St. Martin's Sewing Guild

The Ministry of Sewing

St. Martin of Tours Sewing Guild has been sewing altar linens for the church and many other projects, such as quilted lap blankets for the residents of Convalescent Homes, for decades. (These lap blankets have been on display for the last few years at our annual Celebration of Life.) These are some of the "valiant women" (noted in Proverbs 31: 10-31) whose handiwork is done to benefit those in need.

The current coordinator of the Sewing Guild is Lillian Mello-LaPres. Their meetings are held in her home on the first Monday or Tuesday of each month at 1:00 p.m.

The Sewing Guild, originally known as the Mother Butler Mission Guild, was formed by Rosemary Naegele. For more information about this ministry, please see The History of the Sewing Guild, below.

For a list of current and past Sewing Guild members, click here.

The History of St. Martin's Sewing Guild

Written by Rosemary Naegele in 2004
Lillian LaPres asked me to write a summary of the Mother Butler Mission guild which is now known as St. Martin of Tours Sewing Guild.

The history takes me back to New York City in 1946. I was a new bride. One of my neighbors was Ann McGirr. Ann had just received the Latare Medal for Catholic Action from cardinal Spellman because she started the Mother Butler Mission Guilds. These Guilds were to help the missions as well as aid in the cause of canonization of Mother Joseph Butler, R.S.H.M., who founded Marymount College for women in Tarrytown-on-the-Hudson in New York. Ann had graduated from Marymount.

A Guild consisted of ten women meeting to make small altar linens. We met in my apartment once a month. We also donated a Mass Kit to a missionary once a year. The small altar linens packs consisted of one corporal, two purificators, four finger towels and a small altar cloth. We made about twelve of these packs a year. Various Religious Orders received these packs.

Then my husband [Charles Naegele] and I moved to the West. San Jose became our new home. Our parish church, St. Martin of Tours had a public novena to St. Pius X, pope of the little children, to obtain nuns to staff the brand new school. The order that responded was the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary – Mother Butler’s Order.

Thus, when my daughter, Marianne, entered first grade, we started the Mission Guild at St. Martins. We met in different places over the years. Some years we met in members homes, some years at the Mother Butler High School and some years at St. Martin’s School.

After Vatican II, the altar linens no longer had to be linen. They could be made of any white cloth. We continued on, and we supported Fr. J.A. Ross in Madras, India by sending him $10.00 a month [adjusting for inflation, this would have averaged about $60 a month] until he died – about 20 years. After Vatican II, these nuns left St. Martins and Mother Butler High School closed.

The women still wanted to do good works, so we decided to make lap robes for the seven rest homes in our parish. We now meet at Lillian’s house and sew once a month. Much material has been donated to us. God bless these workers.

The Continuing Ministry of St. Martin's Sewing Guild

Update written by Lillian LaPres
In honor of our beloved member Rosemary Naegele, founder of the San Jose Mother Butler Mission Sewing Guild, I wish to add to the history of the Guild.

When we began to meet in the homes, we met for some time at the home of Rose Delucchi. After she passed away, for several years we met at Rosemary Naegele’s home and, since 1998, we meet at the home of Lillian Mello-LaPres…

Through the years we have sewn a variety of items. When there were no longer requests from the missions for the altar linens, we made simple sleeveless dresses for the missions, then baptismal stoles and altar linens for St. Martin of Tours Church.

In 1998, Lillian met Maxine Gallagher at a Renew group meeting. She offered many boxes of assorted fabric, that had belonged to her sister-in-law, for anyone who could use it. At the next Sewing Guild meeting, Eleanor Miller came up with the idea of lap covers for the Nursing Home residents. Shortly after, Rose Frankina asked for bags for the wheel chairs and walkers. Then, several members of the I.C.F. branch at St. Martin’s requested place setting carriers. These were sold for $10 and the money was donated to several charities.

Kay Lukasko donated bolts of fabric and vinyl and many others have donated fabrice, yarn, thread, and many sewing notions along with cash and a sewing machine from Rosemarie Coleman.

In 2000, many of our lap covers were displayed and used to decorate the St. Martin’s Gym for the Annual Ladies Guild Fashion Show.

Some of the members crochet and knit many items on their own. Our creations have been donated to Nursing Homes, the Layette Program, St. Martin’s Church, the Veteran’s Hospital, ill children, family members, and the Hospital Dialysis Department. Incubator covers were made for Kaiser Hospital. (Kaiser bought the fabric for these covers.)

Since 1998, we have kept a photo album with pictures of all items made at Lillian’s home and a few covers crocheted by Rosemary Naegele. Many more items have been made and donated by the members individually.

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