The Sewing Machine Project is our first nonprofit spotlight of 2026. Having just celebrated its 20th anniversary, this organization was founded - and continues to operate - with a vigor that captures the spirit of the new year.
In the spring of 2005, Margaret Jankowski read a BBC news article that particularly touched her. It was about a woman in Southeast Asia who had just endured the devastating tsunami and lost her sewing machine in the tragedy. However, this sewing machine was her essential tool for making a living that she had saved up for years to purchase, so the impact was profound and pervasive. Margaret was sure she could help. She quickly connected with the American Hindu Association to send 25 sewing machines to Sri Lanka and India, a sizable donation that certainly has enough logistical hurdles to stop most from seeing it through. But Margaret saw a need she could fill, and found a way. Later that same year, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Margaret already had a template of what to do and drove sewing machines down to the recovery effort herself.
This resolute spirit has led The Sewing Machine Project to what it is today: an effort to provide sewing machines, beginning sewing classes, and mending help on a local, national, and international level. In the little over two decades since that BBC news article, Margaret has helped distribute nearly 5,000 machines with the help of her one employee and an industrious group of volunteers.
This year, The Sewing Machine Project has opened a third mending site (aka “the Mending Project”) at Goodman South Library. This is in addition to their already established sites at Madison’s Hawthorne and Central Library locations. Mending drop-in sessions are open to anyone looking to have a fabric item patched, altered, or mended - free of charge (check website for hours). However, this third site is now offering impromptu mending lessons, too. “[While the volunteer and participant mend together], the conversation is rarely about sewing,” noted Margaret. The Sewing Machine Project continues to create and build community. Margaret says she’s always allowed the mission of The Sewing Machine Project to follow the needs of the community and is ready to find solutions when those needs present themselves. Right now, connection is one of them.
To learn more about how you can support The Sewing Machine Project’s exciting work, their recent move to the Textile Arts Center, or how you can honor a loved one who had a passion for sewing, check out their website at thesewingmachineproject.org.
A woman in Guam that The Sewing Machine project donated a machine to.