Sewing Bee in Kapunda South Australia

There is going to be a sewing session tomorrow, Saturday, 31st of March from 12:30-4pm. Location is corner of Brown St and Main St (Light Church) organized by Deborah Parish. Calling all ladies who have no plans tomorrow afternoon, how about joining the other ladies in their first sewing bee. If you know of anyone who might be interested in this kind of activity, please help spread the word around.

If you miss this session, dont worry as Deborah plans to hold more sewing bees. The tentative schedule for the next session will be on the 5th of May. More details will be posted on this site when available.

Donation Acknowledgements FY2012 #28 - 10 Pillowcase Dresses from Margaret

Donation Acknowledgement time once again! This time it is from Margaret Blanch from Cairns. All ten of them. Included in the parcel was a small note from Margaret which read - 
"I hope these few dresses will help with your campaign. I managed to pick up the pillowcases for $2 each at our local 'Pillowman' store. I tried to make each one individual by different trims. I hope to make more from my own fabric stash and also hope to help out with the boys shorts. Keep up the good work!" 

Here are the 10 dresses that Margaret sent -

Two of the dresses will be included in the dresses to be sent to Uganda next month and the rest of the dresses will be included in the collection for the children of India.

Margaret, thank you so much for the pretty pillowcase dresses and thank you as well for the 'pat on the back'. It is very much appreciated. 

Slowly but surely the word has started to spread around about Dress A Girl Australia and its campaign to help the less fortunate girls and boys around the world own at least one dress or pair of shorts. 

If you want to know more about Dress A Girl Australia's back-to-back campaign, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com. 
   

Update on the ECPAT parcel

I received an email last night letting me know that the parcel I sent to ECPAT Phils containing 20 pillowcase dress kits has been received last Tuesday, 27th of March by Ms. Dolores Alforte- ECPAT Executive Director.

Soon girls from this home will be learning new skills to help make their future a little better and this has been made possible through your support of Dress A Girl Australia's campaign to help disadvantaged children around the world. 

Thank you everyone!

Ujamaa Children of Tanzania wearing their precious gifts

In early December I made 2 pairs of shorts for Ally and Kelvin of the Ujamaa Childrens Home in Tanzania. I want to share with you this picture of Ally and Kelvin wearing their precious long shorts which I made, first ever pair of shorts I have sewn in my life. And can you imagine how I feel looking at these 2 boys wearing them with big smiles on their faces?

And here is a clearer view of the pairs of shorts made especially for them -

It was when I was sewing these pairs that I made up my mind to launch the 'shorts for the boys' campaign. And just looking at the picture above confirms that I made the right decision.

If you want to help Dress A Girl Australia bring more smiles to all  the other Allys and Kelvins in this world, please make donations of handmade shorts and/or fabrics to make into boys' shorts to Dress A Girl Australia.

If you want more information about Dress A Girl Australia and its campaigns to help the disadvantaged children in this world, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Sp'egg'tacular 10-night marathon for shorts for the boys

Dress A Girl Australia's Easter Charity Drive for 55 pairs of shorts is now on for the next 4 weeks and I am daring myself to spend an hour of my time starting tonight and for the next 9 nights to make 2 pairs of shorts to add to my 'children of India' collection. Below is my first 2 pairs -

and I hope I would have the energy to sustain this challenge and the will to go on for the next 9 nights as believe me I am a good procrastinator. 

As always, my creations are always at the bottom of the pile. I always give priority to items donated. What I make I use to fill in the gaps. So dont worry if I am able to complete the challenge(which means I have made 20 pairs) they always get allocated last. :-) And dont worry too if the goal of 55 has been reached as there will always be another distribution to be done.

If you feel like taking the challenge with me, there are still 9 nights to come. Come and join in the fun of making shorts for the boys and send me pictures of what you have made so far or post them directly in Dress A Girl Australia's facebook page.

To those who wants to know more about the Easter drive, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

If you are ready to send in donations, please send them to Dress A Girl Australia, P.O. Box 240 Casula Mall Casula NSW 2170.

Thanks heaps in advance!

'55 Pairs of Shorts' Easter Drive

Here I am once again seeking anyone's help to raise 55 pairs of long shorts for 55 schoolkids. Dress A Girl Australia is aiming for 80 pairs for 80 boys and I need your assistance to fill the gap of 55 more between the sizes of 4 to 10. 

To donate, please send to
                   Dress A Girl Australia
                   P.O. Box 240
                   Casula Mall Casula
                   NSW 2170

These pairs are scheduled for distribution in mid-May. This drive is running up to end of April to allow potential donors more time to sew up to the third week of April and allow at least a week to post. 

