Dresses for today - 13-Nov-2014

For today, with fabric material donated by Joan Lui I was able to make three dresses for Christmas distribution.

With these 3 dresses, as of today, since I started the sewing marathon last month, total count is 85 dresses and 21 pairs of shorts. Not bad inspite of the days where I was not sewing anything at all. Hopefully my mojo will remain in the next few weeks or at least until the end of November.

Quilting Books for Sale

This week I received two quilting books from Marlene Van Zetten to sell to raise money for postage. True to their titles, they are two timeless and classic books on quilting regardless of whether you are a novice or an expert. Both books are a treasure to keep and knowing that the proceeds from the sale of both books is going to help dress a girl from a disadvantaged location anywhere in the world, it is going to be more meaningful to give this Christmas to your mum, sister, aunt and/or grandmum or friends who are into quilting for Christmas is a time for sharing and giving.
Please check them out by clicking on the image - selling price includes actual postage cost of $13.50. Both books sell for $24.95 at regular bookshops or online shops.

1) Classic Quilts - sells for $28.35 including the actual postage cost of $13.50.

2) Timeless Quilts - sells for $28.45 including the actual postage cost of $13.50

Thank you to Marlene for donating these books. 

Please check out these books and help spread the word about this fundraising activity. Proceeds goes to a very worthwhile cause. Thank you.

Dresses for Today - 12-Nov-2014

Am back to sewing after another week of hiatus. Today, I  made 5 dresses and 1 pair of shorts from fabrics donated by Sash Hinton, Kim Foster, Childrens cancer foundation opshop Katoomba and Jenni Kirillov (from her mum's stash) and t-shirts by Dress A Girl Australia.

All of the above will be allocated to older children aged between 6 to 10 in the remote location of Sariaya Quezon Philippines which I have decided to add to the parcel today (in addition to the 40 Christmas bags for toddlers).

Thank you to the fabric donors for making these dresses possible.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#162 from Toni K and Cherrie D

From today until the end of November I will be acknowledging donations as received. This will facilitate the quick sorting and packing of dresses for Christmas distribution for the last location to be allocated which is the Philippines. 

Donation #162 is a parcel of 12 dresses from Toni Kirkpatrick and her friend Cherrie Dot. This will all be allocated to the Christmas parcel for the Philippines specifically for the children of Sariaya, Quezon Philippines, a new allocation which I added today. These dresses will be in addition to the 40 Christmas Bags for Toddlers.

To Toni and Cherrie, thank you so much for the dresses. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. It is much appreciated.

Parcel Updates : Parcels Sent

Two parcels have started their journeys. One to New Delhi India and another to Mt Hagen Papua New Guinea. The India parcel (for the Sunshine Project in New Delhi) was sent yesterday -

and the Papua New Guinea parcel (for the BFO - Aunty Rosa's Orphanage Care Centre was sent today -

Last Sunday, the parcel for Lanao, Philippines via CDO was also sent -

All these parcels were packed with dresses and pairs of shorts, t-shirts and other accessories for Christmas Distribution. Watch out for more in the next few weeks.

Distribution plans for 2015

Hi everyone! In response to many enquiries about dress collections, next year's plans will be published in early Feb or March 2015. After this Christmas distribution is completed, I will be taking a break over the Christmas and New Year period. Dress A Girl Australia's activities will be very minimal (except probably on the Dress A Girl well as I will not be lifting parcels for the Dress A Girl Australia well campaign). My back needs a complete rest that is why I am pushing for all the parcels to be completed by the end of this month. Any plans for next year will be published on this page and in my blog. Thank you.

