Hobbycraft has just opened a new store in Oxford this August and they invited us to be part of the opening week to give awareness of our cause. I have to say it was a lovely and fantastic day in a beautiful, brand new, and bright store! Here are some stories about our pillowcase makers for the day.
We had two brilliant volunteers: Sergio and Susannah. Sergio was in charge of ironing. He declared his new name was Ironman. We all loved it!
Susannah was in charge of sewing, as myself, and teaching customers how to make pillowcases like this one.
But we did more than sewing pillowcases... We overcame the fear to the unknown...
and invited the manager to sew his first pillowcase.
It is so easy to sew a pillowcase that he quickly became very confident and could talk on the phone, manage the store...
and all of this while sewing...
and pinning...
and sewing...
He even had a crowd to admire his work.
And I really think he had lots of fun! As Sue, one of our very special volunteers and Hobbycraft's employee.
In her free time, Sue is making pillowcases with the Oxford Air Cadets to support ConKerr Cancer Oxford. How wonderful is that? I will be talking about this very soon...
What made the day even more special were our little volunteers, who came to sew pillowcases with their parents. Here is one of our little volunteers with his mum, after sewing his first pillowcase and eating cake...
We also had the youngest volunteers in the history of ConKerr Cancer Oxford. Alicia and William wanted to make pillowcases too. It was so much fun to watch them pin their pillowcases. We had to prepare them on the floor, because the tables were too tall for them.
Alicia was in love with the pins and enjoyed the pinning part.
They both did wonderfully! William is four and a half.
Alicia is only two and a half. She loved the princess fabric and shaking the pillowcases to turn them inside out. She would have melted your heart too!
And here are the finished pillowcases with a big smile!
Continuing with the youngest volunteers we ever had... let me introduce you to Tilly and Annie. Tilly is only 2.
We were cheering her up for her to press the pedal. It was so much fun!
Annie is 4 and you wouldn't believe this was her first pillowcase! She did a fantastic job!
And when she finished hers, she came to help her sister.
Beautiful, isn't it?
And here is the one Tilly (and Annie) made.
I have heard that their mum had to make them both a pillowcase when they arrived home.
Every kid participating got a sticker as the one shown in Tilly's T-shirt. There were also cakes after the hard work.
Tammy knew how to sew already, and she barely needed help to sew this pillowcase.
Another volunteer from Hobbycraft came to help too.
And we also had an incredible surprise. David, the manager, donated 50m of fabric to make 50 pillowcases. It was absolutely amazing!!! And they have such wonderful fabric in the store that it was like being in heaven. Sue was cutting the fabric for us while we were choosing it.
Every time a new pillowcase was made, it was hung up in the balcony.
Thank you very much to our volunteers for making this day possible. I think they had a great time too.
And a big thank you to Hobbycraft Oxford for inviting us, donating fabric, and facilitating everything they could. We had a fantastic day sewing pillowcases. Now, it is time for these pillowcases to bring some smiles at the hospital.
Our next sewing event will be at Hobbycraft Oxford on Saturday 1st September 2012 and it will be part of the Miles of Pillowcases Smiles. This is our main yearly event and it consists of sewing as many pillowcases as we can during the whole month of September. Join us in our quest for smiles and sew miles of pillowcases!
