Why This Group Of Women Crochet And Sew Blankets For Seniors

In a quiet corner of Golden Mile Food Centre, five friends are busy turning yarn into granny squares. These squares need to be exactly 20cm on each side – 54 squares are then joined together to create a blanket. Using milk cotton yarn, each square takes about one and a half hours to crochet. And making one blanket can take as long as 20 days.

It is a labour of love and exactly what Madam Carolynne Ng, 49, had in mind when she organised charity project Blanket Of Love – where volunteers make blankets that go to seniors at a nursing home. The Man Fut Tong Welfare Society vice-president said, “These handmade blankets are a symbol of love for our seniors in our community, through the volunteers’ hard work and time spent on the blankets.”

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Why This Group Of Women Are Sewing Blankets For Seniors

Two different types of blankets can be contributed

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Crochet blankets and patchwork blankets. With Covid-19 still around, volunteers could not gather in large groups. The project allowed them to contribute individually or with their families.

Yarn shop owner Jassandra Nay, 26, uses her shop in Golden Mile Food Centre as a yarn distribution and blanket collection point. Volunteers drop off their squares or completed blankets there. She has donated 500 skeins of yarn to the project.

Ms Nay works full time as a business development executive at a small firm and spends her evenings at the shop, which she opened in September.

Gavin Foo

She said she was spurred to start the shop as crocheting grew in popularity amid the pandemic

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However many beginners did not know how to start and where to get advice. Crocheting is performed using a single needle with a hook, to hook loops together.

People have crocheted everything from simple blankets to popular culture figures, like this amigurumi guard from Netflix’s hit series Squid Game, made by Ms Christie Foo, 54. Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small, stuffed yarn creatures.

Gavin Foo

Ms Nay's shop focuses on providing affordable yarn and much-needed advice for those new to the craft

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She and her four friends at the shop, ranging in age from 37 to 54, were brought together by a love for crocheting. The group meets for dinners and hangs out together frequently.

“We have celebrated birthdays, festive seasons and accompanied each other through the many ups and downs of our daily lives,” said Ms Nay.

As the friends worked on their squares, a volunteer walked into the shop to deliver a crochet blanket she completed over 20 days.

Madam Madeline Tam, who is in her 70s, also bought 30 skeins of yarn for her next blanket, after getting advice on how to match the colours for it.

Gavin Foo

More than 200 volunteers have contributed to the project

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Madam Xie Yi Shan, 41, made four patchwork blankets, with help from her two sons (from left) Evan Sim, nine, Dylan Sim, 11, and daughter Shannon Sim, five.

The housewife had seen a call for volunteers on a Facebook sewing group. It was her first time making a patchwork blanket.

Her sons helped cut and sew the squares together and her daughter sorted and arranged them on the floor in a manner which was visually appealing.

Not all agreed with the arrangements at first – they had different ideas on how the squares should be laid out, from colour coordination to patchwork patterns.

“But after completing the blankets, the kids were especially proud to see how their effort transformed into something that will benefit others, that can keep someone warm and snuggly,” she said.

Gavin Foo

Madam Florence Leong also took time to sew pieces of squares together to make patchwork blankets.

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The mother of two children contributed 12 blankets to this charity project.

The most difficult part of making them was to harmonise all the pieces of the blanket, to produce a pleasing visual combination. When making a new patchwork blanket, she arranges squares to form the centre.

When the colours and patterns do not match, she has to rearrange or sometimes recut the fabric to a different size.

In the end, the blanket comes together just how she wants it.

Gavin Foo

The blankets also made it into the Singapore Book of Records for the largest display of handmade blankets

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A total of 294 blankets were made – 92 crochet blankets and 202 patchwork blankets.

They were hung up at Hougang Swimming Complex on Dec 23, 2021, where the public and volunteers who took part in the project could view them.

They have been handed over to Sunshine Welfare Action Mission Home, where they will be cleaned – a second round in the case of the patchwork blankets – and distributed to the elderly at the home.

Madam Ng (right) and the project’s technical adviser Ms Jade Kok, who is in her 40s, helped with hanging up a few of the most complicated crochet blankets that were made at Hougang Swimming Complex.

Gavin Foo

Bringing emotional comfort in addition to physical

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Madam Ng said, “We really wanted to see the smiles on the senior citizens’ faces as they receive their blankets. But due to Covid-19 restrictions, visiting the home is currently not advised.

“It is our wish that these handmade blankets will provide the seniors in the nursing home with a sense of emotional comfort, bringing them back to their youth when they used to have all their items handmade by loved ones.”

Gavin Foo

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Fifteen-year-old Nabihah Fadilah Mohd Faizal (centre), who took part in this project with her mother Madam Noraizah Zainal Abidin (right), 45, and elder sister Naifah Firzanah Mohd Faizal (left), 19 says, “I hope the elderly residents of the nursing home enjoy the blanket that we made and that it will keep them warm.”

Madam Noraizah, who works in corporate communications in a public healthcare institute, started crocheting when she was eight years old, but embraced this hobby again a few years ago – to destress and decompress from work. Her children thought it was fun too.

Inspired, the three have made another blanket as a birthday gift for Nabihah’s grandmother.

Text: Gavin Foo/The Straits Times

Gavin Foo

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Why This Group Of Women Are Sewing Blankets For Seniors

More than 200 volunteers are spending their evenings crocheting and sewing blankets for seniors at a nursing home

Privacy Menu

Why This Group Of Women Are Sewing Blankets For Seniors

More than 200 volunteers are spending their evenings crocheting and sewing blankets for seniors at a nursing home

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