Saturday, November 12, 2011

Dress a Girl Around the World

I had a fabulous time helping the youth of our church this past Saturday make dresses for little girls in Africa.  The organization Dress a Girl Around The World is working to clothe and, by doing so, protect girls in Africa.  Our group of over 200 youth, very inexperienced with a sewing machine, worked together to make over 150 pillowcase dresses for the cause.

I helped teens make bias tape.  How many of you have ever made your own bias tape?
Yuck!  Not my favorite job.  These guys were fabulous.  I was so honored to work with such a great group of teens.  The whole day, from 9am to 4pm, I never heard one person utter a negative word.  Amazed.

These kids were so excited and fully devoted to the cause.

Tons of people donated supplies like pillowcases and ribbon.

The kids did every step of the dress-making process.  They cut the top off the pillow case, cut the extra length into 2" strips for bias tape for the arm holes.  They cut the arm holes, ironed the bias tape, and sewed it in place.  They ironed and sewed the casing for the ribbon, and then ran it through the tops.  The ribbon was stitched in place by a couple youth and then the dresses that had been finished were hung around the cultural hall for everyone attending the Youth Conference to see.

Many adults devoted their whole day, plus the use of their own personal sewing machines, for these beginners sewers to use.  I missed the picture of all the kids swarming around the machines.  These are just the adults at work between group changes.  

You wouldn't believe how many boys...ahem...Men there were making dresses with a smile on their faces.  My last group through the bias tape making station I had these two big football-y boys standing at the ironing board, folding and ironing fabric for bias tape.  They were so focused on making a perfect strip I just had to laugh at the irony {there's a double meaning in that :0}
They worked away the time and never seemed to give a second though about the work.  I teased them that now they were qualified to do the ironing at home.  That comment was quickly disputed, sorry moms! 

When we had the whole activity cleaned up I ran into the cultural hall for a last peek at our day's efforts.  
WOW!
To see the whole HUGE room Lined with dresses, all different sizes and colors, made with love by our youth for children in need...No words...totally heart warming.
What a great day :0)

4 comments:

  1. This is such a great idea. Could you email me more info, including how to do it and where to send it?
    jandsenz at gmail dot com

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would love to get the info as well...this would be a great project for our girlscout troop as a service project.
    cookingkathall@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. OK ladies, as I wasn't in charge of this event, I have begun the search for details and will be back as soon as I have them so that more children in Africa can have those darling dresses!!!! Bless your beautiful souls for being interested and willing :0}

    Vanessa
    The Sew*er, The Caker, The CopyCat Maker
    www.sewcakemake.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. So I am back. It appears you can go to the website and it has all the info there. Here is the site...
    http://www.dressagirlaroundtheworld.com/

    There is a contact link you can use to send your email and they will get back to you with the info. Thanks again for all your interest!!!

    Vanessa
    The Sew*er, The Caker, The CopyCat Maker
    www.sewcakemake.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

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