DIANE MAKAR MURPHY Sewing guild puts modern twist on a dying art

A meeting of the Silver Thimbles Sewing Club ...
The announcement conjures up an image of a half-dozen women sitting on overstuffed chairs in a living room, chatting about fabrics, needles between thumbs and forefingers.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, sport. This is the 21st century, remember?
The fabric chat is on target, and one person does have a needle and thread, but nothing else is right. We're talking about $4,000 embroidering machines that work while you're upstairs drinking coffee. We're talking about the American Sewing Guild with more than 19,000 members in thousands of Silver Thimbles neighborhood groups across the USA -- such as the one in Niles.
"When you're a member, you can go anywhere across the country and meet in a neighborhood club. It's $40 for a new member, $35 a year for renewal," said Debbie Maley, the Niles neighborhood group librarian. "Sewing is a dying art, and it's hoped we can rejuvenate interest among young people to sew."
But first, let's correct that outdated "sewing image"...
Club members
For the Niles neighborhood group -- one division of the Niles Chapter -- picture a dozen women sitting around empty tables, laughing and chatting in the back room of the Viking and White Sewing Center, Park Plaza, Niles. The walls are covered with slim plastic bags -- the kind you might find encasing a collector comic book -- each containing a sophisticated software program that, when put into an equally sophisticated sewing machine, will produce a work of art in thread.
Take, for example, the extravagant floral embroidery member Susan Stoddart, Niles Chapter president, made. Or the club shirts that feature the machine-embroidered words "American Sewing Guild" and a golden needle trailing red thread.
That is not to say members don't also sew-sew -- you know, the old-fashioned stuff. During Show and Tell -- the group members' chance to share ideas, ask questions and learn from one another -- Debbie showed off a flag pillow upon which she layered and frayed fabric to create chenille. Susan displayed her project -- the bodice of a 19th century wedding gown replica that sought to recreate brocade and Ottoman silk.
Barb Springer stood up to show her entire outfit, the pants of which fell neatly along her slim legs.
"When Barb does a project, she looks for fabrics for three or four years," a member commented. Barb agreed, which led to a discussion of fabric quality and online ordering. (Ah well, back to the future.)
Social events
Club members also benefit from learning opportunities such as classes (destined to make you covet those miraculous sewing machines), bus trips to fabric shops in Amish Country, workshops (such as one on quilting in August called "Gone to Pieces") and social events, such as the upcoming summer picnic for all Ohio guild members.
One facet of Silver Thimbles is sewing for charity. Current philanthropic projects for the Niles neighborhood group include contributing to a quilt to be donated to a local fire station and sewing special padded "stockings" to prevent bedsores on the feet and ankles of nursing home residents.
Each meeting features a reading of minutes, discussion of upcoming events, Show and Tell and a demonstration or display of a project a member tried out for the group -- such as a casserole carrier or a travel skirt that packs neatly into a suitcase.
You may be wondering why someone would sew in this era of cheap, mass produced everything.
"The creativity," Susan said. "And, with the new embroidery machines, [self-] embroidered clothing is actually less expensive than ready made. And, I don't know if you've noticed, but none of us are supermodels. The stuff at stores never fits exactly right."
murphy@vindy.com