A low hum emanates from the "green machine" in the corner of the cluttered sewing room on Lynn Drive in Oxford. With the push of a pedal, the industrial Brother sewing machine comes to life in machine gun bursts, but instead of bullets, it releases sturdy stitches on green polyester. Two hands — ones that have been stabbed with needles and pins, cut with scissors and burnt on irons and lamps — push levers, pull and snip thread, rip seams and guide the fabric on their own, as their owner listens to the radio and thinks about the past.

"I go on auto-pilot," said Cynthia Holyfield, 53, who has done alterations for the past 26 years and has sewed for nearly 40. "A lot of times I'll sit up here and do alterations, and it'll be done before I know it."

Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Proverbs 31:10, 13, 27

It all started in 1969, when a lanky Cleburne County High School student got fed up searching retail stores for clothes that properly fit. That's when Cynthia Henson took the problem into her own hands, literally. Though she had never laid her young hands on a sewing machine, she begged her mother for one so she could design and create her own clothing, custom-made garments that would fit comfortably over her long arms and legs.

"I didn't know nothing about sewing, but I was determined to learn," Holyfield said recently on a trip to pick up a load of clothes from Oxford Cleaners, for whom she does alterations. "And everything just clicked."

She taught herself how to work the machine and read patterns, and when she enrolled in home economics the next year, she discovered her skills were far ahead of the rest of her class.

"It wasn't nothing for me to go to school every day with a new outfit," Holyfield said later, leaning on the tall cutting table in her sewing room. Her sharp, stainless steel shears snip through the thick denim of her 7-year-old granddaughter Kya's jeans, which would soon be reborn as a pair of shorts. "I'd do my homework in study hall and make a new outfit at night."

But when she was a senior, her focus on sewing began to turn elsewhere. In the fall of 1972, Holyfield donned a high-collared, black empire-waist satin gown she made, stood on a stage at the high school and belted out a rendition of R&B singer Betty Wright's "Clean Up Woman." After the show, while getting ready to leave, she was approached by Larry Holyfield, an Oxford boy her friend Cecil had been trying to hook her up with. Although Cynthia had recently broken up with another boy and didn't yet want to date again, Cecil bugged her into agreeing to a double date with Larry — a trip to Skyway Drive-In on U.S. 78.

She can't remember the movie they saw, because she and Larry were too busy talking. "He was just hilarious," she recalled. "I met him in September of '72; we got engaged in February '73 and married in June."

But even the love of her life couldn't distract her from sewing for too long. In the few months after the engagement, while working on her last semester of school, Cynthia got to work making the dresses for her wedding — 13 total, including her own gown.

"That's pretty much her life," Larry said, stepping into the sewing room to greet his wife of nearly 36 years. "She does spend a lot of time sewing ... I used to have a whole room for the computer," he said, motioning to the corner of the sewing room to which the desk and computer have been relegated. "But it's narrowed on down."

She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant. She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night. Proverbs 31: 24, 18

Around 1980, after working at several sewing factories in Heflin and moving to Wellborn,

Cynthia was job searching when she met Ruth, a lady who did alterations out of a small storage building catty-cornered to Kitchin's in Anniston. Ruth was looking for an assistant, and, even though Cynthia had never done alterations before, she was hired.

"The first week she was blown away," Holyfield said. "It was everything I had just learned at home."

While Cynthia can't remember Ruth's last name, she'll never forget the shortcuts Ruth taught her, or life-changing opportunity she gave her. In 1982, Ruth decided to leave the business to take care of her husband, who was sick with cancer. She offered the business, which had never been named, to Cynthia, and the first of several manifestations of "Pookie's Creations," a business of alterations and custom clothing creation, was born.

But the building wasn't in good shape — it leaked when it rained — so in 1985, Pookie's moved into The Radio Building on Noble Street in Anniston. After that, it moved to her house on 10th Street, then to a bigger house on Wilmer Avenue.

In 1987, Cynthia decided it was time for a change. She enrolled at Gadsden Business College to become a legal secretary, and attended classes for about a year and a half, during which she also operated her sewing business.

"My plans were to work in an office," Holyfield said. "It didn't wind up like that."

Instead, her mother got ill, so the Holyfields moved back to Heflin, and Cynthia got a job sewing breast and side pockets on men's suits for Lamar Manufacturing Company in Bowdon, Ga. But when the company began to lay off workers, Larry suggested she reopen Pookie's.

In 1992, Cynthia opened shop in a building behind the Heflin Recreation and Pool Hall in downtown Heflin and got back to work being her own boss.

And there was quite a bit of work to be done. In 1993, she created the uniforms for the Cleburne County High School majorettes, the drum major and three band members. The next year she made outfits for the junior and varsity cheerleading squad and the majorettes.

"It was wonderful, but it was time consuming," she said. "I worked day and night. I'd go home, shower, take a two- to three-hour nap, and get back at it again. It was the first time I'd ever sewed like that in my life."

She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates. Proverbs 31: 26, 20, 31

Cynthia's skills aren't just used for her own benefit — she also uses her hands to help those in the community, even if she's not sewing. For two hours every Monday, her hands may hold another's as she prays with patients at Regional Medical Center, where she is a chaplain. A few months ago, one of her fellow congregation members at New Beginnings in Heflin suggested she look into chaplaincy because she had been an evangelist for 12 years already. At first, she didn't want to do it, she said, but "I just prayed about it and it got stronger in my spirit to go."

Her faith is strong, like the stitches that come from her "green machine." Her customers often turn to her when they are troubled, she said, and sometimes they'll just call and never even need an outfit or alteration.

"People will just start talking about their problems," she said. "It's part of my ministry. I enjoy doing it."

Cynthia loves to socialize — that's what led her into evangelism and chaplaincy in the first place. It also led her to become a volunteer seamstress for Community Actors' Studio Theatre, where she altered dresses to fit the men in the cross-dressing comedy, "Leading Ladies," earlier this year. She decided to become a volunteer after seeing "The Lady With All the Answers," last fall. She had met Debby Mathews, the star of that show, seven years ago in Cleburne County, where Mathews works as an agent for the Extension Service. She recruited Cynthia to teach sewing to some girls in 4-H, and to help them make outfits for a show in Auburn.

Cynthia also does a lot of sewing for her fellow congregation members. She's made more robes, praise and worship outfits and "Sunday best" clothing than she can count.

"I do everybody's sewing in the church," she said. "Robes, pants hemmed, skirts, dresses, jackets ... they always bring it to me. I like being out there, helping out, being with everybody," she said. "I just thank the Lord for teaching me how to sew and guiding my hands."

"I just thank the Lord for teaching me how to sew and guiding my hands," Holyfield said.