Please finish any project you are in the middle of and stop making any more donations. The Australia parent group has asked for everyone to stop. Please take your donations to a drop off location, and we will begin organizing everything to go to Australia.
If you are still interested in helping Animal Rescues in this way, this newly found community will be turning its attention to local Animal Rescue groups. Please check in on the website in the next few weeks to get more details.
With the horrendous bushfires happening in Australia billions of animals have been killed, injured, or displaced. There are amazing people in Australia working tirelessly to help these animals, but they are in much need of supplies to do this. The Winnipeg Animal Rescue Craft Group is comprised of anyone who wants to help. Here are the ways you can help:
Make Supplies
From Koala mits to joey bags, the animal rescue groups need homemade items to help these animals. We need volunteers to help us make them
Delivering Supplies
The cost of mailing items to Australia is a roadblock for us, so we are looking for people travelling to Australia to volunteer to take supplies with them as an extra bag.
Drop Off Locations/Local delivery
We need people to act as drop off locations, and to help get the donations to the individuals flying to Australia.
Financial Help
Even though we aim to have people fly the donations, some postal costs might still occur, as well as extra baggage costs. We are in need of money to help us pay for that.
Material Donations
Our volunteers are also making all the items with materials they bought on their own, so helping offset their costs with material donations is appreciated.
Spreading the News
The simplest and easiest way to help us is to share information about this project with as many people as you can!
Timeline
Jan 23 - Please have all items to drop off locations
Jan 27 - Drop off locations, please haev your items dropped off at the hub
More Details
Patterns
and other details about making donation items
Drop Off Locations
delivery instructions and mailing address
Travelling to Australia?
Willing to take an extra bag filled with donations?
Financial Donations
how to donate
Volunteering
helping out in ways other than sewing, knitting, or crocheting
FAQ
answers to frequently asked questions
Sign up to help!
It isn't necessary to sign up to, it just allows us to be a bit more organized, and contact people with updates and information through e-mail.
If you are on mobile, and the form isn't formatting properly, you can find it HERE
Contact Us
Please feel free to send an e-mail to info [at] poppyblanket.ca
Patterns
Where can I find the patterns?
I am currently hiding the patterns as we are not supposed to make anymore new donations at this point. Once we reorganize ourselves for local Animal Rescue initiatives, I will relaunch this section.
WHAT IS NEEDED?? Sewers
You're the most wanted! We need bat wraps, pouches for small and medium animals, hanging joey pouches and koala mittens. All of these are in need and can be made with a sewing machine. Hand sewing is not strong enough for what we need.
Crocheters
Hi! We need your birds nest making skills! Crocheted nests of various sizes are needed for orphaned birds. NOTE: Acrylic is completely fine to use for the birds nests.
Knitters
Bonjour! If you can knit you can make some sweet blankets that'll keep our fellas warm. We have some great knitting patterns that can be whipped up for our joeys and other animals.
How many pouches are needed?
Carers need a constant supply so as many you can make. They will be needed over the next few months and are distributed to carers all around the country.
What sizes should I be making?
All sizes are needed from tiny pouches for sugar gliders all the way to large sizes that fit joeys. Whatever you can make is needed.
What fabrics should I use?
100% natural fabrics like cotton and bamboo. If you are using flannel ensure that it is 100% cotton. Calico is too rough for the animals and the synthetic materials aren’t breathable. Fabrics can be second hand blankets, tote bags etc. but must be cleaned before being sewn. Koala mittens can be made in flannel that is 100% cotton or just cotton.
What about polar fleece?
Polar Fleece is ok only for outside pouch. Flanno 100% cotton, for mittens, bat wraps and outside pouch. 100% cotton for internal pouch lining. Can I use an overlocker instead of French seams?
An overlocker can only be used for the first set of seams but not for the final seams as the animals can get their claws stuck in the overlocked seams. We prefer French seams are used for all of the pouches.
WOOL OR ACRYLIC???
As posted by Admin on the main Australian Facebook group:
Acrylic... Let's talk acrylic.