If anyone needs more information about this Easter drive, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

My heartfelt thanks in advance to everyone who is joining me on this latest drive. This time we are not only dressing the girls but also providing pairs of shorts for the boys. What a Sp'egg'tacular time it would be for the less fortunate boys and girls around the world!  Thank you.

A message from CDO - Happiness which money cant buy

If anyone can remember about three weeks ago I featured a classmate of mine by the name of Lilia Tapia who made pillowcase dresses from kits I sent her sometime in December. Well, I received a message from her today letting me know that she has given away the dresses she has made to the children whom she thought deserved it the most and this is what she has to say after she made her distribution -

     "it was a different heart warming experience i have, seeing the children and even the mothers, tongue tied, big wide smiles, couldn't say anything but, thank you! 
     thank you again for trusting in me to help you share the talent and conquered skills for children's once in a lifetime happiness which money can't buy.
        GOD BLESS YOU!! more power and pls take care........... lilia"

Lil, I look forward to seeing the pictures when you are ready to upload. Thank you so much for helping in making a difference to the lives of these children. It is very much appreciated. Thank you.

Feedback Update on Dress Distributions

Good Morning everyone. 

Just to give everyone an update on dress distribution. Feedback I got recently was that volunteers doing the distribution on behalf of Dress A Girl Australia is finding a little difficulty distributing dresses between the sizes 2 to 4 so the distribution on these sizes will be kind of slow as sometimes the areas they go to have more of the size 6 to 10 children rather than the small ones. (Size 6 to 10 are for children between the ages of 5 to 9. I provide dresses one size bigger than they probably are to make sure that they can wear or outgrow them.)

But rest be assured I will make sure I find homes for these dress sizes but need more patience from those who have donated these sizes who are eager to see their dresses worn. So anyone who is thinking of donating dresses, please if it is possible, to donate bigger sizes preferably between 6 to 10. I will still be accepting smaller ones if that is what anyone prefers but please take note of the feedback. Thank you very much! 

Weekend Creations

Another weekend is over. I thought I would be able to make at least 5 pairs of shorts and 5 pillowcase dresses but I only ended up with just half of what I had planned. In between cleaning, shopping, walking for a personal cause (lose some kilos), eating, taking naps I was only able to finish 3 pairs of shorts and 2 pillowcase dresses and here they are -

The printed blue dress was made out of Michelle Karyn Reynders pillowcase donation and the printed pink dress was from one of the pillowcases donated by Jane Kelly, Marieka Ashmore and Liz Skinner of Coffs Harbour. I think I donated the fabrics for the pairs of shorts.

I may not have met my weekend target but at least I was 'sewing' productive. Cant complain and here is looking forward to another weekend.

Another girl to inspire all of us

This is Sigourney. She is 8 years old and is sewing dresses for disadvantaged children around the world.

Just like her mum, Karin Maltby from Perth, Western Australia who is doing a great job making dresses and spreading the word, she has been so inspired by the Dress A Girl Around the World project that she has taken an interest in learning how to sew! And look, she is holding the first dress ever she has made. The fabric that she used to make the dress was donated by a friend of Terry Medley whose passion was sewing and wanted him to look for a home of her vast collection of fabrics before leaving this earth. And what a great place the fabrics ended up with. 

Just like Dress A Girl Australia, Sigourney is imagining a world where every little girl owned at least one dress. She is making this a reality by learning how to sew and helping make those dreams of children owning at least one dress in their lifetime come true for each of us deserves to own at least one. Doesnt this touch your heart and inspire you to do the same? 

First there were the group of schoolteens from Bridgetown High School of Western Australia, then my 21-yr old niece Samantha, then Charlotte and Claudia and now Sigourney. I wonder who is going to be the next kiddie on Dress A Girl Australia's block helping disadvantaged kiddies around the world. It makes me feel very happy and very proud of what I have accomplished this past year, inspiring young people to be involved, (and by accident because of this campaign) finding another way of creating a more close and fulfilling relationships between a lot of mothers and daughters through sewing and at the same time helping disadvantaged children.

If you want to help make a difference in this world, come and join us on this great campaign of dressing girls around the world. Please help us spread the word around.

For more details about this campaign, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com. Dress A Girl Australia needs you.

The Best Picture ever for Dress A Girl Australia

My sister Joan came to my house yesterday to see where I am at with Dress A Girl Australia. In fact I was still at the postoffice picking up parcels when she rang to let me know she was coming over. She looked at all the dresses I have collected this week and all the bundles of fabrics I have received and read the notes that came with some of the donations and said - 'I feel like putting these dresses in a suitcase, fly to India or Haiti and  dressed the children. I can carry two suitcases if I have to'. Hahaha! As if it was that easy. She used to travel a lot in her old job and she used to tell me stories about children on the streets in places where she used to go. She went home taking some of the boxes filled with fabrics to help me with the cutting and making them into kits. She is an expert in using a rotary cutter. She is a great crafter, a gifted artist and teaches painting. 