Dress Distribution #79 - Christmas Distribution Parcel 1C - Philippines - c/o Norie Bordador

This is by far the largest distribution in quantity for boys' pair of shorts and matching t-shirts. These clothing items will be sent to Norie Bordador and distributed in the remote province of Bo Divisoria, Enrile Cagayan by her and a group of missionaries and volunteers. Enrile is about six or seven hours away from Metro Manila.
Here is the parcel -

and the contents of the parcel of 70 pairs of shorts with 36 matched with t-shirts. Of these 36 sets, 7 are for girls and 29 for the boys. The pairs of shorts that do not have matching t-shirts have been provided with undies (boys) where size is available and for the girls with hair and dress accessories  -

made possible by the following donors -
1) Sharyn Cafee
2) Annette Norley
3) Lyn Granger
4) Vanya Bryant
5) Heather Harris
6) Betty Barrett and Betty Paull
7) Eliza Leahy
8) Sarah Tanmahapran
9) Craft and Hope and the Ladies of Kapunda Sewing group
10) Catherine Jenkins
11) Dress A Girl Australia
12) Girls' hair accessories by Betty Barrett and Betty Paull
13) Girls' dress accessories by Tiggi and Mimi Temam
14) T-shirts by Kay Innes, Sharyn Cafee, Heather Capell, Catherine Jenkins, Marlene Van Zetten and Dress A Girl Australia.

To see larger images of the contents of this parcel, please click here. For more details on this distribution (and also at a later stage when feedback is received), please click here or click on the special 'Dress Distribution' tab which you can find at the top of this page.

This parcel will start its journey once the second parcel of dresses for the girls is sorted and packed. Thank you to all the donors who made this distribution possible. Your kindness and generosity is much appreciated. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#159 & #161 - From Susan H, Lynne S and Marlene Z.

This is the second batch of donations for the month of November for Christmas distributions. Three parcels of dresses, t-shirts and 2 books on quilting to sell for postage raising from Susan Harris, Lynne Stupple and Marlene Van Zetten  for a total of 17 dresses and 10 -tshirts.
1) Donation #159 is a parcel of 5 dresses from Susan Harris who had a great time making these dresses -

2) Donation #160 is a parcel of 12 dresses with undies and hair accessories from Lynne Stupple -

3) Donation #161 is a parcel of 10 t-shirts and 2 quilting books from Marlene Van Zetten. The 2 quilting books will be sold to help raise money for postage.

My heartfelt thank you to Susan, Lynne and Marlene for the dresses and the quilting books. Thank you for your support of this campaign. Your kindness and generosity are so much appreciated. Thank you.

Appreciation Gifts

These bags will be wrapped and given to a few volunteers who made dress distributions possible, donated their time, money and effort in providing dresses in the remote areas of the Philippines. Without them, distributions for Dress A Girl Australia would'nt have been that far and wide. 

Thank you to my sister Joan Wolf for donating these beautiful handmade 'heyboom' bags. Much appreciated.

Project Hope Burma

Ruth from the Croydon Hills Baptist Church is a Karen lady who is learning to sew. She and some friends made these dresses for the Hope Project and was included in the original allocations shipped to Burma last month. Thank you Ruth and friends.

Dress Distribution #80 - Christmas Bags 2014 Parcel#1 for Toddlers

These christmas bags of a dress, undie, pair of socks and soft toy for 40 toddlers  aged between 1 and 2 or possibly even 3 yrs old are going to be sent to a Barangay(community) in Sariaya Quezon in the Philippines about 2 hours away from Manila (about 130kms away) c-o Edna Albufera who will make the distribution on Christmas day to the lucky toddlers. Here is the parcel -

containing these 40 christmas bags -

and the dresses inside the christmas bags -

made possible by the following donors -
1) Lorraine Brown and group for the dresses
2) Vanya Bryant and Monika Osvald for the soft toys
3) Dress A Girl Australia for the undies and the pairs of socks


To see larger images of the contents of this parcel, please click here. For more details on this distribution (and also at a later stage when feedback is received), please click here or click on the special 'Dress Distribution' tab which you can find at the top of this page.

This parcel will start its journey once I have confirmed the right address to send this parcel to as I am trying to save on the cost(at least $50.00) of sending this box. Thank you to all the donors who made this distribution possible. Your kindness and generosity is much appreciated. Thank you.

