Jacqueline King’s mother walked by her bedroom door and saw her daughter sewing a sleeve into a dress. Knowing her own ineptness at sewing, she asked the 10-year-old Jacqueline, “How do you know how to do this?” Jacqueline remembers replying, “I read the directions, and I just did it.” Anyone who has battled to insert a sleeve would agree with Jacqueline when she says that even as a child, years before she surrendered her life to Christ, God had gifted her with the ability to sew.
Growing up in upstate New York with four sisters, Jacqueline was the only one who sewed, but she more than made up for it by her output. Clothes for herself, her sisters and even their Barbie dolls seemed to fly out of her bedroom. “I taught myself to sew on my great-grandmother’s treadle sewing machine. I loved to hold the brightly colored fabrics and just imagine what they would become.”
Jacqueline eventually married and began a very successful career, but sewing was never far from her mind. “I had become a Christian and I prayed for a way to come home to be with my children, who were becoming latchkey kids. I remember talking to God about the fact that I could sew, and asking if He could use that.”
An article in a local paper asking for someone who was knowledgeable and reasonably priced to make some slipcovers prompted Jacqueline to write a response. “The paper published my letter the following week, and overnight I had two months of appointments.” The only thing Jacqueline didn’t have was any knowledge on how to make slipcovers. “Because of my past experience in canvas work, I knew enough to walk in, throw the fabric over the furniture, mark it, pin it and leave. The entire time I was praying ‘God, you got me into this. Please help me,’ while trying to maintain a professional attitude.”
That first two-cushion loveseat took her two weeks to finish. Today, five years later, Jacqueline’s timeline is significantly shorter. “I can mark, pin and sew a six-foot, six-cushion sofa in one day.” Despite her growing prowess in sewing, it’s never been exclusively about getting the product out. “From the start, I was determined that this would be a Life . I would visit homes and the women would be so lonely that they would just pour out their hearts to me.” In the throes of her own very difficult and often dangerous marriage, Jacqueline knew personally how devastating the effects of isolation could be. “As these women shared their life story with me, I would invite them to church and ask God for a verse that I could give them to encourage or comfort them.”
Having left her outside job, Jacqueline found herself wholly responsible for food, medical bills and the upkeep of her car. “I specifically remember needing a full set of tires and not having the money. I cried out to God and asked Him, “What am I going to do?’ Moments later the phone rang and the payment for the sewing job that they needed was to the penny what my four tires cost – with balancing!”
“With a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, He used my sewing talents to free me from the bondage of fear in my dangerous marriage. Now I am passionate about teaching other women the skills to bring about their own freedom. As an artist, you can feel the Father’s heart when you create, whatever skilled occupation your gifts are in. When you are creating something new and you step back and are able to say, ‘This is good,’ you are experiencing the heart of your creator, God.”
Jacqueline has remarried and no longer needs to sew to put food on the table, but she is driven by an even more basic passion. “When I was a girl, it was fun to create. As a mom, it was a paycheck. Now, it is a means of saving lives.” Fueled by the responses of the women whom she instructs, and buoyed by generous donations from the community of fabric and sewing machine businesses, Jacqueline is inspired by a verse that visitors see prominently displayed on her website: “And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.” –Exodus 28:2
Jacqueline considers her work with battered and abused women holy, as she labors for God’s glory and to be a part of His plan to bring beauty from their ashes.