Give Ann Farley some donated fabric, a little free time, and a worthy cause-and watch out! The not-exactly-retired Niantic resident who organized efforts last summer to make and ship 2,400 neck coolers to American soldiers in Iraq is back at it again.
Farley was in Albuquerque last year and saw an article in the newspaper about a woman making neck coolers. She contacted the woman, got the sewing directions, and looked up the Connecticut president of the Blue Star Mothers, a military family support group. The mothers would take care of shipping the neck coolers to troops in Iraq; Farley and other volunteers just needed to get them made before the hot season started.
Last year, 70 volunteers, many of them members of the Clamshell Quilt Guild, which meets in Waterford, got together at the East Lyme Community Center.
"They gave an hour here, a few weeks, and we got it done," she said. "It can get to over 130 degrees in those tanks. We wanted to get them shipped out quickly."
In total, it took about a month for everyone to get the work done.
These neck coolers can be found in all sorts of lollipop colors and patterns, designed for athletes and beach bums. But since no American serviceman or woman needs to stick out with mango or magenta neckwear in the middle of the desert, the ones destined for military duty must be made of appropriately drab camouflage fabric.
Farley initially bought the fabric from a mill down in Atlanta, expecting that to be her donation if she could find others to contribute some time. But once she mentioned to friends and neighbors what she was doing, the donations poured in.
Farley thought she was done with the neck coolers and planned to give the soldiers pre-paid phone cards this year while she moved on to another sewing project. Then she found an extra bolt of camouflage fabric in her garage. She estimates there is enough fabric left to make about 150 more neck coolers. So the volunteers are back at it.
On a recent Friday night, Shirley Glynn of Niantic was cutting the knit camouflage fabric into long rectangular strips. Small amounts of Soil Moist, a synthetic acrylic copolymer used to conserve moisture in landscaping and container plantings, are sewn into compartments on the inside. When dipped in water, the crystals expand exponentially, so the hydrated neck cooler looks like a sausage, Farley said. The coolers can be refrigerated or frozen to provide cooling evaporation for several hours as they dry out and shrink back down. They can be reused multiple times.
Meanwhile, Farley came across volunteer efforts to make diapers out of used T-shirts for babies in Haiti. The diapers are being donated through the Haitian Health Foundation, started by Jeremiah J. Lowney Jr., D.D.S, of Norwich. She went on the Internet to find sewing directions and called the foundation and asked if they needed some diapers.
"These poor countries, they don't have disposable diapers, and if they did, they wouldn't have the places to dispose of them," she said. "How many people have T-shirts in their homes that they aren't using?"
The fabric must be at least 50 percent cotton, for softness, but can be any color. Patterns are OK, as long as the fabric surface is still soft enough for a baby's bottom.
With Farley's garage full of several hundred donated T-shirts, she is looking for more volunteers to help cut up the shirts and sew them into diapers. Anyone, or any club or organization interested in helping, can get involved. Participants are asked to bring their own sewing machines, sharp scissors, and sewing thread.
It is OK that the diapers end up in varying sizes, based on the size of the T-shirts. On a recent Friday evening at the center, volunteers showed how the portion below the armpits is cut off and with one vertical cut and a couple of folds, can be turned into a diaper with the thickest portion being four layers thick. Edges are then stitched so the diaper holds its shape.
The sewing machines don't need to be fancy or perform special stitches. Jane McLane of Niantic brings in an old beauty of a portable sewing machine, all cast iron and black enamel paint, the kind that makes antique collectors drool.
Pam Benson of Niantic moved here recently from Simsbury. She likes to make soft dolls, and met Ann at a crafts show and decided to help out.
"Why not? Why does anybody volunteer?" Farley replied when asked why she has so much energy for these projects. "I'm very lucky in my life and I'm more than willing to share."
With that, she put her foot on the pedal of her sewing machine and the needle took off across a swatch of soft coral cotton fabric destined to comfort a baby in Haiti.
Upcoming workshops are being held at the East Lyme Community Center on Fridays, March 14 and 28, and April 4, from 6 to 9 p.m. Farley is also looking for Girl Scouts, students, or other youth groups who are interested in working on the project.
For more information, call Ann Farley at 739-7876. See www.haitianhealthfoundation.org.