Melanie Makes Meringues Teaching Needlework at the Homeless Day Centre
I have been teaching needlework at the Salvation Army Homeless Day Centre on a Wednesday afternoon for about two months now. It’s quite a small group and so far I have only had four ladies at the most. We started by making felt lavendar heart-shaped sachets.
I teach one technique/project per week and I finish anything that needs finishing off at home. I wanted to veer away from sewing people had done at school where it could take a whole year to make an apron for domestic science! I keep things short and snappy. The ladies love their completed projects and are delighted to take their bags, cushions etc away with them.
As we sew the ladies talk about their lives and I listen. The creativity is good and it’s something different from the difficult situations, mental health issues, substance abuse and housing problems that many of the ladies are dealing with. For the Auction of Promises I made my examples in to a cushion. The day centre is in it’s early days it only opened on March 1st 2010 so the Salvation Army are raising funds to run more projects.
I’m so blessed to live in a lovely, warm house.
Love Melanie x