So many volunteer or donation opportunities aren't known about until a specific situation impacts your life. My brother a sister-in-law prayed for a child for so long and God blessed them with two! Identical twins, Liam and Kellan. However, they were delivered at 28 weeks and spent 2.5 months in the NICU at our local Children's hospital. (NICU stands for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). Thank The Lord above for these people who work in the NICU!
Having no previous experience with the NICU, none of us knew about isolette covers for the incubators the babies live in. These covers make their habitat dark and muffles the noise from the NICU, allowing for better rest and less stimulation. Basically, it recreates life in the womb as best as possible.
My sweet nephew is under there sleeping soundly. :) My mom made matching blankets for the twins but before she did, the twins were given covers that were donated by those who came before them or loving volunteers. They didn't always fit well because there are several sizes and types of Isolettes. Some were made for smaller Isolettes but were better than nothing for the boys. That's when my brother asked my mom to make some for his boys. Of course, she did.
Since then, mom and I wanted to give back to the facility that was so important in the well-being of our newest editions. We made flyers and posted online to see if anyone else wanted to follow the very simple directions to make covers to donate. Two churches have gotten involved - including mine! - and are making covers for these precious babies!
Trust me when I say this is flexible. So much cloth is only 42" wide - no problem. And I don't use binding, I sew mine right sides together and turn it out. Some of my flaps are larger and I'm sure some are smaller. Eh no biggie.
My church had a "sew-a-thon" and this one came from there. Adorable farm scene!
The tops can be pretty much anything. One piece of fabric, quilting, cotton, flannel, whatever. The underside needs to be darker to help block light. I mostly use prequilted fabric but started using thick fleece.
Like this one - flannel in top and fleece on bottom. I didn't use batting - this was pretty thick and I hope will muffle noise.
Flannel and fleece.
Cotton and prequilted fabric.
The coolest thing is as people find out about this need, they have created a cover or two for the project. It just took getting the word out about the need.
Anyway, you don't have to be a sewing genius to make these. Trust me when I say mine have horrible mistakes. But those sweet babies will not care one little bit.
Maybe this inspires you to find a way to use your interests, talents and such to give back to your community? I hope so. There are so many needs on so many levels and any one of them would love your help. :)
