Five pairs of shorts from a fabric donation from Tasmania

I was starting to feel bored after finishing my dress for the day this morning. I could not go anywhere because it was raining. So I thought of making just one pair of shorts in case the rain would stop but instead I ended up making 5 pairs. These pairs have been made from the fabric donation of Louise Wright of Tasmania.

I probably could have done more if I did not run out of elastic. :-) 

Thank you Louise Wright for the fabric donation. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. Much appreciated.

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/01 #2 - Dresses from Dianne

First batch of dresses received for the year is from Dianne Menzel of South Australia. Dianne has kindly donated ten dresses for ten disadvantaged girls anywhere in the world. She knew about this campaign through a friend of hers. Here are the ten dresses -

Thank you Dianne for the dresses. Much appreciated.

Dress Donations to the Sandy Hook Elementary Event of Dress A Girl Oregon & Connecticut

This parcel was posted yesterday, the 26th of Jan 2013 to Dress A Girl Oregon with 14 dresses inside the parcel. 

These dresses are being donated for the Sandy Hook Elementary event on behalf of the Australian donors, supporters and campaigners of Dress A Girl Around the World. I hope these dresses are good enough to comply with your green and white colour requirement.
Here is a look at the dresses -

And here are the donors of the dresses -
1) Ladies of Kapunda, South Australia
2) Heyboom
3) Hobart Embroidery Club
4) Wednesday Group Quilted Crow of NewTown, Tasmania
5) Deborah Steed
6) Gaylene Hermann
7) Prudence Mann
8) Anonymous Donor

To see larger images of the dress donations, please click here. Links to this article and any feedback will also be made available in the 'Dress Distribution' page which you can find at the top of this page and every other page.

To Dress A Girl Oregon and Connecticut, thank you for giving us this opportunity to support you on this event to honour the memory of the 26 people especially the kids whose lives ended so soon. This parcel should arrive at its destination in time for your Feb 14 deadline.

To the dress donors, heaps and heaps of thanks for making this parcel possible. Much appreciated.

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/01 #1 - Fabrics from the Wright Family

Now that the numbers for 2012 is final and now closed, it is time to start acknowledging donations for the new year 2013. The first on the list is from Louise Wright of Tasmania, the same Wright surname of previous donations. And what a great way to start 2013 with these bundles of fabrics. 

Louise, thank you for your very generous fabric donations. I am going to have a party and enjoy sewing all these bundles. Thank you. Much appreciated.

Final Numbers for 2012 and Christmas Charity Drive

Ok. It is time to close off the year 2012 and what a year it has been. It has been a year for benchmarks  for Dress A Girl (around the World) Australia and I hope I could do better in 2013 or be able to replicate at a minimum what was achieved in 2012. 

For the whole year 2012
Total dresses collected in 2012                         1,742  vs goal of 1500
Total pairs of shorts collected in 2012                  390  vs goal of 500

Final numbers for the 'Make-it' or 'Break-it' Christmas charity drive :
Total dresses collected                                     396
Total pairs of shorts collected                           109

Total Distributions Made
Total dresses given                                           938
Total pairs of shorts given                                 176

With the above numbers of dresses and pairs of shorts distributed, it brings Dress A Girl Australia's total number of dresses and pairs of shorts distributed to 1,060 dresses and 179 pairs of shorts since it started in March 2011. When I first looked at these numbers I could not believe it that I had to go to my log and started checking each line of journal again but it all added up. 

Places of distribution were Uganda, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, India, Myanmar Burma, Vietnam, South Africa, Australia and the Philippines. For more details on these distributions, please check the 'Dress Distribution' tab located at the top of the page.

There will be more dress distributions in the next few months.

My heartfelt thank you to everyone who made these numbers and achievements possible. You know who you are. Thank you for making 938 girls and 176 boys in different locations around the world own at least one dress and/or one pair of shorts. Thank you for making it a reality not just imaginary for these disadvantaged children. Thank you all for your amazing kindness and generosity. It is very much appreciated. Thank you.