Anyway, I showed her a wall version of the CD calendar I made which I had printed with Vista Print and paid only for the postage. In fact the only one and was going to give it to my Mum that it really got me annoyed when I received the first print as the postman left it outside my door and got wet because it rained that day. So I had to ring Vista Print to let them know what happened and that they should have wrapped it with plastic so it does not get wet if it rains. Lucky me, they sent a replacement. 

This is the calendar -

and this is the picture we were looking at.

I told her how I managed to get to this place (with the help of the Zonta Ladies of course) because sometimes it is not easy to go to areas such as this unless you know someone. While looking at the picture, she suddenly said - 'they are wearing the 2 dresses I made'. In fact, the fabrics that she used to make these 2 dresses were given to her by an Australian-Vietnamese lady who owned a fabric shop in Fairfield, Sydney (she and another sister of mine, Marie, drove all the way to Fairfield to buy the fabrics) after knowing that she was making dresses for the children of Africa (this is what she said at that time). After her comment we really looked at the picture and saw how memorable and significant this picture is not only to Dress A Girl Australia but to my family as well because -

1. the dresses were distributed to the children of the place where we were born and originally came from before the whole family migrated to Australia 30 years ago.
2. the dresses worn by the children were made by me(blue dress) and my two sisters Joan(printed) and Monique(pink dresses). Our first ever dresses made. The money used to buy the pink fabric was donated by our Mum. She gave me $10.00.
3. the fabrics used on the 2 printed dresses were the first fabric donations received by Dress A Girl Australia
4. the yellow dress worn by the little cutie on the left was donated by Deidre Parker the very first donor of dresses to Dress A Girl Australia
5. this picture was taken on the very first distribution of dresses by Dress A Girl Australia last Sept 2011.

Haha and Wow! Am glad I showed my sister the calendar. This is one of those things that sometimes one just take for granted. I wouldnt have realized how significant this picture is and now my sister has decided she will have this picture blown up on a canvas and framed to hang in her living room wall and soon it will become a great conversation piece. 

And one day I hope to see the 4 of us sisters and maybe with my Mum fly to Haiti with one suitcase each filled with dresses to distribute and dressed the children. Never doubt the power of your dreams to make a difference in this world. And wouldnt that be great!

Process Change in Request for Labels

************************* Important : Please Read.**********************************************

This has been a very difficult decision to make but after a very careful consideration, starting today, I will only be providing dress a girl labels to be attached to the dresses if the dresses are donated and/or sent to Dress A Girl Australia. This way I am able to minimize my spending on the cost of printing the labels, give label priority to dresses sent by donors directly to Dress A Girl Australia and save some money for other expenses. 

For those who send me dresses without requesting for labels, you have nothing to worry about. I automatically attach labels to your dresses when I receive them the same way I attach labels to pillowcases or fabrics that are made into kits. I make sure that every dress and/or kit I send out are identified as Hope4Women International's Dress A Girl Around the world campaign dresses.

Hoping for everyone's understanding on this change. Thank you.

Back to sewing a pillowcase dress

When I arrived home from work around 6pm today I felt so sleepy that I actually dozed off and the next thing I knew it was 8pm. Now I have a big problem since I will not be able to go to sleep when I want to. Then I thought why not make a pillowcase dress. I have not made one for quite a while now and before I forget how to do it I thought it was a good time to sit down on my sewing machine and sew one as am sure this will make me feel sleepy again. (haha!).

So here is the dress I made tonight and the pillowcase I used was donated by Michelle Karyn Reynders. It was right on top of all the other piles so naturally it got picked up.

Tomorrow I would decide where to include this dress in the collections I am doing for future distributions for as predicted I am feeling sleepy again.

My Collection for the Children of India

Since I launched the campaign of pairs of shorts for the boys, I have been getting a very good feedback. I have been receiving emails letting me know how glad they are that they can now make and donate shorts as well.

To everyone thank you so much for supporting not only the pillowcase dresses for the girls but also the shorts for the boys. It is very much appreciated.

Tonight I made this pair of shorts to add to a collection I have just started for the 'children of India' and I hope to be able to complete my sorting of what I have on hand (dresses and shorts I have received) to add to this collection this weekend.

10 more days before craft month is over

Hello everyone!  Ten more days ....and the clock is ticking.....and craft month will be over. What has everyone been doing lately? Have you started on a new craft, about to finish a project or  have you completed what you were crafting. Great job for those who have done something.