More cards for Sale

Not sure why I keep on making new cards when sale is not that good but I know that there is still a lot of work to be done as far as dressing girls in unfortunate locations around the world. Any sale I make, even how small it is makes a lot of difference. 

Here is a new card I made today of a snowman using recycled buttons, fabric scraps and felt using kraft paper. Inside panel is blank for any personal message and comes with a matching kraft brown envelope for easy gift-giving. Sells for $4.25 at my handmade cards e-shop. A sale of this card can pay for the postage of at least 2 dresses to any location around the world.

To purchase this handmade card, please click on the image above or click here. Proceeds goes to a very worthwhile cause. Please help spread the word around. Thank you.

Feedback Distribution - Destiny Faith Ministries - Uganda - 09-Nov-2014

Been too busy recently that I did not notice the dress distributions have started in Uganda by the group Destiny Faith Ministries which were handcarried by Julie Jones. I recognized the dress below. Fabric was donated by Millhouse Collections and I sew the dress.

For more pictures, please click here.

Thank you to Hosac Intl for making the distribution. Thank you to the donors for making this distribution possible. Thank you.

Friendly Reminder on Dress deadline

Good Morning Ladies! Just a friendly reminder to those who are donating for the Christmas parcels. Please try to send your dresses as early as possible (Deadline in my postbox is Dec 1st) to give me more time to sort and pack. The last location that still needs to be filled is the Philippines and the cut-off date for parcels to leave Sydney is Dec 6 to make it to the country, released from customs and delivered to recipients before Christmas. This will also allow recipients to have enough time to plan their distributions. 

This is the last scheduled dress distribution of the year. Thank you.

Dress Distribution #78 - c/o Sunshine Project New Delhi India 2A

This distribution is parcel #3 of 55 dresses for the Sunshine Project in New Delhi, India c/o Greg Watson. 55 lucky girls will get to own new dresses and enjoy their festival of lights celebration. My sewing marathon which I started last month generated 42 of the 55 dresses on this parcel.  
Here is the parcel -

and here are the contents of the parcel -

made possible by the following fabric donors and dress donors -

1) Fabric materials donated by Sash Hinton, Jennifer Howlett, Nicole Devet, Kim Foster and Millhouse Collections and sewn by Dress A Girl Australia

2) Monika Osvald

3) Karen Neilsen

4) Pat Burton

5) T-shirts by Joan Wolf

6) Dress A Girl Australia

To see larger images of the contents of this parcel, please click here. For more details on this distribution (and also at a later stage when feedback is received), please click here or click on the special 'Dress Distribution' tab which you can find at the top of this page.

At the beginning of the year I aimed to send 500 dresses to India. With this parcel, it brings my total number of dresses sent to India for this year 2014 to 504 dresses.

This parcel will start its journey on Monday when it will be sent via post. Thank you to all the donors who made this distribution possible. Your kindness and generosity is much appreciated. Thank you.

My Mom

This is my mom. Dress A Girl Australia's number 1 supporter and is celebrating her 84th birthday today and thought I would share with you. Happy Birthday Mommy. Wishing you a day that is special and as full of love as you are!

Feedback from Destiny Faith Ministries-Uganda - 08-Nov-2014

Sharing with you especially to the dress donors this message I received early this morning from Destiny Faith Ministries-Uganda, a recipient of dresses handcarried by Julie Jones. 

Thank you to all the donors who made this distribution possible. Thank you for sharing your kindness and generosity.

To see the dresses that made it to this distribution, please click here. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#157 & #158 - From Maureen and Pat

Another two parcels for the Morales Kids 2014 Christmas Bags. This time from Maureen O'Brien and Pat Burton.
1) Donation #157 - are 7 christmas bags for size 1 boys from Maureen O'Brien

2) Donation #158 - are 11 christmas bags for 4 size 3 girls, 2 size 3 boys and 5 size 2 boys from Pat Burton

How lucky the kids will be this coming Christmas. Thank you to Maureen and Pat for their kindness and generosity. It is so much appreciated. Thank you.