I also want to say thank you with all my heart to everyone who bought my handmades. Without your purchase sending some of these parcels would'nt have been possible. Thank you so much.

A little Kitty for the TSL Dolly Drive 2013

Today was supposed to be my schedule to sew a dress for the Heart for Girls competition of Dress A Girl Washington but it seems like I have a change of heart. This morning I tried to start making one but I just could'nt find that 'it' thing to make it. Early this week I was so eager that is why I scheduled it for this Saturday but I seem to have lost that eagerness and I do not want to force myself to do something which I will not be enjoying. Must be something I read or was it something I ate? Not sure what but am no longer joining the competition. I will still be making the dress in the next few days which I really want to make but have decided to keep it for a special kid I hope to dress in my planned holiday trip to Johannesburg later this year (Sep/Oct timeframe). 

Since it was not the time yet to make the dress for the day, I instead made this litte kitty. It does not seem to look like a kitty to me (LOL!) or I think it looks like a 'Hello Kitty' if you know about those small Sanrio toy kittens made in Japan. I used to buy a lot of these things in my younger days. I will be donating this kitty to the TSL Dolly Drive 2013 in addition to the other 3 weird softies I already committed to donate.

 I hope to make another one of this and perhaps another robot type of softie then I will send the items to the NSW coordinator.

One Dress A Day/365 - Day 1 to Day 19

Well, I thought I should give everyone the status or progress of my second attempt to make one dress a day for 365 days. So far I havent missed any day...yet!
Here are the 21 dresses I have made so far, 2 more in 19 days -

These dresses have been made possible through the fabric donations of Sash Hinton, Meredith Kain, Wright Family of Tasmania, Sylvia Lowe and heyboom shop for the T-shirt. More T-shirts and dresses coming from these donors in the very near future.

Thank you everyone for your kindness and generosity. Thank you for helping dress the less fortunate children around the world. Much appreciated.

For larger images of the dresses, please click here. For the daily log of these dresses, please click here or click on the '365 Days Diary' tab at the top of this page.

More Pictures - Dress Distribution Dec 2012 by the Knights of Columbus QC Phils.

As promised here are more pictures of the dress distribution made by the members of the Knights of Columbus in Cubao, QC Phils last Dec 8, 2012.

and here are the members of the Knights of Columbus who made this distribution possible headed by the Grand Knight Gerry Sevilla. Unfortunately the wife Leila isnt in any of the pictures as she was in an activity in another church. Dec 8 is a big celebration for the Roman Catholic church in the Philippines. (Pls note these are mostly gentlemen helping make a difference in the lives of 150 children)

This is Leila's feedback regarding the distribution -including explaining where she was on the day the distribution was made -

My heartfelt thanks to Leila and Gerry Sevilla and the rest of the members of the Knights of Columbus and the Brangay Silangan Council members for helping in the distribution. To all the donors of the dresses, thank you so much for making this dream possible. Thank you for your kindness and generosity.

To see larger images, please click here. Don't forget to visit my specially-dedicated page on dress distributions. Please click here or you can click on the 'dress distribution' tab found at the top of this page/every other page.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #151 - from Karen

MBCCD #31 Donation number 151/31 and the last parcel for the year 2012 and the last dresses received for the 'make-it' or 'break-it' Christmas charity drive are 5 dresses from Karen Interlandi and her mum.
Here are the 5 dresses -

Karen, thank you for the dresses and please extend my heartfelt thanks to your mum for the wonderful dresses she made. Thank you.

With this last batch of donation, I am now ready to release the final numbers for the dresses and pairs of shorts received for the christmas charity drive hopefully by tomorrow including the total number of dresses received for the year 2012.

Dress Distribution in Cubao QC Philippines Dec 2012

Just a quick note to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Knights of Columbus of the Shrine of St Joseph Parish and the Barangay Silangan Council of Cubao, QC, Phils and a special thank you to the Grand Knight Gerry Sevilla and his wife Leila Sevilla for dressing 150 girls last Dec 8, 2012 on behalf of Dress A Girl (Around the World) Australia. 

Here is one of the pictures I received. Will be posting a few more in the next few nights.