If anyone is still unsure on what to make...you still have 10 days left. Not to worry and here is a small suggestion. How about a pillowcase dress for a girl and/or a pair of shorts for a boy for a very worthy cause such as Dress A Girl Around the World - Dress A Girl Australia. 

Make your month of March a very fulfilling one. Make a difference in the life of a disadvantaged child by making them own at least one dress or a pair of shorts. 

If you want to know more about this pillowcase dress-pair of shorts back-to-back campaign of Dress A Girl Australia, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Let us all imagine a world where every little girl or every little boy owned at least one dress or a pair of shorts. And wouldnt that be nice if they were made by you...or helped make these kids' dream come true.

First parcel to ECPAT Phils

Today I finally made it to AusPost to send Dress A Girl Australia's first parcel to Alice Jalland who is doing volunteer work for ECPAT Phils. Inside this parcel are 20 pillowcase dress kits including buttons, ribbons and laces.

Alice was introduced to me by my niece Danielle Naranjilla sometime in January who, like Alice, is doing volunteer work but for the Australian Red Cross in the Philippines. To make the story short (as it is now almost midnight) Alice loved Dress A Girl Australia and thought it was a very great idea to introduce sewing to the girls she was working with. She is going to use the pillowcase dress kits to teach the girls how to sew, develop a skill that will help them earn a living or prepare them for a brighter future. So here is the package that was sent today 

Since I could only find a small box which was enough to accommodate the 20 dress kits and based on my calculation it was cheaper to split the goodies into 2 parcels, another parcel (#2) will be posted this weekend and this second parcel will include 22 dresses to dress the girls Alice is working with 11 of which are I think living in ECPAT's temporary shelter. The girls' ages range from 9 to 15. Ten of them are in the elementary school and twelve are in high school. 

ECPAT Philippines' mission is to end child prostitution, child pornography and trafficking of children for sexual purposes. It is a global organization after the welfare of children. Philippines is one of the countries who is very actively involved in this mission. To know more about ECPAT Philippines, click on the link below -

                                 http://www.ecpatphilippines.com/index.php/en/

If you want to help Dress A GIrl Australia in helping girls in need of support and assistance to make their lives a little bit better, you can help by donating pillowcases and/or fabrics to make into pillowcase dress kits. Even just one pillowcase can make a lot of difference to the world of these kids. 

For more information, please send email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com. For pillowcase donations, please send them to Dress A Girl Australia, P.O. Box 240, Casula Mall Casula NSW 2170. Thank you.

heyboomshop to help make 20 britches

Per my plans, there is going to be a major pillowcase dresses-britches back-to-back distribution in May.  I was looking at the number of shorts I've got (most of them courtesy of Katherine Nott's sewing skills) I was thinking I am short of about 50 britches between the sizes of 4 to 8. Then the phone rang.

At the other end of the line was lucky me one of my two major sponsors/supporter 'heyboomshop'. Then we spoke about Dress A Girl Australia, my forthcoming distribution and most important if she could help make britches for the boys for May distribution. Like a true supporter that she is, she offered to spare some of her time between now and end of April to make 20 britches.

To 'heyboomshop' lots and lots of thank you for offering to sew 20 britches.

If you want to know more about what 'heyboomshop' is up to these days, here is the link to her blog although I dont think she really has been doing updates to it lately.
                                    http://heyboomshop.blogspot.com.au/

To see her latest handmade creations, just click on the link below -

Donation Acknowledgements FY2012 #27 - Pillowcase Dresses from Nicole

I have been receiving donations and doing donation acknowledgements for almost a year now but let me tell you I still get goosebumps whenever I see the parcels sent to my postbox. Until now I still cannot figure out why I get  goosebumps just by looking at the parcels and I may never be able to know the reason why. What is important for me to know is that there are a lot of kind hearted people out there who acknowledges through their donations that there are less fortunate children in this world that needs to own one dress for they deserve to own at least one...and hopefully soon pairs of shorts' for the boys. 

Nicole Devet from Lugarno NSW sent me these 4 pillowcase dresses with a note letting me know that she made all these dresses in 3 different sizes. 

By the way, I never throw away the notes that are sent with the dresses. I keep them for whatever reason I still dont know but one day I know I will be able to make use of all those notes...perhaps a notes journal(?) :-)

Nicole, soon these  dresses will find a home and how lucky are the girls who will be receiving and wearing your creations from the heart. Thank you for all these dresses. You just made 4 girls out of millions from the less fortunate locations around the world happy and proud knowing that the dresses they will be wearing they can finally call their own. And since we are talking of millions, these 4 dresses is really making a difference in this world...one dress at a time.

