. "My mom loves pillows, my teacher loves music and I love both."

Krista's classmates were impressed when the pocket on Krista's hoodie ripped and she sewed it back on.

"She was walking around sewing on the hoodie," eighth-grader Olivia Roberts said.

Ethan Fox planned to give his purple heart-shaped pillow to his mom.

"My great-grandma taught me how to sew when I was 8 or 9," he said. "She made everyone in my family a quilt for Christmas. I still sleep with her quilt every night."

Karissa Torres said the Mickey Mouse theme pillow she made would be the perfect birthday gift for her sister.

"I'm going to give it to my sister," she said. "Her birthday was Oct. 3, and I didn't get her anything yet."

Natori Williams said her favorite part of the project was "decorating and sewing" her pillow.

"I liked adding the polka dots," she said.

A'Aleah Hillsman said, "I liked picking out my fabric. It goes with the theme of my room."

Sariah Chestnut was just beginning to sew her pillow, but she already knew how she wanted to decorate it.

"I'm going to put my name on it and paint it," she said.

"Some kids who made pillows last year tell me they still have it on their bed," Blodgett said. "This project has been really gratifying."

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Source: (Danville) Commercial-News, https://bit.ly/2MIToo7

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Information from: Commercial-News, http://www.dancomnews.com