 Thank you, thank you Spike!

Today's Haul - 2 Dresses and 2 pairs of shorts

Not sure what to do in the afternoon (although I've got lots of things to do) I decided to sit down and do some more sewing. I finished two dresses from the fabric donation of Penny Grey and 2 pairs of shorts. These are leftovers from December fabric cuttings and also leftovers when I run out of bias tapes.

I think there are 2 more pairs of shorts and 1 more dress left that needs to be sewn and then it will be all over and goodbye to these fabrics. And I have prepared the fabric tubes that I would need for my One-dress-a-day for 365 days next week. Fabrics are donations by Sash Hinton. No floral prints for next week. Am taking a rest. :-)

If you want to know why we are sewing, please send an email for more details to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com. Everyone is invited to join us in this campaign of dressing the less fortunate children around the world.

14 year old with her 4 dresses

This is 14-yr old Beth Wilkop from Clare, South Australia with the  4 dresses she made for Dress a Girl around the World. 

Another 14-yr old helping make a difference in this world...with one small dress at a time. 

2013 is definitely the year of living making a difference for some of us . WooHooo!! And hoping for hundreds more to join us

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #151 - Fabrics from Sash Hinton

MBCCD #31 Number 151/31 on the list are these bundles of fabrics from Sash Hinton some of which will make good accessories to go with the dresses. I think I have all the fabrics I need to complete my one-dress a day second attempt.  And if I want to have a room clear of fabrics the only way to do that is to make sure these fabrics are converted into dresses. All I need is the time. :-)  And I think I know what to do with the ones that are small to make into a dress. I can make them into something to sell to raise money for postage. I can make them into small fabric houses or small quilts. Well, we will see how it goes.

To Sash, thank you for your very generous fabric donation. Much appreciated.

Softies for Donations to the TSL Dolly Drive 2013

These 3 cuties will be donated to the TSL's (The Sewing Library facebook group) Dolly Drive 2013 for distribution to children's hospitals around Australia. In my case since I live in Sydney this will be distributed around the NSW area.

I made these cuties mid last year for Christmas, kept them because they always got covered with dresses anyway but then I forgot I had them. :-) . I did a 'smiley'(pictured on the left), 'sad' and 'angry' look softies but decided on giving away the 'smiley' hoping that whoever gets to receive it will have a similar smile on his and/or her face. Am keeping the 'sad' and 'angy' look for my amusement.

The TSL Dolly Drive 2013 will be running until the end of March this year so if you want to join in this initiative, please check out the details here.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #150 - Dresses from Sarah

MBCCD #30 On the list as number 150/#30 donation are these six beautiful dresses from Sarah Tanmahapran from Victoria. She loves to sew and always makes dresses, skirts, shorts and bags for her family and friends. She thinks her daughter has too many dresses and when she found out about Dress A Girl Around the World it fit perfectly well with her plans to continue on with her passion for sewing and this time for a very good cause.
Here are the dresses that Sarah has sent -

Sarah, thank you so much for the dresses and thank you for sharing your sewing skills in helping make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate children. Much appreciated.

Two more dresses sewn today

I finally managed to get more bias tapes so for the next few days I will finish all the dresses I have started to make last month but had to stop because I run out of bias tapes. These dresses were supposed to be included in the 'make-it' or 'break-it Christmas charity drive count and will still be included.

Thank you to Penny Grey for the fabric donation

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #149 - 12 dresses from ACT

MBCCD #29 Number #149/#29 on the christmas charity drive list are two friends from ACT. Siobhan Leyne and Anna Dacre. They both were on break from work and made these 12 dresses and a few more waiting to be sewn before they head back to work. And they both are aiming to make more before the end of the year.
Here are the 12 dresses from Siobhan and Anna -

To Siobhan and Anna, thank you for your support of dress a girl around the world. It is very much appreciated. Twelve more girls are definitely going to be happy with the 12 dresses you have made. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #148 - 10 dresses from Sharyn

MBCCD #28 Woohoo! After over a week am back to acknowledging donations . This batch of 10 dresses sure did make it for the 'make-it' or 'break-it' christmas charity drive from Sharyn Paull which is number 148/#28 in the donation list. 
Here are the 10 dresses -

Love the colours! Sharyn, thank you so much for your kindness and generosity and for your unwavering support in 2012. Thank you. Much appreciated.

