Threads of Hope

The Sewing Machine Project helps mend lives, worldwide.

By Samantha Cavallo
Pewaukee, WI

For many women, sewing is more than just a pleasant hobby—it’s a vital source of income.

That’s what spurs Margaret Jankowski to collect, recondition and send sewing machines by the dozens from her Monona, WI home to areas struck by disasters.

Margaret started The Sewing Machine Project in 2005, after reading about a woman, a tailor, who’d lost her machine in the Southeast Asia tsunami. She gathered about 25 machines, mostly from individuals no longer using them, got them in running order and shipped them to Sri Lanka.

Sewing’s long been an important part of Margaret’s own life. Her mother taught her to sew at a young age, and as an adult, Margaret worked in a sewing center and taught classes. She can’t imagine herself without a sewing machine, and she knows other women feel the same way.

Since that first shipment, The Sewing Machine Project has delivered more than 500 machines. They’ve gone to places like Liberia, Mexico and—closer to home—New Orleans.

“So many people lost their businesses after Hurricane Katrina,” Margaret says. “A donated sewing machine helped get them back on their feet again.”
It was in New Orleans that Margaret became known as “the sewing machine angel.” She recalls one “miracle” donation to a new community center that had requested five identical machines.

It was a tall order, but one that would make teaching classes infinitely easier.

A school came through, donating five identical machines, tuned up and ready to stitch.

Caring, One on One
But more typically, donations have gone to individuals.

“Everywhere I go, everyone is so grateful,” she says. “I knew I had to keep going.”
And she has, often traveling far afield to teach women how to use their new machines. In Mexico, she says, women who’d always hand-sewn goods were thrilled to see how much faster they could work—and how much more they could earn for their families. In war-torn Kosovo, she’s distributed machines to help create jobs for some of the hundreds of widows.

“For a lot of people, a sewing machine means the difference between being self-sustaining or not,” she says. “In situations like theirs, people often feel as if they’re forgotten, so it’s nice to make them feel remembered. And I love being able to empower people to make a difference in their own community.”
Editor’s Note: To learn how to donate a sewing machine or money to help ship one, visit The Sewing Machine Project Web site via ours, clicking on “Links.”

Editor’s Note: To learn how to donate a sewing machine or money to ship one, visit The Sewing Machine Project Web site via countrywomanmagazine.com/links.