Graettinger woman makes layettes through Holy Sews

By RENEE WEBB
Content and Design Coordinator

Like many who love to sew, LeAnn Tindall of Graettinger was looking around her sewing room years ago and noticed how much fabric was building up. That’s when she decided to share her talents – and the fabric – in a way that could benefit others.

“I just got on Google and looked up charity sewing for babies,” she recalled.

A ministry called Holy Sews started by a Catholic woman in Little Rock, Arkansas popped up. Described as a ministry of compassion, Holy Sews was established to provide handmade burial clothing to families that experience a miscarriage or stillbirth because the infants are usually even too small for preemie clothing.

Tindall’s desire to benefit babies and their parents came from personal experience.

“We lost our first child in 1976, 48 years ago this year at Christmas,” she said, noting the baby boy whom they named Ryan was stillborn at 27 weeks. “He was buried in a blanket that I had made and nothing else.”

As was customary at the time, she never got to see her son.

Tindall acknowledged that when asked about her children she generally mentions she has two daughters does not talk about her son because in the past that was frowned upon. She is thankful things are changing and that has been a need.

“I don’t want another baby presented to their parents in a plastic bag or a folded up washcloth or a huge blanket where they can’t see their baby,” she stressed. “That’s why I have kept doing this, it is important to me.”

After she spoke to the founder of Holy Sews, she was all the more motivated to get involved in the ministry.
Tindall estimated it was about 2016 when she became involved with this compassionate ministry and in 2019 she began Chapter 5 of the Holy Sews, of which there are now seven chapters. And while Tindall does have some volunteers that help to package the layette kits, cut ribbons and so on, she is the only seamstress for the chapter.

The layettes made by this Graettinger parishioner have been delivered to hospitals in Spirit Lake, Spencer and Emmetsburg. Previously she supplied layettes to Holy Family Hospital in Estherville when they had an OB department.

The ministry out of Arkansas does provide sewing kits to make a layette, so if others in the diocese wanted to get involved they could do so.

“You can go online and request a kit,” said Tindall, who is a parishioner at Immaculate Conception Church in Graettinger. “The sewing kits have everything in them – the fabric, lace or ribbons.”

Given she has her own fabric on hand, she uses the ministry’s patterns for the layettes. The layettes consist of a fleece blanket (about 12x12 inches), a hooded towel, a tunic (gown), a hat, stuffed teddy bear and a card. Information about the parents as well as the baby’s footprints and handprints can be added to the card.

“I make baby gifts so I have a lot of supplies on hand,” said Tindall, who is a seamstress by profession. “And there has been some fabric donated over the years. People may have seen something they like at Hobby Lobby or Walmart and they bring me a yard or two. It’s wonderful.”

The layette sets are made for girls or boys or are gender neutral.
“I usually send 10 to the hospitals,” she said. Work on the layettes continues because she “wanted Ryan’s death to mean something. I don’t want anyone to forget their children or for others to forget there are children like this out there.”

A few years ago, Tindall estimated she completed about 40-50 layettes a year and in the last year it’s been about 75.

“It’s growing,” she said. “People who have lost their baby can call and request a layette. I had one of those recently and sent it right to her.”

In addition to hospitals and some individuals, the layettes have been given to funeral homes or women’s clinics – any place that may need something for the small babies to be buried in.

Knowing that this gift to the parents can possibly take away a little of the pain for the parents, Tindall said there is satisfaction in this work that she feels is a calling. While making the layettes, she prays for the baby and the parents.

“It is such an awful thing, but I feel as if I can soothe someone’s soul. When they have pictures taken, their baby will have something on – that’s the difference in the last 50 years, I never got to see my baby and now they take pictures of the tiniest babies,” she said.

The Holy Sews organization, since it began in 2008, more than 45,000 layettes have been distributed in all 50 states. Given that one in four known pregnancies ends in loss, Tindall said the need is great.

“If you look around your family or at the office, there will always be someone who has a hole in their heart from a lost child,” she said. “It’s important to me that these babies are treated with dignity and care and this is how I do it.”

For questions about this ministry, contact Tindall at [email protected].

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