A sewing circle is a monthly meeting of Mennonite women for the purpose of sewing bedding and clothing to be distributed by service and missionary organizations to people in need around the world.
The Women's Missionary and Service Commission grew out of such sewing circles.
[2] Women in Ontario were sewing clothes for distribution by deacons around the same time.
[3] The next decade saw more sewing circles organized in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, and Ontario, notably at Science Ridge Mennonite Church in Sterling, Illinois, and Prairie Street Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Indiana, as early as 1900.
[2] Clara Eby Steiner, widow of Menno Steiner, began calling for a more general society of Mennonite sewing circles around 1911, an effort that was accomplished in 1916.