Little Dresses

Little Dresses for Africa

A while back I found a great opportunity to help others while indulging my desire for crafting. Little Dresses for Africa collects and distributes home sewn clothing to needy children in third world countries. The only problem? I've never sewn clothing! So, I enlisted the help of my friend Mary! She had a very easy dress pattern which could make many dresses, in many sizes, quickly and easily. She also had a serger and a good sewing machine for us to work with!











After Mary showed me how to make my first dress, I set about cutting pieces and assembling dress kits. I had stacks of fabric I had been collecting over the years, so I began sorting, matching and measuring, then cutting the fabric and elastic with my rotary cutter.





I labeled the pieces and put each dress kit into a zip top bag.











My main source for fabric has been my local thrift shops. You can find a lot of fabric and pay a very small amount for it if you look at buying second hand. Another good source is the discount bins at your local craft, fabric and super stores. Here you can find fabric remnants at discounted prices. And, of course, a big contributor to my fabric stash is my mother-in-law, Pat. She works in a quilting store, and sews projects to sell, donate, or to enter into the local county fair. She was also working on a whole mess of dresses, and wanted to contribute to our effort, so she sent up two boxes full of fabric.

We are really excited about our cute little dresses, and we want to encourage other people to help out those in need, using whatever skills and abilities you have. Even the smallest acts of kindness can touch the lives of others in a profound way. We're hoping to complete 50 dresses before we send them out. After that who knows what we'll do. Britches for Boys, maybe?


If you would like to check out our finished dresses and keep track of our progress, you can do so on my Little Dresses photo album on Facebook. I would also encourage you to like my Facebook page, as I am often posting photos, updates, and extras there.