StitchesDoll Project

About Stitches · Since 1999

Every doll holds a life worth knowing.

Stitches began with women living with HIV/AIDS and a wish to preserve their stories. Through handmade dolls, those voices become something others can see, hear, and learn from.

Handmade Stitches dolls displayed on white stands throughout an art exhibition
Handmade dolls. Stories in their makers’ own words.A Stitches exhibition.

Why the dolls speak

A way to be heard.
A reason to listen.

For the person making a doll

Not everyone can speak openly about HIV, illness, or the difficult experiences in their lives. A doll offers another way to share what matters, without a name having to appear beside it.

How to share your story

For the person listening

The dolls are shared alongside their makers’ words. Together, they invite understanding and compassion, and preserve lived experiences for future generations to learn from.

Read the dolls’ stories
Kathy and a friend smiling together during a visit to Kenya
Kathy with a friend she met during an event in Kenya.

Kathleen Gerus-DarbisonFounder · Educator · Advocate

Meet Kathy

It began with a wish to keep women’s stories alive.

In July 1999, Kathleen Gerus-Darbison and another educator and advocate for women’s issues began Stitches. They wanted to bring art and life together: a way to preserve the stories of women living with HIV and share them with the wider community.

Women made dolls and sent them back with their stories. Those individual voices became a continuing traveling exhibit.

As the project grew, it made room for other experiences too often forgotten or overlooked. Kathy continues to care for the collection and bring its stories to communities through workshops, exhibits, and speaking engagements.

“A gift that others can learn from.”Kathy, on what the dolls make possible
Read Kathy’s introduction

This project began in July of 1999 for women living with HIV infection. Along with another educator and advocate for women's issues, we wanted to create a project that combined art and life, as an interactive way to educate the community at large. We knew there had to be a way to preserve the stories of HIV positive women everywhere. The STITCHES Dolls have been created by HIV positive women all over the world and then returned to us to become part of a continuing traveling exhibit.

Over the years we have added additional projects or "collections," as we refer to them, that cover other serious topics that women face — and often times their stories of perseverance are forgotten or overlooked. Not only does this project give women a safe place to voice their feelings about specific issues affecting their lives, but it is also a gift that others can learn from.

With each doll is written text from each woman artist answering the question: "If your doll could talk, what would she say?" The answers will amaze and touch you.

Remember, knowledge is power. We need to learn from those who came before us.

The collection grows

Rooted in HIV/AIDS.
Room for other stories.

The original Stitches collection is joined by programs that speak to bleeding disorders and experiences of violence. Each doll holds one person’s perspective.

Explore all collections

Beyond the collection

The stories travel further.

In classrooms and communities, in exhibitions and conversations, the dolls invite people to listen. Read about the project or hear Kathy share the story behind it.

Kathy beneath the Apollo marquee, which reads Stitches Doll Project Takes on the Big Apple
A Stitches moment at the Apollo in New York City.

An independent nonprofit, a shared purpose

Help the next story find its voice.

Make a doll, bring the exhibit to your community, or support the work behind it. There’s a place for you in what comes next.

Find your way to take partTalk with Kathy

STITCHES Women's Initiatives

A 501(c)(3) nonprofit
Stitches Doll Project · Founded 1999

28056 Palomino Drive
Warren, MI 48093
stitcheswmn@comcast.net586-873-8034