Allbrands.com is pleased to continue our partnership with RicRACK in New Orleans, Louisiana. On January 23, 2024 Barbara Douthat stopped by to donate three McCalls pattern racks full of antique patterns, lace, buttons, zippers, and thread from the late Annette Douthat’s collection of supplies; over 200 yards of new on-the-bolt fabric; and twelve machines donated to the AllBrands.com warehouse that were serviced by machine repair contractor Joe Armstrong from Top Ten Technical (and creator of Joe’s Clean Air).
RicRACK is a nonprofit creative reuse store and sewing studio doing its best to keep textiles out of landfills. They are located in New Orleans on Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. They teach two sewing classes a week to kids and beginners using donated machines from Brother, TheSewingMachineProject.org, and Allbrands. They’ve owned the building for 3.5 years and have been a nonprofit for over 10 years. The energy in the store is quite remarkable, an inspiring hang-out for sewers.
Lizz Freeman Kelly, RicRACK coordinator, states they are blessed to have volunteers and donations from the film industry/donors; however, what they need most right now is money. If you are able, please consider donating to RicRack so they can continue serving the sewers of New Orleans.
RicRACK is located less than 10 miles from our Allbrands New Orleans store and approximately 35 miles from our Allbrands Slidell store. Plan a day to visit the best of what the greater New Orleans area has to offer in sewing, quilting and embroidery.
RicRACK, a sewing and textile recycling nonprofit in New Orleans, LA, is passionate about keeping textiles out of the landfill and teaching the people of New Orleans how to sew. Recently, Brother USA donated fifteen sewing machines to the cause, allowing even more people in the community the chance to learn to sew.
The Brother machines have already been put to good use at the rickRACK studio! We are so happy to have partnered with Brother, The Sewing Machine Project, and rickRACK for all their wonderful work around the communities of New Orleans, Louisiana.
By Margaret Jankowski, Founder, The Sewing Machine Project
The Sewing Machine Project is a nonprofit organization that works with other groups across the country to donate sewing machines, sewing supplies, and sewing classes. Since 2005, The Sewing Machine Project has distributed over 3,000 sewing machines. Below is an article by founder Margaret Jankowski about their partnership with us over the years, as featured in the VDTA-SDTA News magazine’s January issue.
Our partnership with John Douthat and AllBrands in Baton Rouge, LA has stretched over many years. John found us and we’ve been collaborating for over a decade. And for every step we’ve been grateful.
Some photos from The Sewing Machine Project’s recent efforts in Houston after Hurricane Harvey and in Cuba for their Sew Cuba program.
We have shipped pallets of machines to different AllBrands locations, most often to the Metairie, LA store for our work in New Orleans. We ship the pallet or UPS set of machines shortly before we plan to work there and then fly in and pick them up on that end. The AllBrands staff members are amazing and so helpful.
AllBrands donated 100 Brother machines after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. Partnering with a charitable group gathering supplies for a container in Mississippi, John shipped the machines to Mississippi and we shipped fabric and notions to the same site. The charitable group, hurrying to deliver supplies, gathered everything and sent it on to Haiti.
John arranged a partnership with LSU’s New Orleans campus
and we shipped a pallet of machines to supply their theatre department as they
recovered after Hurricane Katrina. We met John for a presentation of the machines
in their newly renovated theatre.
It was John’s work that helped us partner with a company
supplying small industrial machines for use on sailboats when we laughed our
SeaHope project in 2010 following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. With SeaHope
we gathered donated sails from sailors in Wisconsin and took them to Houma in
Terrebonne Parish, LA, to make into messenger bags to sell as a fundraiser.
John connected us with Sailrite out of Indiana and they donated 10 compact
industrial machines for the project. Proceeds from the sale of messenger bags
were donated to organizations working with those affected by the spill.
Sister Gisela, a volunteer for The Sewing Machine Project’s program in Cuba, holds up a new creation.
The Sewing Machine Project worked with AllBrands to ship machines and supplies to Cuba to begin sewing lessons there. AllBrands donated the machines and we asked our donors to offer fabric and supplies. Together we launched a sewing program in Cuba. Today AllBbrands collects donated sewing machines for our work in New Orleans. They are currently preparing a set of donated machines for a 4-H group helping kids learn the benefits of sewing and then will prepare a second set for a group of working teens creating a community center in the area. Partnership works. While the SMP clearly benefits from AllBrands’ generosity, AllBrands benefits as well being known as a leader in the community as well as putting their brand in front of new sewers who, when able to purchase their own machines in the future, will more likely then not, purchase through AllBrands. We are exponentially grateful for the kindness that AllBrands has shown us and continues to show the world.
