Local Girls Sew Up Hope for Several Charities

While most school children are spending their summer on vacation or at the beach, a group of local girls spent a week participating in a Children's Charity Sewing Camp.  Hayley Breines, 8, of Grayslake, and Lauren, 13, and Amy Caffarelli, 10, of Vernon Hills signed up for the class held by Sew Much Fun owner, Celeste Breen.

The girls spent four days on several projects under Breen's supervision.  They made blankets for Project Linus, pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer, dresses for Little Dresses for Africa, shorts for Britches for Boys, and TLC bags for Tender Loving Care Ministries, Inc.

In addition to creating the items, the girls supplied the fabric for the blankets, pillowcases and shorts, and stocked the TLC bags with toiletries.  The fabric for the dresses and bags came from the American Sewing Guild, of which Breen is a member.

The lessons didn't end when the girls cut the last thread.  They went along to drop off the blankets and pillowcases at in Grayslake, a local drop-off for Project Linus and ConKerr Cancer.  Breen will ship the dresses and shorts to Nancy's Notions in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and the TLC bags to TLC Ministries in Potomac, Maryland. 

Breen came up with the idea through her local American Sewing Guild chapter.  She helped the Guild make 15 blankets for Project Linus in January, and pillowcases in 2011.  She felt they would be projects her students could handle.   After researching more charities, she decided on the blankets, pillowcases, dresses, shorts and TLC bags.   She wanted to teach the girls a lesson in charity as well as sewing.

This was Lauren's fifth sewing camp with Sew Much Fun, but her first charity camp.  She looks forward to the camps every summer, as does her sister, Amy.  Their mother, Jill Caffarelli, is "happy my girls are learning a life skill."  Hayley, who will be entering 3rd grade next year, "…loved the way Mrs. Breen teaches us so that we understand.  Her classes are amazing and fun." 

Penny Breines, Hayley's mother, added that she really liked the charity aspect of the camp.  "The fact that the girls were making projects to give away to others was very rewarding to them." 

This is just one of five sewing camps scheduled at Sew Much Fun this summer.  Breen has been holding camps in her home for more than ten years.  Of her annual summer camps, two are for beginners and three are for other projects.  The purse camp is a favorite of her students.  In addition, she holds sewing lessons after school and private lessons all year long.  

For more information on her sewing classes, visit the Sew Much Fun website or friend her on facebook.

-Submitted by Michelle Prima, Prima By Design, Inc.