Even before it’s sent, a gift from a Victorian sewing group has produced tears of gratitude from its recipients.
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Children’s clothing, including dresses, pyjamas, shorts, t-shirts and tops, are due to head north this week to assist drought-stricken families in Julia Creek, sewn by six Wodonga women.
Sewing teacher Heather Dyke said they wanted to do something about the drought.
“We’ve got skills, why can’t we use our skills to help somebody else?” she said.
“When we contacted Dubbo, they’d had a lot of help, so they said maybe you look up further north.”
That led them to Julia Creek and a community representative moved to tears when she heard of the plan.
“She was so overcome that somebody had actually thought about them up there,” she said.
The Border group put aside their other projects and dedicated a whole session, although it ended up taking a little longer, to sew the clothes.
They worked as a team using their existing materials.
“We’ve been sewing for so long you tend to hoard fabrics and you’ve got bits and pieces everywhere,” Mrs Dyke said.
“We had a lovely time doing it.
“Some would be sewing up one lot of seams, then somebody would be at the iron giving it a bit of a press and somebody doing the next bit.”
Several members have attended Mrs Dyke’s classes for years and the three-hour sessions each week are valued as both sewing and social occasions.
“You do a bit of talking and have a cup of tea in the middle of it all,” Mrs Dyke said with a smile.