Mrs. Fix-It

A CW staffer makes sure the "fix" is in.

The only thing bigger than Joanne Wied’s stash of crafting supplies is her heart.

If her name looks familiar, you may have noticed it in our magazine’s masthead. Joanne is Country Woman’s editorial assistant. After a day of answering readers’ mail and helping our staff in countless ways, she’s been known to take more work home with her… straight to her sewing room in Greendale, WI.

“I just got this big boxful the other day,” Joanne says, opening a carton brimming with sweatshirts, slacks, skirts, robes, nightgowns and blouses. “As you can see, the only thing that’s wrong with them is this small hole, where a bit of fabric was cut out from the bottom.”

The clothes are all samples from Country Store, our company’s catalog division. Swatches are snipped from their hems to make a color chart. This chart is checked against product photos that appear in the catalog to make sure the apparel’s true colors are represented in print.

“When I heard the samples were being thrown away, I asked if I could recycle them,” Joanne explains. “I can’t bear to waste good material.” In the past 8 years, more than 1,200 garments have been given a fashionable second chance.

“They’re easily fixed by cutting the bottom straight across, where the swatch is missing, and re-hemming them,” Joanne says. “On the sweatshirts, I also add new ribbing. Often, coworkers who like to sew volunteer to help me. We get a pretty efficient assembly line going.”

Stylish New Life
When the makeover’s complete, Joanne recruits her husband, Abner, to help deliver the like-new clothing to women’s shelters and charity thrift stores. But she’s still not finished.

“I make sweatshirts that are beyond repair into bibs for care centers,” she says. “The cuffs get recycled into warm mittens for our community’s winter wear drive.”

In her leisure time, Joanne enjoys—you guessed it—sewing, quilting, knitting, crocheting, painting and stenciling. And with nine children and 18 grandkids, ages 2 to 18, she’s never lacking a project.

“For holidays and birthdays, I decide on a gift I can make that both boys and girls would like, and multiply by 18,” Joanne says.

“Having raised a large family, Ab and I know what it’s like to be helped through hard times by people we’ve never met,” she adds. “Crafting gives me a chance to pay back some of that goodness…and have fun while I’m at it.” 

Editor’s Note: To visit the Country Store on-line catalog, go to our Web site and click “Links.” To find out more about Joanne’s volunteer sewing project, just E-mail editors@countrywomanmagazine.com.