31 more dresses for Dress A Girl Australia

Slack is the word to describe me these days as I have not even updated Dress A Girl Australia's numbers. I havent updated how many dresses I've got and where I stand in my campaign for 500 dresses for Christmas. For sure I will have to do it very, very soon.

Anyway, last Saturday I picked up a parcel from Australia Post and received 31 dresses from Gaylene Hermann. Thank you very much from Dress A Girl Australia. Your support on this campaign is very much appreciated and very inspiring. It motivates me to do more for Dress A Girl Australia knowing that there are people in this world who are willing to help and support what Dress A Girl Australia is all about and for all the little girls around the world, to help put a smile on their faces and let them proudly say to the world that they own at least one dress. Imagine how that would make you feel happy and proud to be a part of that little girl's happiness. Thank you Gaylene!

I may not have mentioned this previously but Gaylene was responsible for coordinating the dresses donated by the ladies from Crafty Mamas. One of the very first dresses I received and helped made possible Dress A Girl Australia's first attempt to provide dresses to the less fortunate little girls in the Philippines last September.  The first of the dresses that I hope helped and in a small way improved the confidence of the less fortunate little girls who received them. 

Am inviting anyone to join and support Dress A Girl Australia on this very worthwhile cause. Each dress that you make and give makes a whole lot of difference to the life of the little girl who receives that dress, makes this world a better place to live in.

All 31 dresses are posted or will be posted (when I find the time to take pictures) on the left navigation bar under B & G Hermann. These will help me identify where dresses came from when it is time for distribution. Three of the dresses will be included in the 'Dresses for Uganda' collection.

Christmas Shoeboxes

 Wow, its been almost 11 days since my last blog. I can't believe I have been so slack in blogging about Dress A Girl Australia's activities. It has been a very busy 11 days especially that the season of Christmas has finally arrived and here to stay for the next 4 weeks.

First Christmas activity for Dress A Girl Australia was the Christmas shoebox. I donated two shoeboxes for a boy and a girl in the 5-9 age category. Of course included in the shoebox was a pillowcase dress for a girl and a pair of shorts for a boy made by me.

Each box also contained school supplies (6 pencils each, erasers and a sharpener), box of crayons, car toys for the boy, scrunchies and a handmade bracelet for the girl, playdoughs, mini pillows, teddy bear pouch with a mini photoframe inside the little pouch, pair of socks, water bottle, mini coloring book which I created and printed, a toothbrush and toothpaste and a handmade card.

The handmade card is actually a picture card which I thought about and started to make about 5 years ago and for every picture card that I sold I donated a dollar to the Breast Cancer Foundation. When I went back to work after taking a break for more than a year, I only made them when someone ordered in packs. I fitted pictures and/or images inside window cutouts like the heart cutout on this card. If I could not find a fitting image on fabric, I would print the images on my old inkjet printer using 100% cotton fabrics. To produce a raised effect of the images inside window cutouts, I used thin wadding. 

Anyway, I have posted my Christmas shoeboxes and two days ago I received an acknowledgement email from Samaritans's Purse Australia and New Zealand.

Hopefully soon, I will get another email advising me which country in South East Asia and South Pacific the shoeboxes will be opened and whoever is going to receive the shoeboxes, I hope they will like what they see inside the box.

Last of the Bandannas for 2 dresses and a pair of shorts

This week was quite a busy week at work and in between work, house chores and watching The Big Bang Theory on TV at night I finally managed to finish making a couple of T-shirt dresses and a pair of shorts from the last 6 bandannas I had.

Dress A Girl Australia hopes to see 2 little girls and a little boy with big smiles on their faces with these 3 creations. Am glad that these bandannas will not be occupying a space in my cabinet but will be happily worn when the time to make another dress distribution comes.

This is why I love handmades

A bit late in blogging about my sewing marathon 2 project but I have actually started making pillowcase dresses for a couple of days now. These are the first 5 dresses I have sewn so far (45 to go) and this is why I love handmades. I can be very creative and use my imagination to the best I can. They may look the same but each dress is unique and I believe that is what handmade is all about. No two items can be the same. The concept, yes they may be the same but not the actual result. (And note I seem to like the idea of making my images float.)
The idea of putting a pocket across the width of the dress is now starting to become a trademark design for Dress A Girl Australia and am loving the idea.

Come visit Dress A Girl Australia regularly for the next two weeks and keep track of where I am in my 'Me and my Sewing Machine marathon project #2 for the children of Uganda. Here is the link to the album where all pillowcases dresses made so far will be saved.
                          Pillowcase Dresses for the children of Uganda
A link is also available on the left side navigation bar under Dresses for Uganda.

If you feel like joining me on this sewing marathon or want to contribute to this campaign of making dresses around the world for the less fortunate , feel free to send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Me and My Sewing Machine Marathon 2

A few months ago my niece and I talked about Dress A Girl Australia and the pillowcase dresses I make and collect and she asked if I could spare some for the children in Uganda. Apparently she has a couple of friends who have an organization that helps children in Uganda. She loves volunteering and is now in the Philippines for a year to work as a Youth Development Officer volunteer for the Australian Red Cross.

She left Sydney three weeks ago and I made a commitment to her to collect 50 pillowcase dresses for these children. I still dont have a clue as to how these dresses will get there but dresses will be reserved for them I told her. From the dresses I have collected so far I can actually spare the 50 now but I thought I wanted it to be really special and be directly involved in the making so I have decided to re-allocate the 50 dresses I have to other 50 children and to make 50 pillowcase dresses myself for these Ugandan children...thus another sewing marathon is about to start.

