SHEBOYGAN – Pink flamingos dressed in sunglasses, ladybugs, ballerinas and dogs are just some of the prints featured on the dresses of sisters Mary Leonhard and Nancy Zvitkovits helped the pillowcases.
When launching the task in the spring of 2021, they first aimed to make a hundred dresses. Then they raised this purpose to 200. To date, they have made almost 400 dresses.
Leonhard and Zvitkovits manufacture pillowcases for Hope for Haiti’s Children, a Christian organization that works with youth in Haiti through various programs, including access to education, youth leadership, health care, and crisis relief.
Zvitkovits said his church, St. Petersburg Lutheran Church. John, took her to the pillowcase dresses. Paul in Sheboygan Falls, who was sponsoring a project in Guatemala.
At first, Zvitkovits with a pillowcase, but seeing the good luck he had, he became “bolder” and began to bring more than one pillowcase house to transform.
“My husband got tired of hearing me say, ‘OK, now look,’ because I hung them in the kitchen and that’s where I do my sewing. And I was like, ‘OK, now of all those dresses, which is your favorite?”I was tired every week of having to decide on a favorite,” Zvitkovits joked.
She started making the dresses from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It took up my time,” Zvitkovits said. I had been an instructor and retired before COVID hit, just before, and I had never had much free time to worry about things like that. So, it was a new step. ” and I’ve become kind of obsessive compulsive about it.
After Zvitkovits began to make some dresses, he shared the task with his sister. They started making the dresses for another organization and donated materials.
“(I said) this might be a task that maybe we get involved in,” Leonhard said. “And we built on that. And I said, “Well, if you need to do that, I can get pillowcases. “
Leonhard, who is the coordinator of the TAPP/Parenting Lab program at Sheboygan Central High School, emailed workers in the Sheboygan Area School District. They received many donations.
Zvitkovits said he couldn’t provide pillowcases but was still looking for help finding other ways, such as donating yarn and fabric.
Lori Roelse, instructor of instruction and knowledge at Pigeon River and Lincoln-Erdman elementary schools, one of the other people who saw Leonhard’s order for pillowcase dress fabrics.
As she herself was an artisan, sewing, quilting, weaving and crocheting in her spare time, she had a surplus of fabric.
“I’ve been sewing, and a lot of times, when someone, maybe like her mother, has died or her grandmother and she had a fabric fountain, other people touch me and ask me if I’d like the fabric because they themselves don’t use it’s not like that,” Roelse said. So, I’ll say yes, because I love sewing and fabric, and I have a pretty large reserve, and I don’t have enough time to devote to that. So I remembered Mary’s email and touched her to see if she would like anything. So, I checked it out to see what was right for the dresses, and then sent it to him.
Roelse estimates that he donated two to three rolls of tissue paper.
He had helped his niece when she was in eighth grade with a similar project, Little Dresses for Africa, so he knew the goal and mission. Roelse said he hopes the young people who get the dresses can feel the love that has been put into making them.
“Taking anything off a shelf, you know it can also be wonderful, however, for me, I like to know that my time and Array. . . maybe smart wishes or hugs are sewn or woven into the gift,” Roelse said. Dresses, I think the little women who get them are told they made them for themselves. There’s additional meaning to that. “
The pillowcase was first worn for Leonhard.
“I’ve done some things, but this is my first really complete club and I think the explanation of why it is that for me makes a lot of sense and also, with my students, it’s fun to light this fireplace. “for them too,” Leonhard said.
Leonhard works with teen mothers as part of Central High School’s TAPP/Parenting Lab program, and said she sees the task of dressing in the pillowcase as an opportunity for her students to get involved.
“They’ve become passionate enough to do that for a while, which was great,” Leonhard said.
Thanks to a grant requested through Leonhard, the Sheboygan Public Education Foundation donated an embroidery device for schoolchildren to use, speeding up the clothing-making procedure. They had to practice sewing, embroidery, knotting dyeing, implements and assortment.
“They learned a lot about how to align those things,” Leonhard said. “It’s become a challenge because my sister is wonderful to match. I was coming in. . . and I threw one. I said, “Who’s going to decide on a style and who’s going to beat my sister by playing?”
Zvitkovits said the academics did incredibly well.
After sending a call to the Sheboygan area school district, Leonhard is on a project to get more pillowcases.
“My husband was very excited about it, and he’s retired, so he said, ‘I’m going to call some of the local businesses,’ and he started with hotels,” Leonhard said. “And so, several hotels have been very generous with pillowcases and sheets. They call us when they have a group, and we pick them up.
Several hotels where they have donated fabrics for the dresses are the Rochester Inn in Sheboygan Falls, stafford 52 in Plymouth, The LaQuinta Inn Sheboygan and the Super 8.
Kristi Timgren, who works at Super 8, estimates the hotel donated two 33-gallon garbage bags with pillowcases and sheets.
“We usually throw them away, so we just throw them away, give them away,” Timgren said. esteem. “
Charlayne Boyd, director of Hope for Haiti’s Children’s Ohio Workplace, said the organization has most likely gained at least 1,000 dresses from other states directly at its workplace since it began ordering pillowcase dresses after a catastrophic magnitude 7. 0 earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010. The Haitian government estimates that more than 300,000 deaths and thousands of other cases of displacement resulted from the event.
“When the earthquake happened and so many other people lost so many things, they didn’t have much to start with anymore, I think other people in the United States saw it and saw a wish and a pillowcase is a very simple thing to convert. “dress.
If you have a given pillowcase, Zvitkovits cuts the top, creates a curve to make a neckline, and then inserts an envelope for the elastic. Then sew tape to the bies for the location of the coat sleeves and add a purse and ornaments on top.
Boyd added that the pillowcases are easy to wash, temporarily dry and thin enough for Haiti’s warm climate, making them an option for sewing.
She said she hoped dresses with pillowcases would give young people a sense of dignity.
“I think it’s helpful to know that there are other people who care about them and how they’re doing and whether they have good enough materials or just fundamental things like anything to cover their body,” Boyd said.
Seeing their progress, Leonhard and Zvitkovits raised their purpose from one hundred dresses to two hundred dresses.
But last August, two herbal errors hit Haiti, forcing the sisters to send their first shipment of gowns before achieving their purpose at Bellevue of Christ Church in Nashville, Tennessee, a church that takes their donations to Haiti on project trips.
On August 14, 2021, a magnitude 7. 2 earthquake struck southwestern Haiti, killing more than 1900 people and injuring and displacing thousands more, according to the New York Times. Three days later, Tropical Depression Grace brought heavy rain and winds to the region. hitting thousands of other people already seeking shelter and medical attention after the earthquake.
“My daughter said to me, Array. . ” They want it, and they want it now. Why don’t you get them right away? Because we were going to wait until we had the full 200,” Zvitkovits said. “And it was like” Absolutely. Let’s send them without delay to Haiti.
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Leonhard and Zvitkovits are executing the shipment of pillowcase dresses through Hope for Haiti’s Children that will ship in the coming months.
Those who wish to donate pillowcases or fabrics that can be used to make pillowcase dresses, such as fabrics, sheets, and threads, can donate fabrics to Central High School, 621 S. Water St. , Sheboygan.
Contact Alex Garner at 224-374-2332 or agarner@gannett. com. Follow her on Twitter in @alexx_garner.