Thank you from Dress A Girl Australia

Donation Acknowledgements FY2012 #26 - Pillowcases from Michelle

Donation Acknowledgement time once again. Through the Pennsylvania Representative of Dress A Girl Around the World in the USA,  Michelle Karyn Reynders found Dress A Girl Australia and sent these wonderful printed pillowcases.

Michelle, they sure can be turned into something special for 2 wonderful girls who will be receiving the dresses. Thank you so much for your donation. Much appreciated.

And thank you to Marie Dean Eisenhower for recommending a very worthy cause to Michelle. 

If you feel like donating pillowcases as Michelle did to Dress A Girl Australia and see something special made out of it, please send pillowcase donations to

                         Dress A GIrl Australia

                         P.O. Box 240

                         Casula Mall Casula

                         NSW 2170

Looking forward to receiving them and making them into something special for you.

T-shirts and Pillowcase Dresses for India

On my way home from work yesterday I was thinking if I was ask to provide about 40 dresses for the children in India in May where would I get dresses with sleeves. I think it is India's culture not to wear open-type of dresses on both women and children and we wouldnt want to violate that. I wrote to Rachel (Eggum Cinader) the Director of Hope 4 Women International and asked her how they address this issue as I am sure they send dresses to India and she replied that they usually take t-shirts and pillowcase dresses and that they can wear a t-shirt under the pillowcase dress. 

I knew that sometime in December of last year I bought some t-shirts at a really good bargain (like 5pcs for $3.00 from a shop that was about to close) and was pretty sure I still had some t-shirts donated by i-craft i-sew which we were planning to make into T-shirt dresses. And indeed I was right. I have 15 t-shirts on hand which I can use for India in addition to a number of t-shirt dresses from several donors. And I am very posiitive that between now and the month of May I will have enough time to raise more T-shirts and/or make more t-shirt dresses. Now all I have to do is get an idea as to what the ages of the children are so I can start matching these t-shirts with the right size of pillowcase dresses.

Here are samples of the likely dresses that will be given to the children in India if the group I am trying to convince and have an arrangement with to help distribute dresses in orphanages they sponsor in different locations around the world on behalf of Dress A Girl Australia is successful. They will be a combination of t-shirt dresses and pillowcase dresses with t-shirts underneath the pillowcase dress. 

Starting today I will be allocating pillowcase dresses, T-shirts and T-shirt dresses for the children in India not only for a possible distribution in May but also for all future distributions.

Here is the link to the album that will hold all dresses for the children in India.
                                     For the children of India

If you feel like T-shirt dresses are better options for you to donate to Dress A Girl Australia or just plain T-shirts to match with our pillowcase dresses from other donors, please send them to Dress A Girl Australia P.O. Box 240 Casula Mall Casula NSW 2170.

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

Tutorials on how to make pillowcase dresses for Dress A Girl Australia

Every now and then I get emails from ladies requesting for a tutorial on how to make a pillowcase dress. They want to learn how to make one so they can help Dress A Girl Australia on its campaign to provide dresses to disadvantaged children around the world. The word must really be spreading as lately I have been receiving more of this request.

I wish I could provide my own tutorial and it is sad to say that the reason why I cannot do my own tutorial is because I  just dont have the time to do it. It is on my wishlist and has been on top of my wishlist since I started this campaign. A tutorial and/or a sew-along, they are all just in my head waiting to be actioned or probably already actioned but in my head only.  :-)

But the good news is that there are two very good tutorials on how to make a pillowcase dress which am providing for those who have asked for tutorials and for anyone who wants to learn how to make one. All you have to do is click on any of the images below or if the link does not work, copy and paste the link to your internet browser

Sewing Bee and Pillow Case Dress Tutorial by Bec Reddick from Perth

or copy and paste the URL below in your internet browser -

http://millyandmummy.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/sewing-bee-and-pillow-case-dress.html 

How to Make the best dress ever by Karen Mills-Thomas from Virginia USA

or copy and paste the URL below in your internet browser -

http://dressagirlaroundtheworld-va.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/how-to-make-best-dress-ever-tutorial.html 

The above 2 tutorials will definitely teach anyone who wants to learn how to make pillowcase dresses. Have Fun!

For those who wants to know more about Dress A Girl Australia's pillowcase dresses and shorts for the boys back-to-back campaign to help disadvantaged children around the world, please send email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

One year after...still a dreamer!

one year after, i am more determined to dream of a world where every little girl and boy (yes finally!) owns at least one dress or a pair of britches. What a wonderful world it would be. 

More Dresses from Lilia

Happy to post more dresses which Lilia Tapia made from the first batch of pillowcase dress kits which I sent to her in early December. The pillowcase dress kits were donated to Dress A Girl Australia by the Cenacle Group, Servants of the Lord and Espiritu Santo Parochial School under the coordination of Erlyn Ballesta Sanchez. 

