Maple Grove resident Velma Potts, was surprised when Lois Fredeen, leader of the Touchglobal group at Wayzata Free Church, informed her that she’d sewn the vast majority of 1,000 pillowcase dresses. She hadn’t been counting. Her response was a calm, “Oh, I did?”
Potts came by sewing naturally since her mother sewed for her eight children. She began sewing her own clothes out of feed sacks when she was in junior high in the early 1940s. Later, she sewed for her own children and grandchildren. Besides sewing, Potts has enjoyed doing other types of handiwork. The Potts’s apartment is filled with hand-painted flowers on plates, Swedish weaving and many other things she has made.
Creating pillowcase dresses is a recent addition to her sewing repertoire. Touchglobal is a women’s group in many Evangelical Free churches that specializes in sewing and other projects for the needy. Besides pillowcase dresses, the Wayzata group creates mittens for people in Mongolia and colder places in Africa as well as quilts for a women’s shelter in Minneapolis. Mothers have the opportunity to earn baby layettes and small quilts through New Life Family Services, care of Touchglobal’s handiwork.
The group sewed their first pillowcase sundresses two to three years ago. They were delivered to Haiti by Steve Hanson of Beyond Our Door, a ministry that began at Church of the Open Door in Maple Grove. He had previously distributed pillowcase dresses for six years to little girls in Haiti, Uganda and Kenya. In a thank you letter Steve wrote, “This may not seem like a big deal, but these girls have never had a new dress. They have never smelled new fabric…One dress means so much.”
After the next thirty-five dresses, Potts was hooked. They became her specialty. “Other members make them too, but Potts makes the most,” says Fredeen. “She has a servant heart.”
One reason that Potts makes so many is that her husband has Alzheimer’s disease. He attends adult daycare two days a week, but Potts must stay home with him several days a week. During this time he naps a lot and she sews dresses.
Potts, and other women from her Touchglobal group, search Goodwill and other thrift stores for pillowcases in good condition. They watch for sales on bias tape, rick rack and other trims as each dress uses a yard of bias tape. One time Potts decided to e-mail Wrights®, the bias tape maker, and tell them about her projects. They sent a large supply of bias tape and other trims.
The pillowcases come in many colors and designs. Potts likes those that have fancy edges. Many people have saved their “mom-made” and “grandma-made” pillowcases for years and finally realize they will never use them, so they decide to give them to someone who will. The women call these the “pretty dresses” and those made of modern cases are the “fun dresses.”
This summer Potts received pillowcases in solid colors of green, white and lavender. Instead of making one dress in each color, she mixed and matched, using the top third for the bodice and a different color for the skirt.
Touchglobal in Wayzata sends dresses overseas through many different organizations. Their own church supports a mission in Peru, which a group from the church visits every year and delivers dresses. Earlier this year the group donated to St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church of Maple Grove. They will bring the dresses to their “sister-parish,” Sainte Catherine d’Alexandre de Bousy, in Haiti this month.
“It would be fun to be able to deliver them myself,” Potts says. “I’d like to see all the children gather around in excitement.” Potts plans to keep making pillowcase dresses for as long as she can. Maybe someday she will lead the group to making the 2,000th dress.
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You can support the further creation of dresses with a donation of good, used pillowcases or new bias tape. Simply bring or mail them to Wayzata Free Church, 705 Co. Rd. 101 North, Plymouth, Minnesota 55447, 763.473.9463.
