Cloud Sewing Works Dissolves After Five Years

Five years after launching the nonprofit Cloud Sewing Works in Concordia, the board of directors has decided to end the project.  As part of that decision, the corporation distributed its remaining assets to the following nonprofit organizations: 

Cloud County Resource Center — $1,350 

Community Foundation for Cloud County — $883.22 

First United Methodist Church Layette Set Program — $900 

Kansas Sampler Foundation — $500 

Neighbor to Neighbor — $750 

The Sewing Lab — sewing equipment and notions 

Stafford County Economic Development — Empowerment Training workbooks and supplies 

Kathleen Norman founded Cloud Sewing Works in 2017, with the purpose of empowering local individuals to live their most successful lives.  Members of the board were Chuck Lambertz and Tonya Merrill, both of Concordia, Kathy Kuhn of Jamestown, and Sarah Jenkins formerly of Concordia.  During its first years, Cloud Sewing Works offered sewing classes and empowerment training programs but has been inactive since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Norman said the decision to dissolve Cloud Sewing Works is bittersweet.

“I don’t think any of us could have predicted how much the world — and I — would change over the next five years,” she said from her office in St. John, Kan., where she is now executive director of Stafford County Economic Development.