Make Welcome Refugee Sewing School

09/04/2026

Open house today for Make Welcome classes! Great to meet so many new students and reconnect with returning ones. Plus even a few came that were program graduates! One student shared this message.

09/01/2026

I bought some fabric strips for sewing a bag off a cheap online store, and much to my surprise when they came it had a fish pattern. Not what I would have chosen, but I like the colors!

08/31/2026

Our amazing VESL lead teacher presented in Arabic so that volunteers could get a sense of how hard it is to learn when you can neither read nor understand the language in which you're being taught. 🔥🔥 This prompted great discussion on best practices on how to teach without interpreters.

08/27/2026

As we head into another year of classes, it's important to remind ourselves of the prerequisites for creating a community of healing and hope. One of those foundational principles is honor. We want our students to feel seen, heard, and celebrated.

08/19/2026

Classes are coming! We've got machines up and ready to go, and new Chromebooks charging. Class is just around the corner, and this may be one of our biggest years yet!

08/18/2026

We were so busy doing class prep that picture taking didn't really happen much. But here's a quick moment of precise measuring as we worked on preparing to welcome our 40 plus sewing students to a new year of classes.

08/14/2026

As this incredibly beautiful Afghan dress illustrates, many of our students come in knowing how to sew already. So why are we teaching? Well in the United States we use electric machines, patterns, precise measuring, and and different types of seam finishes. Plus there's a whole realm of English vocabulary that's needed to get a sewing job and isn't taught in regular esl. Our goal in classes is to help brand new sewers gain mastery, and experienced sewers transition their knowledge to American Manufacturing standards.

08/12/2026

Hey, friends! If you're interested in supporting our sewing classes this year, here is an easy way: Buy a gift from our wishlist. This is what we need for starting Make Welcome Refugee Sewing School this fall. We've got 45 students and some of our supplies are worn out, broken, etc, so we're replacing a few things. Thanks!

Find the perfect gift—no app download needed!

07/23/2026

AI decision making as illustrated by Guess Who. As one student commented, there are sure a lot of questions you have to ask to figure things out! She's not wrong. Also, we jumped into a little bit of Scratch programming, creating face responsive programs.

07/22/2026

Our new AI class for refugee women is following advice from the North Carolina Department of Information Technology latest report as we help our students understand the technology, evaluate the programs and learn how to use AI tools in their everyday lives.