The cap-and-bootie set, much smaller than the smallest baby clothes, is the work of the Preemie Sewing Group, a nationwide network of more than 150 needleworkers formed three years ago by Traci Conley, a nurse in the Huntsville unit. "If we have a baby who needs something," says Conley, 36, "I can go on the Internet and have it tomorrow."
The daughter of single mother Janice, now 56, a computer analyst, Conley, who grew up in Los Angeles, began sewing as a kid, making doll clothes. In 1998 she enlisted hospital coworkers to make sleepers for the NICU babies, who often had nothing to wear other than a diaper. Then, realizing she needed more help to clothe the approximately 600 babies, some weighing only 1 lb., that the unit cares for each year, she went on the Internet asking for volunteers. Conley, who is single, says she's happy to continue working in miniature. "I asked her, was she going to start making her own clothes," says her mom, "and she said, 'You know I don't sew for big people!' "
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