I will keep everyone posted on this site as very soon these dresses will find a home.

Lil, thank you so much for donating your spare time in making these pillowcase dresses for the needy girls in your location. Feel proud when each of these dresses find a home and get to be worn by the most lucky girls. Stand tall that through these dresses you found a way to make a difference in this world and made our friend 'earth' a better place to live in. Thank you my classmate!

Donation Acknowledgements FY2012 #25 - From Dress A Girl Australia

Today, Mar 15, Dress A Girl Australia turns 1 year old and to help celebrate the event since I can not think of anything else to give or to do,  I have decided to donate these bundles of fabrics from my collection to make into pairs of shorts for the boys, another campaign to help the less fortunate children around the world by Dress A Girl Australia.  

       

The bundles on the right were actually bought by me about 5 years ago from a South African lady who was trying to promote handmade products from South Africa. Together with other fabric panels which I have already made into wallhangings I bought these fabrics with the intention of making them into totes and decorative pillowcases to sell and some for my living room. Well, as you can see they are still bundles of fabrics after all these years and there are about 7 metres on these bundles. Just imagine how many pairs of shorts I can make in addition to the 3 metres of fabrics on the left picture. I dont mind giving away these bundles for a very worthy cause.

Dress A Girl Australia, you've got your hands full with these contributions.

If you feel like donating to the cause of Dress A Girl Australia, please send donations to Dress A Girl Australia, P.O. Box 240, Casula Mall Casula NSW 2170.

If you want more information or details about these back-to-back campaigns, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Please help spread the word!

It's finally here...Shorts for the boys Campaign!

Countdown 3....2....1! It is finally here!  Dress A Girl Australia is officially launching the shorts campaign for the boys starting today. Long shorts or knee pants or regular shorts or britches for the boys, whatever it is called, it is time to provide shorts for the boys from the less fortunate locations around the world for just like the girls, boys also deserve to own at least a pair of shorts.

Here are some samples of shorts you may want to make and donate to Dress A Girl Australia.

We still need dresses for girls. Shorts for the boys is in addition to our Dress A Girl Around the World - Dress A Girl Sydney and Australia campaign. But now you have a choice of making dresses or making shorts or making both. For a very worthy cause, a pair is I believe is not that much to ask. A pair of shorts and a pillowcase dress I dont think too much to ask. I am aiming for at least 500 pairs for this year 2012. 
Please help me achieve this goal. Please help spread the word around.
If you want to join us on this campaign and need more information or details, please feel free to send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Dress A Girl Australia forming partnerships with other charity groups

Some people may not agree with me but I believe for Dress A Girl Australia to be successful in its campaign to dress the less fortunate girls around the world and soon the boys, to be able to reach as many children and locations as possible it needs to establish partnerships with other charity groups who are more or less in the same category of  charity work as Dress A Girl Australia. 

Last year I made a partnership with the Ladies of Zonta International, CDO Chapter, Philippines. This group has several day care centres under their sponsorship and in partnership with them, Dress A Girl Australia was able to provide dresses to the children of one of their Daycare centre, the Aura Daycare Center located about half-an-hour away from the center of the city. Cagayan de Oro City is located in the southern part of the Philippine islands about an hour and a half away by plane from Manila. This year, I will be providing them again with about 50 more dresses to distribute in their projects in other locations.

For two months now I have been proactively working on establishing another partnership with a charitable organization based in Australia with projects in a number of countries in Asia including India, South Africa and Zimbabwe. This group has to be nameless at this time so as not to jeopardize my plans but I will be finally meeting up with one of their coordinators this Friday before I go to work to discuss about possible dress distribution in one of their project location as a start and hopefully in the other countries in the later months.

Individual and group volunteers which passes my personal screening will continue to be accommodated with dresses to distribute if they want to and pillowcase dress kits will continue to be provided to volunteer groups that deal with children and youth empowerment program. 

With all of this, I'd say more power to Dress A Girl Around the World - Dress A Girl Sydney and Australia. I hope I could get and continue to get as many supporters and as many donors of pillowcase dresses and fabric materials as possible to be able to sustain dressing girls and providing britches for the boys from the less fortunate locations around the world for many years to come.

**** Zonta International founded in 1919 is a global organization of executives and professionals working together to advance the status of women worldwide through service and advocacy.

Another Award for Dress A Girl Australia - '7 x 7' Link Award

As mentioned in an earlier post, Dress A Girl Australia was nominated again by Pam of 'Threading my Way' with a '7 x 7' Link Award two weeks ago. As Pam said and wrote it well in her blog article when she was nominated for the award 'it is so lovely when someone notices and enjoys your work but more fabulous when they let you know'. And I totally agree with her. The feeling is great when someone appreciates what you are doing. For me, it inspires me to do more. 