For the next three weeks and in whatever spare time I could provide(hopefully until the end of November) I will be making dresses for the children in Uganda. 50 pillowcases from the pillowcases I have collected the past few months will be allocated to this sewing marathon project #2.

Since all pillowcases are plain in colors, I have found some fat quarters from my collection which would really look great for matching. Actually these fat quarters are one of the earliest fat quarters I bought when I was just starting to experiment on making quilts more than 10 years ago and one of the earliest lessons I learned about quilting or fabric crafting in general. I never got the chance to use these fat quarters because I actually damaged the whole pack. When I got home after buying the pack, I threw them into the washing machine for washing without thinking about the colors and realized the mistake I made only when I started to hang them to dry. What to do but I hanged on to the pack not knowing that time will come when I can put them to good use and for a very special event of making dresses for little girls around the world. I finally will be able to clear a small space in my cabinet occupied by these fatquarters and start using them for a very worthy cause....imagining a world where every little girl owned at least one dress and what if that dress was made by me!

My niece would be back in Sydney for the Christmas holidays and I hope to show her all the dresses I made for the Ugandan children.

Bandannas put into good use

Last month I helped in a small way raise funds for Can Teen an Australian organization for young people living with cancer by selling Bandannas. I bought 2 pairs of bandannas. Several friends bought them too and gave the bandannas to me in case I would be able to use it for Dress A Girl Australia. Boy, did I end up really making good use of them! 

This dress which I believe would fit a 5 or 6 year old girl was made from 2 of the bandannas I got and I have 8 more bandannas to put into good use. What a better way to show you/friends care by buying bandannas to support this Australian organization for kids with cancer and making them into dresses for the less fortunate little girls around the world to own and wear. 

Since doing Dress A Girl Australia, it became so easy for me to think of how to make something into good use. Everytime I see a fabric scrap or a remnant the first thing that comes to mind is the question of whether I can make a dress out of it or use it for a pocket for a dress or anything to do with dresses for Dress A Girl Australia and now with the 'Shorts for the Boys' campaign.

If you feel you can help Dress A Girl Australia with her dream of making more dresses and/or shorts for the less fortunate little girls and boys around the world to own and wear, please help by sending fabric materials and or pillowcases to Dress A Girl Australia, P.O. Box 240, Casula NSW 2170. If you need more information, send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

My Donation to Dress A Girl Australia

Two weeks ago, I finally got my prize from a sports competition we had at work. The contest was about tipping who was going to win the NRL grand league and run for about 30 weeks I think and I placed second (didnt watch any of the games, just based my guesses on what I read). I decided to give all my winnings away to Dress A Girl Australia ($100.00) and this is how I was able to start making pillowcase dress kits. I bought 6 pillowcases (they were the only ones available that were on sale) and about 12metres of different fabric materials, some elastics, buttons and ribbons.

There is another competition going on which I have also joined but the end is about 24 weeks away. Hopefully if I win again I can make more kits or buy more materials to make into dresses for next year's September distribution.

I still have lots of fabric materials in my collection (inspite of the number of dresses I have already made from it) which I dont think I will be able to use and I hope to make into pillowcase dress kits in the very near future. The above 6 is just a start. Some of the fabrics I have are great to make into a pair of shorts for my 'Shorts for the Boys' campaign. They were originally intended to be made into totes for my part-time handmades business but just could not find the time anymore as I focused my time on making memory quilts.  I may still make them into totes and sell them to help fund the cost of posting the dresses to the locations I have selected for distribution. Shipping costs are getting to be very expensive. It seems like the cost you pay to send items goes up every week.

The contents of my pillowcase dress kits will be posted very soon. I just need to take pictures of them. If you have any fabric materials which you dont think you will be using anymore and is just occupying space in your cabinets, please consider donating them to Dress A Girl Australia. They will be accepted with wide open arms and much appreciated. Just imagine how many little girls around the world will be happy they own at least one dress from your contribution. For more information, send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Help Dress a Girl Australia...Make a difference in this world....one dress at a time! So send in those unwanted fabrics, elastics, buttons and ribbons.

One of Many

TGIF. Sounds corny but thank God its Friday. This dress will be one of many dresses I hope I would be able to make this weekend. One of many dresses that will be made from the many fabric materials I received from anonymous donors. One of many that will  put a big smile on many little girls' faces around the world. One of many that will make a difference in this world this coming Christmas.


Would you like to join Dress A Girl Australia in making a difference in this world one dress at a time not only at Christmas but every day of the year? For more information about what Dress A Girl Australia is all about, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com. Would love to hear from you.

Dress A Girl Australia Numbers

Will I make my goal of 500 dresses by Christmas? Is there too little time to make and collect dresses for Christmas? As of today, Dress A Girl Australia needs 438 dresses and my crystal ball says there is a big, big chance that the number 500 is going to be met. And if and when that happens, there will be 500 little girls anywhere in the world who will be wearing their own little dresses at Christmas, celebrate and greet the new year wearing their own pillowcase dresses. With your help, 500 little girls with 500 big smiles on their faces.

Come and join me on this campaign for 500 dresses. Please keep those fabrics, pillowcases, elastics and pillowcase dresses coming. You will not regret it.

For more information, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.