There's been a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding regarding the use of acrylic.
Acrylic is perfectly safe to use for nests, outer pouches and blankets.
*Outer pouches - need to be in a tight stitch (garter for knitted, US sc/UK dc for crochet) to keep our little ones warm but they also have enough gaps for air flow.
*Nests - they're open topped so don't need to breath and although they are usually lined, please ensure there is no loose threads no matter what material you are using.
*Blankets - the world is pretty much your oyster as long as there's no gaps or loose threads that can catch claws etc.
Drop Off Locations
We are still looking for drop off locations, so please contact me if you can help with this.
Winnipeg
Garden City
1) on Ambassador. Contact Sheilah at info [at] poppyblanket.ca
2) contact Cheryl at caemazepa [at] gmail.com
Keewatin
1) on Burrows. Contact Tracey at 204-981-3635 or start55 [at] shaw.ca
Old St Vital
1) Sherwood Place. Contact Wendy at wendyguenette8 [at] gmail.com or text at 204-451-3556
Osborne Village
1) Roslyn Road. Contact Barb at Bapv53 [at] gmail.com
St. James
1) 1550 King Edward from 7- 3 Mon to Fri. Go in the side door and ask for Geri.
West Kildonan
1) on Templeton. contact Nicole at nicolechapley [at] hotmail.com
Wolsely
1) on Stiles Street. Please text Carmen at 204-802-0049.
Steinbach
1) contact Nick through text at 204 770 3027
Virden
Train Station/ Art's Mosaic on 6th avenue
Call April at 204-851-0601. No drop off location near you?
I also have a PO Box you can mail to:
Sheilah Restall
PO Box 99900 YZ 720 951
RPO Garden City
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R2V 5A2
Treavelling to Australia?
We are looking for people who are travelling to Australia that would be willing to take a check-in bag (or box) with them full of donations. People will meet you at the airport, so you don't have to worry about figuring out where to take it in Australia. We are also trying to raise some funds to help with any excess baggage costs that might occur (although some of the airlines are helping us by foregoing that charge).
If you are interested in helping, please send an email to info [at] poppyblanket.ca
Financial Donations
Financial donations are needed to afford the cost of shipping donations through mail, or paying for extra baggage fees if they occur.
Currently we do not have a fundme or anything like that set up, but some of our drop off locations, and all of our hubs are accepting donations if you want to drop off in person. Alternatively, we accept through EFT. If you have dropped off a donation at a drop-off location, please be sure to tell me. I want to trust everyone, but I also want to make sure all donations are traced and accounted for. As I begin to receive donations I will add the information here for complete transparency. If you are interested in donating, please send an email to info [at] PoppyBlanket [dot] ca.
Volunteering
Beyond sewing, knitting and crocheting, there are other ways to volunteer for this initiative. We need people to help pick up donations from drop off locations and bring them to the hubs, or to take the donations to the people flying out to Australia. If we have to mail out the donations, it is cheaper to mail them in the US, so we may need someone to drive down to North Dakota to help. Also, if you live outside of Winnipeg, we need people to help bring donations into the city for the people who are making them but can't bring them to Winnipeg. If you are interested in helping in any of these capacities, or have another idea of how you can help, please send an email to info [at] PoppyBlanket [dot] ca
Frequenty Asked Questions
I apologize that these are in no particular order.
Should I pack my donations in a plastic bag before shipping/dropping them off?
No thank you! The main organization in Australia has actually has us not to send any plastic as they do not currently have any facilities to process them, and to avoid needless waste, we prefer that you don't use plastic either! If you want to wrap your items, please just roll them up and tie them together with yarn or string :)
What type of fabric/yarn should I use?
Please refer to the patterns section where we details this.
Can I test my created donations on pets?
If you do, please wash the donation before sending it.
Is any place donating fabrics or giving discounts?
No place has officially provided us a discount yet.
Photos by Olliss, Davidclode, Joey Csunyo, Liam Pozz, Tobias Keller, Michael Lämmli, Steve Bittinger, and Christopher Burns on Unsplash