So once again, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Pam for believing and supporting Dress A Girl Australia and appreciating what Dress A Girl Australia does best and that is 'imagining a world where every little girl owned at least one dress'.

But just like any awards, in addition to expressing your gratitude to the person who nominated you, this award comes with other small tasks to complete to keep it going. 

1. You need to share 7 things about yourself or in my case 7 things about Dress A Girl Australia.
2. Share 7 of Dress A Girl Australia's blog posts that fit the following 7 categories -
              1. Most Beautiful
              2. Most Helpful
              3. Most Popular
              4. Most Controversial
              5. Most Surprisingly Successful
              6. Most Underrated
              7. Most Pride Worthy
3. Nominate 7 other bloggers for the 7 x 7 award

I have so much to say about Dress A Girl Australia that I am not sure where to start. There are lots of blogs out there that are really outstanding (on the train on my way to work the other day I noticed that I am actually following about a 100 blogs in google reader :-)) I think I need some time to sort out my brain to accomplish these small tasks. Once I have made up my mind on what/who to write and nominate (although I already have an idea), I definitely will blog about it. I think am doing a good job catching up with tasks to do (note that I received this award on the 1st of March and it is only the 13th today and I am already blogging about it) it should not take me that long to get back to this award and give everyone an update. That is a promise.

In the meantime, thanks again, Pam. It is so awesome when one is being appreciated. 

I invite everyone to visit Pam's 'Threading my Way' or you can go to her site just by one click of the mouse on the link you will find on the right navigation pane. You are missing a lot if you dont at least drop by her site. In fact, I am trying to catch up with all my pending tasks so I can join-in in one or all of her linky parties.

Here is the link if you want to read or know more about this 7 x 7 award nomination. -
         http://threadingmyway.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/7-x-7-link-awards.html 

Liebster Award for Dress A Girl Australia from Threading my Way

Although I have extended my heartfelt thank you to Pam of Threading My Way in appreciation for giving Dress A Girl Australia this award (I actually receive another one 2 weeks ago which I will write about it in a second), writing about this award is so long overdue. And I think this is the last of my backlog from January. I never expected this nor did I know that this kind of award exist, a real surprise but I love it. 

The first award that I received in January is the Liebster award. When I first received the email from Pam letting me know about this award, the first thing I did was lookup the word in the internet and learned that it is a german word for favourite or dearest if you want to use it as an adjective.

The Liebster award is helping other fellow bloggers get a jump start on their blogs especially those with less than 200 followers and at the same time fostering friendship among the blogging community. 

A special part of this award is to pass it on to others and there are rules to follow :

1. Post the award on your blog

2. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

3. Reveal your 5 picks for the award and let them know.

4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogsphere or the other bloggers.

5. Have fun and spread the love.

I still have to reveal my 5 picks which is going to be a surprise (meaning you wont know when I will reveal them but I already have 3 on the list I still need 2 more) but I would like to thank Pam again for selecting me for this award. It is very much appreciated and better late than never.

If you want to know more about this award, here is the link -

http://threadingmyway.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/liebster-award.html

and here is the link to Pam's 'Threading my Way' 

or you can click on the link you will find in the right navigation pane.

A new campaign for postage fund

A new fund-raising campaign to raise funds for postage to replenish my dwindling funds will take place in a couple of weeks' time and will run for 6 weeks.

Here is a hint as to what the theme of the campaign is going to be -

.....to the world you might just be one person

....but to one person you might just be the world.....

I hope to break the record amount of $290.00 raised in 2 weeks time selling personalized christmas stockings last December.

Watch out for this campaign and if you find anything you like I hope you will not hesitate to purchase the item for a very worthy cause.

For the children of Roma Qld from Dress A Girl Australia

A great way to start celebrating Dress A Girl Australia's first birthday.

A lady member of The Sewing Library facebook group wrote this message about four weeks ago in the group's page :

I have been working at the flood donation centre at Roma the last few days, and was thinking it would be really nice if we could get some handmade things together for the kids who have lost their homes and everything in them. We have had lots of second hand clothing donations, but, especially for the kids over one, there isn't really anything new or special. We are servicing both Roma and Mitchell, where between 500 and 600 houses were inundated. Roma has had major floods three times in three years, and for those who weren't insured before 2010, we cannot get insurance. The repeated battering has really destroyed some people to the point that they don't even want to return to their homes. Not that there's a choice. Rents here have skyrocketed, with families asked to pay $1000 a week for 2 bedrooms. And that's the ones that can find houses available. People are being looted as well, and while we are doing what we can to keep spirits up, the devastation means that there are not many people able to volunteer their time. So, what I was wondering, was whether some of you lovely sewers could spare a bit of your fabric stashes, and a bit of time, to make a little something for a child or two in our district. If you would like to help out, please comment or send me a PM. Thank you ♥

I thought this was a good opportunity for me to make something for Australian kids this time. Took more time than I expected to finish but they did get finish and finally was able to send the parcel to Roma this morning. 

