Lost Ozark Dawn sews together generations of community and support
When La Dawnya Faulkner decided on Lost Ozark Dawn as the name for her nonprofit sewing group, she wasn’t just trying to find a cute word play on her name.
Being lost was an important part of her path, she said, and finding a path forward for herself and others in the Ozarks gave her a new purpose.
“I lost my house, my credit, my job, my dog, my husband, I mean, lost,” after entering a recovery center for alcohol abuse in 2019, Faulkner said. As she worked to get her life back in order, it was her mother’s favorite hobby, sewing, that helped her rebuild her life.
Faulkner, with the help of her brother and a small board of friends and family, hopes that Lost Ozark Dawn gives participants confidence in a new skill while providing tangible support in to other area nonprofits that provide services to children, veterans and the unhoused.
After entering recovery for alcohol in 2019, Faulkner said that sewing simply gave her something to do with her hands. But more than providing a means for working through anxiety and addictive behaviors, her sewing projects gave her something to focus on rather than negative thoughts, which she says would benefit others who are working through trauma.
Growing up, she and her brother, Lonnie Lynch, remembered seeing both their mother and grandmother bring friends together to make quilts and gab. Faulkner says that her mother has hosted a weekly sewing circle for the last 20 years in her 30 foot by 40 foot sewing room behind her home in Pea Ridge.
“I just assumed everybody’s grandma had a sewing machine over in the corner, but that wasn’t the case,” she said. During covid lockdown, Faulkner noticed that many people had sewing machines but were discouraged when they weren’t able to figure out much about them.
She found a similar problem when working at a sewing machine store too. People would buy the machines but couldn’t figure out how to use them just by watching an instructional video provided by the manufacturer.
“Not everyone can learn like that,” Faulkner said. Her classes provide real-life instruction from someone with years of experience and she can see people build confidence after learning to thread a machine and make a tote bag or an apron.
I love “seeing the generations hanging out, talking and getting along,” she said. “My mother is 70. So some [of the participants] are older than her, some are younger than her. Some are even younger than me coming in. I love it. Because they get to learn so much from these ladies,” Faulkner said.
The ladies who haven’t sewn with new people in a while, enjoy passing on their knowledge too.
“They’re such great mentors for these younger people,” she said.
“Sewing is a dying art,” Lonnie Lynch said, but the two are seeing more people who are trying to up their skills, estimating an attendance of 15-20 people who show up regularly to sew at their mother’s sewing room, including veteran Howard Schuettpelz of Pea Ridge.
“I lost my wife about 10 years ago,” Schuettpelz said. While cleaning out her old sewing room, Howard found two of her old machines. The Vietnam veteran decided to take the machines over to Lynch and Faulkner to see if he could learn to use them instead of letting them collect dust.
While Schuettpelz wanted to use the machines, as a double amputee he wasn’t able to use the foot pedal to feed the fabric through the machine. Faulkner and Lynch found him one that would do the same with a button you can push with your hand.
“I didn’t even know it was out there,” Schuettpelz said. “Then they got me a reconditioned one for half price.”
The regular meetings keep his spirits up, he said, between Solider Songs and Voices NWA Jam Gathering at Folk School of Fayetteville and meetings at the 8109 VFW Post, where he serves as commander
Staying busy and giving back are good for veterans, Schuettpelz said, by focusing energy away from anything potentially harmful and into learning a new skill.
“I enjoy it because we sew things together for the children’s shelters like mittens and gloves and stuff like that,” he said.
The regular gatherings have been so successful that now the family behind Lost Ozark Dawn is applying for nonprofit status so that they can continue to expand the services that they provide for free. This will be a separate entity from their LLC that does paid work.
“We want to get a website,” Lynch said. “We want to get an online fabric thrift store. We get all these fabric donations, and it’s filling up our room, so we need to get it moved out.”
They still accept all sorts of fabric.
“If you have a closet full of your mama’s or your grandma’s fabric that you are never going to use, then you can bring it to us,” Lynch said. “Scrap, yardage, boltage, old machines, [anything] people don’t want. We don’t turn anything down because we will filter through it, we will get the good stuff. We have hundreds of years of experience if you count everybody that comes here.”
Lynch said they have sewing machines that they can loan if somebody comes in who doesn’t have a machine. That way they can still attend a class.
Aside from materials, Faulkner said that they need money for operating costs.
“We’ve got to have money to maintenance the machines and money for gas and all that good stuff,” Faulkner said. As they get their nonprofit status sorted, they will continue hosting free “make two, keep one” classes.
“Anyone who has an interest in sewing can come and use my machines. I’ll have the fabrics and everything provided,” Faulkner said. Participants will make two potholders, one to take and one to donate. “If anybody in the area is looking for a group to sew with, this is a great opportunity for them to come and bring their machine if they have one. Ask questions about their machine. If they have some, they may bring their projects if they have a question about that. We’ll be able to work with them.”
“It’s just different when you sew with a group compared to sewing alone at home.”