Dress Distribution - A few more from the Philippines

Dress A Girl Australia is keeping the ladies from the CDO Chapter 2 of the Zonta International, Philippines busy with a few more dress distribution to a few more lucky girls from Dahilayan. 

Dahilayan is located in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon province which is about 40 kilometres away from the city of Cagayan de Oro and about an hour and 40 minutes by plane from Manila the capital of the Philippines.

Here are the lucky children this time with the ladies of Zonta International.

Ladies, you all are doing a very good  and awesome job of dressing the less fortunate children in your part of the world otherwise not easily reachable. Thank you for helping Dress A Girl (Around the World) Australia provide dresses to as many children from all corners of the world possible. Thanks heaps and more power to your group.

My heartfelt thanks as well to the donors of these dresses. Thank you so much.

* Zonta International is a worldwide organization of executives in business and the professions working together to advance the status of women through service and advocacy.

Dress Distribution - Dago Dala Hera Kenya

These are some of the pictures from the dress distribution in Dago Dala Hera Orphanage and community completed in Dec 2012 through the coordination of Patrick Odoyo, the Dago Program Coordinator. 

And here is the email from Patrick regarding the distribution -

Click here to see larger images of the distribution. Thanks to everyone who made this dress distribution possible. Much appreciated.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #147 - Pillowcases from F dela Cruz

MBCCD #27These dresses were sewn from pillowcases donated by my good friend Flor dela Cruz who lives in the US. There are about 15 more of these which have already been cut sometime in November of last year. All it needs are bias tapes which I run out of so the whole batch was left forgotten and I found them stack behind a couple of fabric bundles tonight. I will be sewing all of them until they are finished and be counted as part of the December donations and the christmas charity drive. Anyway the cut-off date for these two activities is still about a week away - 15th of Jan 2013. Besides I think my friend would like to see them donated for Christmas.

To my dear and good friend Flor, thank you for the pillowcases. There is more to come. Thank you.

First pair of shorts for 2013

This is the very first pair of shorts I made for the year 2013. I did this tonight in addition to the dress I made for the One-dress-a-day for 365 days' journey. I was thinking if I were to increase my personal goal for the number of shorts I have to make this year, I better start this early. Currently I have set my personal goal at 200 which is double that of last year. It does not look or sound very realistic but I have to set it at a high number to drive me to make more.

If you want to see the progress of my One-dress-a-day for 365 days' journey, after 4 days am still on track. :-) Check out my daily progress by clicking on the '365 Days Diary' tab which you can find at the top of this page or you can click here. Here's hoping that I can at least reach middle of the year as this is my second attempt to take on this journey.

Dress Distribution - Home Sweet Orphanage in Masaka Uganda

These are pictures of the dress distribution made by Robert Luwalira in his Home Sweet Orphanage in Masaka Uganda during a small new year's party for the children. In early December, Robert wrote and asked if I would be willing to sponsor a small party for the children when they received their gifts from Dress A Girl Australia and  Sarah Gibson who sent dollies and other gift items. I was'nt really sure if I would be able to sponsor the party especially that I was trying to raise more funds to send more parcels overseas. When I was at the Dreamers Markets I decided that if I sell one clothbook I would donate the proceeds to the party. I guess it was my lucky day as I sold almost all the clothbooks I made. Also, on the same day that I made the decision I received a letter from Betty Barrett who wanted to purchase a pack of the vintage Christmas cards and the proceeds of which I included in the small donation.

Here are some pictures sent to me by Robert -

and the dresses he received for the orphans.

And here is the email from Robert -

Am sure the children had a good time. I wanted them to celebrate the thought that there are people in this world who looks after them. Thank you so much to Betty Barrett for helping me in making the celebration for the children possible. Thank you Betty.