Mommy DIY + Pillow Case Dresses for Orphans!
I love my bloggy friend Kristen for her craziness as a mom and her crazy passion for helping orphans. Her blog {We are That Family} is wildly popular with moms and I’m also a big fan! She has given me permission to post this incredible project on my blog to help spread the word. I want to challenge all my crazy readers to join in the fun and help dress orphan girls in Africa. I don’t sew, but I can definitely drive to Target and buy some adorable pillowcases… so can you! Lets rock this party and help this amazing cause!
DIFOP: Using Pillow Cases to Dress the Poor
I am SO excited to tell you about our newest project that will actually be for June and July: pillow case dresses for little girls in Africa!
IF YOU DON’T/CAN’T SEW———>PLEASE KEEP READING!!!
One of my readers suggested this project and directed me to Little Dresses for Africa. This is a wonderful non-profit organization that is providing simple, sweet dresses for children in Central Africa, hit hard by the AIDS epidemic. Many of these children are orphans cared for by sibling and sometimes clothes are a luxury. This organization also holds classes during the dress distribution to educate the kids on sanitation, nutrition and family skills.
I was a little worried about the sewing part of this project because I want these DIFO projects to be easy enough for whole families to get involved. And every time I attempt sewing, I break a needle or I trip on something (that last part is probably totally unrelated). So, I asked Twitter for help. I was simply overwhelmed with the response of 15 seamstresses who are donating their time and skill to create dresses from the pillowcases we collect in June!
Our goal: ONE-HUNDRED dresses!!
A special thanks to the seamstresses:
Sweetie Berry, MollyFulton, My Blessed Life, Joy in the Journey, Mommy Daily Vent, robinvisbal, Amy_G, Parris Ponderings, Smock Lady, My Soul Reflects, One Stitch Rachel, Signing Charity, Little Miss Random, Troop Petrie, Shouting for Ha, Our Life Upstaestate, Beth Sew Anyhow, Cheerios UnderFoot, Angie.
June 1-30 PILLOW CASE/MATERIALS DRIVE
We need 100+ new or lightly used pillowcases!!
July 1-31 SEAMSTRESSES MAKE DRESSES/MAIL
Items you can send for this project:
- New or gently used pillow cases
- Double bias tape
- 1/2 inch elastic
- thread
- air tight vacuum space bags
- money to help with shipping (I will be dividing supplies and shipping to seamstresses. I will also provide them with a postage-paid envelope to mail completed dresses to the organization).
If you sew and would like to complete your own pillow case dress(es), please send them to the address below. If you can make your own dresses, please note that you DO NOT have to use actual pillow cases, elastic, bias tape, etc. Make them in your own unique way and they WILL be sent to Africa! Here is the dress pattern that the organization suggests.
You can mail these items to:
We are THAT family
8000 Research Forest Dr. Ste. 115-110
Spring, TX 77382
OK, my Crazy readers… what do you think? I want to hear your thoughts – leave me comments. Also, please feel free to share this project on your blogs, too. You can shout out on FB and rally up the troops to start making Pillow Case dresses for orphan girls! Together, we can make 100 dress goal!
I read about these dresses a few months ago and think it's ingenious!! I emailed Karen last week wondering if something like this would work for her trip in November…funny that it's coming up again 🙂
Thanks for the reminder and link-I see some pillowcases in my future!
apryl
My sewing class is make dresses for a orphange in kenya. I was hoping i could use some of your photos on my bolg to get the ladies ecited about the project. Would that be ok?
evaharp.blogspot.com
jfbc.org -chuch
My church has adopted an orphanage in Kenya. Shipping items are very expensive. Do you have any suggestions you can share on a better method to get products to Kenya?
Hi I live in the UK and love sewing. I would so love to make some little dresses for Africa but wonder if it is possible with postage, packing etc.
Please advise if I can help sew.
Jennie