Bee a Blessing

Long ago, people would hold a “bee,” a gathering of friends and neighbors to accomplish a task. The tasks were often big jobs, such as raising a barn, which would be difficult to do alone. The bees were also social events, giving the friends and neighbors time to visit while doing the work. For the last few years, my daughter and I resurrected the tradition of a sewing bee and started what we hope will be a yearly tradition of our own: a “Christmas Stocking Bee” to make Christmas stockings for our local children’s hospital.

The idea came about as I was looking for a way to encourage my daughter’s interest in learning to sew. I thought it would be good for her to make something simple to give away, either as a gift or as a charitable donation. I remembered the knitted hat she received at the hospital when she was born and also a small teddy bear she received when she had tubes put in her ears. So I went online and checked out the website for our local children’s hospital, thinking they might have a simple teddy bear pattern for her to use.

It turned out that they have a variety of handmade items that they accept as donations including blankets and quilts of all sizes, pillows, large boppers, solid-colored tote canvas bags, muslin teaching dolls that they allow the patients to decorate, and Christmas stockings. The Christmas stockings immediately caught my eye as a very simple sewing project that could also be a lot of fun, especially if we included some of my daughter’s friends in the project.

Before I went too far in planning the bee, I contacted the volunteer department at the hospital to make sure they had a need for the stockings. I didn’t want to have the girls make a bunch of stockings and then find out they had enough left over from last year! Fortunately for us, they did need some more, so the party plans began. The stockings the hospital use are much larger than your typical Christmas stocking, so they sent me a copy of the pattern they wanted us to use.

I was fortunate to find some really cute Christmas fabric on sale, so I stocked up on several different festive designs, being sure to adhere to the fabric guidelines given to me by the hospital. I then sent invitations to some of my daughter’s friends, asking them to bring their own scissors and a heart ready to bless a sick child. I also asked a few of the girls bring their sewing machines. We set up four sewing machines on the kitchen table and I set up a table in the living room which we used to trace the pattern onto the fabric and cut out the stockings.

The girls had a great time visiting as they cut and sewed the stockings and they all rotated to the different stations so that everyone would get a turn at the sewing machines. I had one of the moms iron the hems to make it easier for the girls to sew and the other moms helped with tracing and cutting to give the girls as much sewing time as possible. The girls did all the sewing (and most of the cutting) themselves and we were able to complete almost 50 stockings in just a couple of hours! It was a fun project that allowed the girls to use their sewing skills in a behind-the-scenes ministry that blessed many sick children stuck in the hospital during the holidays.

We held our bee in October so that the hospital could have the stockings in time to plan for Christmas. If you would like to have a sewing bee with your daughter, you can do it any time of the year and it doesn’t have to be for Christmas stockings. You could have any kind of Sewing Bee to make items to donate.

The best place to start is by contacting your local children’s hospital, community hospital, or other charitable organization to see what items they accept as donations. Our party incorporated girls ranging in age from 11 to 15 years old. If you want to include younger siblings, you may want to give them the job of stuffing pillows, boppers, or other items that may need stuffing.

This was a very inexpensive and low-frills party to throw. My only purchases were the fabric, thread, and some light refreshments.

The time investment was only a couple of hours. But the return value of blessing others and teaching my daughter to use her talents to serve in obscurity was priceless.

Jennifer R. has been married for 20 years to her college sweetheart and began homeschooling her two daughters in 2003, while also working full-time as a computer analyst. Four years later, she was blessed to be able to come home to be with her daughters full-time. She tries to cherish every day she spends at home with her family as she trains her children to use their natural gifts and abilities to glorify God and serve others. In her free time, she enjoys reading, singing, and crafts and loves to organize theme-based parties. Be sure to visit her blog at Reflections by Jennifer.

Tags: Charity Items, Christmas Fabric, Encouragement, Gift Giving, Handmade Items, Helping Others, Sewing

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