First United Church of Oak Park, 848 Lake St., has hosted the Sewing Circle for more than 80 years. This month marks its last session, as the aging members have decided to lay down their needles.
Lucille Beaulieu, president of the group for several decades, is in her 90s and decided to retire due to health ailments.
Eileen Gull, an Oak Park octogenarian, has been a member for more than 30 years.
“I am actually a member of St. Edmund,” she noted, “but anyone who wants to can join the Sewing Circle, no matter what church they belong to,” she explained. Gull said at one time there were more St. Edmund parishioners than First United members so joked that it should really be called the St. Edmund Sewing Circle.
“Every Tuesday, we work from 10 in the morning till 2 in the afternoon, with a stop for coffee and,” Gull said.
And?
“You know, coffee and lunch, which we would all bring ourselves and eat together. Plus we would pay dues of 50 cents a week to help cover costs.”
Far from being just a social coffee klatsch, however, the ladies sewed with a sense of mission.
“We have several charities that we knit for-we never sell any of our items. Oh, no! That would be so wrong,” she said. Gull is a sewer and creates “kimonos for the babies-you know, the fold-and-tie shirts for the little ones.” Other members knit.
“Oh, the knitters create the most beautiful things,” she said, slippers among them. “We also create lap robes for the wheelchair-bound-to keep them warm-and also shawls.”
The church, through its members, donates the materials and then distributes the handcrafted items to assorted area not-for-profit groups.
“People donate flannel and other materials but anything for the babies is always new,” Gull emphasized.
Charlotte Littrell of Oak Park has been a member for five years. “I am a knitter,” she said matter-of-factly, referring to the unique identity or skill each member brings to the Sewing Circle. “And we have some women from Holley Court who are wonderful crocheters.”
Littrell’s contribution is mittens. “I knit small, medium and large for children and teenagers.” She spends “about two weeks” creating the homemade handwarmers. “I don’t count how many I make, but it is quite a few,” she said. “And I hear they are very pleased with my work.” Littrell said she crafts both solids and stripes, using whatever yarn is given to her.
Gull remembers when the Sewing Circle had 20 or more ladies, but there are fewer than eight now.
“Young people don’t know how to sew,” she said. “Our youngest members are in their 80s.”
Gull said that when their president was recently hospitalized and resigned, everyone in the group agreed it was time for their tight-knit circle to disband at last.
Sew long, ladies.