Inside the parcel were 24 sets of Easter color-me-card kits and a 57mm button necklace. The card kits were meant to keep the children busy and happy. Included in the kit was one Easter greeting card, a chocolate bar wrapper, mini box of small crayons and a matching envelope. An angel inside a pocket was the image on the button and I used ribbons so the child can wear it if he or she wanted to. The message on the button read 'an angel in your pocket they say...will keep your troubles far away'....

Here are samples of the Easter color-me-card kits and the 57mm button necklace -

I hope the children will like these items and enjoy colouring the card and wearing the button necklace too. I hope it gives them hope and make them think that there are other people who are looking after their welfare.

Turning 1 Celebration - Thank you for the Kind Words and Dresses

Dress A Girl Australia is turning one year old on the 15th of March. It will be a low fan fare day as firstly I will be at work the whole day (I wish I could be at home making anniversary pillowcase dresses!) and secondly, am trying to save as much as I can to raise my dwindling funds for postage. 

Let me start the celebration before the big day with a big thank you for all the kind words I have been receiving.

Every now and then I receive emails from some members of the Australian community telling me what a wonderful work I am doing. 'Pat-on-the-back' via email and how I inspire other people to make a difference in this world. Thank you so much for the kind words. Every word is very much appreciated and inspires me to work harder everytime I get a time to spare and make sure we all live in a world where every little girl owned at least one dress for every girl deserves to own at least one. 

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported this campaign and thank you for all the donations. I could not have done it without your support.

Thank you to Dress A Girl Around the World (Hope 4 Women International) for making this campaign happen and for giving me the opportunity to make this campaign alive and kicking here in Australia. Thank you.

For those who wants to know more about this campaign, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.


                                                                                I have so much to be thankful for. 
                                                                                                     ~ anonymous~

A Bit Of This and A Bit Of That: Little Houses Update...& report from Joni

A few weeks ago I blogged about the little fabric houses which I sent to Japan for the survivors of the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami disaster which devastated much of the coastline and surrounding areas of Northern Japan.

Here is an update on how the little fabric houses are going -

A Bit Of This and A Bit Of That: Little Houses Update...& report from Joni: We have 80 little houses to date but I know there are still a few more on their way. Saturday, I set Ebi-kun to work and we packed up ...

Profile of a Dress A Girl Australia campaigner - Meet Lilia R Tapia

A campaigner for Dress A Girl Australia from the least expected place. Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines. This city of golden friendship lies along the northern coastline of the island of Mindanao which is the second giant of the archipelago of all the landmass of the Philippines, in the country's southern portion. 

This is where Lilia R Tapia lives and is making dresses for Dress A Girl Australia in her spare time. If you are wondering how I met her she is actually a high school classmate of mine who I had the chance to reconnect when I attended our high school reunion in 2010. The last time I saw her was when we graduated in high school decades ago. I saw her again in September of 2011 when I decided to go back and visit my native hometown for a couple of days to share about 25 dresses with the less fortunate children of the city through the assistance of the Ladies of Zonta International, CDO Chapter, Philippines. It was on my second visit that Lilia and I spoke about her desire to help, her wish to make a difference in this world. I offered to provide her with pillowcase dress kits to make into dresses and that she is not to send the dresses to me instead she finds little girls in areas who she thinks deserves to own and wear her creations. She was so excited about the idea that when I was back in Sydney every now and then I would get messages from her reminding me of my promise to send her kits which I finally got the chance to send in early December. It took almost 6 weeks for the  airmail parcel to arrive but at least it found its way to Lilia's home. She was so thankful that she finally got the parcel and two weeks ago she advised me that she has started sewing dresses.

This is Lilia sitting behind her sewing machine. I love her sewing machine. I wish I could have one like it. My mum and my 'lola' (my mum's mother) used to own one.  

And these are the dresses she has sewn (all five of them) and by the time she finished she will have about 10 dresses for 10 little girls in the southern portion of the Philippines. 10 happy faces brought about by Lilia's desire to make a difference from where she lives.

Lil, I am so happy and grateful for what you are doing for Dress A Girl Australia. Thank you so much for sewing dresses. You and I under the Dress A Girl Australia banner will go a long way in making sure we make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate children in your part of the world, your home, my native hometown. Together you and I will imagine a world where every little girl owned at least one dress and that nothing can stop us from our desire to make a difference in this world....not even distance....but one dress at a time.