Sewing for Charity – Ready, Set, Sew!

I recently decided to support a special project by sewing dresses for girls. You can read how this sewing for charity project all started in Part Qne.  Find out all about pillowcase dresses and what they are.  And what made me decide to sew so many of them.

As mentioned, when searching for pillowcase dress patterns, I stumbled upon this fabulous charity, Little Dresses for Africa (LFDA) that believes that every girl in the world should own at least one dress.   Their mission is to plant in the hearts of little girls that they are worthy through the distribution of handmade little dresses, made of pillowcases by loving hands from all over the world.

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The Fabric Arrives

If you remember, last month I placed a very large order with Connecting Threads for 25 ½ yards of fabric that I got for the fabulous price of $110.00.  That’s around $4.00 per yard !!! including shipping.

Well, it arrived and once again I was NOT disappointed.  The fabric was high quality cotton and the fabric choices worked very well together.  The design table helps with that.

I have decided that I am going to make one Small, one Medium and one Large dress out of each of the patterned fabrics that I ordered.  And use a few of the FREE pattern variations that I found on Pinterest.   That’s 24 dresses.  I may keep a couple for the granddaughters, so my goal is to sew at least 20 dresses for charity.

Choosing Designs

LFDA has provided a pattern but it looks so plain.  I want to make pretty.   There are many pillow case dresses on Pinterest, but the basic design is the same.  Straight fabric, gathered at the top, cut-outs for armholes and varying lengths.  These dresses actually grow with the child. 

LFDA has asked us to  use elastic on the top and not ribbon so I will let you know how to do that in Part Three – Sewing the Dresses.

I will also be making my own bias tape.  It is very simple to do and I can make the ties in coordinating colors.

Don’t Forget the Boys

AND, from the 8 yards of solid navy blue and army green, I am planning to sew for the “Britches for Boys” project. I will sew as many pairs of
boys shorts as possible in varying sizes from Size 2 to 12.  I am hoping for at least 10. 

Sewing for Charity

My fabric has been washed and ironed and I am about to begin sewing. In Part Three, I will be sewing the dresses and will give you some tips and tricks to help you sew along. I think I need a few rainy days to get through all this fabric!!

Have you joined in?  Get your fabric now and within a couple weeks, you can be making some of these dresses too!  $110 for 30 kids is less than $4 per child.  You don’t have to sew as many as me.  Make some from your scraps. If you joined, please share your projects with me on Facebook or Pinterest.  I have made the Pillowcase Dresses a group board so please send me your request to join and post!