Donation Acknowledgement FY13/11 #161 - 5 dresses from Hiroko

Number 161 on the list is a parcel of 5 dresses from Hiroko Price. This is Hiroko's second batch of dress donations.

To Hiroko, thank you for supporting Dress  A Girl Australia's campaign to dress girls from the less fortunate locations around the world. Your kindness and generosity is so much appreciated. Thank you!

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/11 #160 - 27 dresses from the golden girls 2

The task I assigned myself to do yesterday was to make sure that I finished opening all the parcels and after a lot of bending and taking pictures I finally completed the task. So now it is time to acknowledge all those donations received and close the month of November.

Number 160 on the list is from a group of friends who call themselves the golden girls 2. Kay, Pauline, Betty and Julie from Endeavour Hills Victoria. They were able to come up with 27 dresses, 1 skirt and also sent 6 pairs of knickers. Inspite of their being new to sewing, they were able to come up with 27 and made each dress with love and care to help children around the world to have something pretty. They sure are all very pretty by these ladies who also are busy but feels personally rewarded making these gifts and making a difference in the life of the little girls who gets to wear them.  

To the golden girls Kay, Pauline, Betty and Julie, thank you so much for the time and effort you all spent making this collection. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. It is much appreciated.

Christmas Bags #5 - Christmas bags and softies from Sandra

In addition to the 24 dresses and 12 pairs of shorts, also in the parcel were 15 fabric elephants and 16 christmas bags.

15 big smiles this coming Christmas made possible by Sandra's 15 fabric elephants. What a great way to end the year 2013. Again, my heartfelt thanks to Sandra. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. It is very much appreciated.

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/11 #159 - 24 dresses/12 pairs of shorts from Sandra

Number 159 on the list is a parcel of 24 dresses and 12 pairs of shorts from Sandra Turnbull. Sandra has been experimenting with t-shirt dresses and look at how many she ended up with.

To Sandra, thank you so much for your kindness and generosity. You do make this world a better place. Thank you.

Christmas Bags #4 - From Dress A Girl Australia

Too late in the night to acknowledge donations. Number 4 on the list is from me (Dress A Girl Australia) with these 6 hand puppets and 5 big-eyed monsters which are owls really. 

Eleven more kiddies will be hugging a softie soon.

Thank You and Happy Thanksgiving Day!

To everyone who supported Dress A Girl Australia in 2013, thank you so much and happy thanksgiving day!

Parcels Received

Good Morning everyone! I really am flat out these days with sorting and packing so all my parcels can leave Australia before the 10th of December. I am also busy making handmades to sell to take advantage of the buying season so need your patience in acknowledging donations received. Unless parcels received are for Christmas distribution (i.e. christmas bags and soft toys) all parcels will be taken cared of as soon as I am done with the packing or when i can find a spare time. Thank you.

Iron-on Labels no longer available

Just to let everyone know that iron-on labels are no longer available as I find them more expensive than the sew-on labels. Those who requested for iron-on the past week will now be receiving the sew-on labels instead. If you do not want to attach the sew-on labels because you have already finish sewing your dresses, when you send over your dresses, can you please send back as well the sew-on labels and I will try to find someone to sew the labels to your dresses. Sewing labels to finish dresses is not really such a big task and it will be a big help on my part if you  could use the sew-on labels but if it is too much to ask and you do not want to do it then just return the labels please.

Thank you.

Information on Clothing Sponsorship Program

Good Morning everyone. Lately I have been receiving emails enquiring about the Clothing Sponsorship program for South Africa. I will be releasing guidelines about this campaign in early January just to make sure that donated items are meeting the requirements of what the foundation needs. And because I will be limited in the number of kilos of clothing that I can send, donations have to meet the guidelines if anyone wants to donate. 

Thank you and thank you to those who have shown interest to the program.

Christmas Bags #3 - from Vanya

Number 3 on the list of Christmas Bags and 10 of them from Vanya Bryant. And about 2 months ago I received these cute creatures from her so these are definitely going inside each of these bags. Here are the christmas bags -

and here are the cute creatures sent about 2 months ago -

Thank you so much Vanya for supporting Dress A Girl Australia's Christmas Charity Drive for the kids of CDO Philippines. Much appreciated.

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/11 #158 - From Vanya

Number 158 on the list is a parcel of assorted goodies from Vanya Bryant. Looks like Vanya has been keeping herself busy with 'hot stuff'. 'Hot stuff' great for Dress A Girl Australia's upcoming winter collection for South Africa. I just love creating names and creating slogans for my charity drive campaigns. I think it makes it more attractive to get some kind of support and mobilizes 'like-minded' people. :-)

Anyway, here are the contents of Vanya's parcel this time - I will be writing a separate acknowledgement for the christmas bags.

And I also had a surprise inside the parcel - a handmade christmas ornament -

To Vanya, thank you so much for your support in 2013. Thank you for your kindness and generosity, for helping make this world a better place. It is so much appreciated. Have a very lovely Christmas and a heartfelt thank you for the pretty Christmas ornament.

Christmas Bags #2 - From Jamie and daughter Amelia

Christmas bags are starting to arrive in Sydney and number 2 on the list are ten bags with cute softies inside from Jamie Gwiazda and her daughter Amelia. Another 10 girls with big smiles on their faces when they get to receive the Christmas bags with simple contents of a dress, an undie, perhaps a headscarf, a small softie and a lolly but full of love.

A wholehearted thank you to Jamie and her daughter Amelia. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. Much appreciated.

A little bit of this...a little bit of that...Updates for the week 23-Nov-2013

I know how communication as a tool is very important in perhaps everything that we do. It can either make you or break you. Sometimes I do postings directly in Dress A Girl Australia's facebook page with the intention of posting it here in my blog as well.....if I can remember to do it which I think I should so everyone would know. :-)
Anyway, here is a summary of the FB postings I did this week to keep you updated - 

23-Nov-2013 -
             #1 - Dec 3, Tuesday has been designated as 'Giving Day' in the US, Canada and 
                other parts of the world. I would like to think that we here in Australia can also
                make this day as a 'Giving Day' and make this an opportunity to give back 
                something to the world...help make a difference to lots of disadvantaged 
                people. A good day to start the giving season of Christmas. So how about we 
                all start to think on what to do and what to give on Tuesday.

          #2 - Delivery services to Tacloban Philippines from Australia have not been 
                restored yet so I cant send my parcels. Deliveries are only up to Manila which
                will not do any good since the parcels need to end up in Tacloban. I will wait 
                until things get back to normal a little bit and my contact hopefully settled back
                to normal routines then I send the parcels and hopefully before Christmas. And
                I also plan to make a collection from work (some have offered to help) which I
                can use or ask my contact to buy some food and distribute to families on 
                Christmas day. Fingers crossed.

22-Nov-2013 -
          Thinking that I might exceed the 45 kilos for my South Africa parcel, I decided to             request for another concession authority form last Tuesday and I received the form           today.

21-Nov-2013 - 
          #1 - For those who are making Christmas bags, please make sure I get to receive
                them by the last week of Nov or first week of Dec max to give me ample time 
                to sort and pack. Thank you

          #2 - We can do it !! We can make it happen !!
                 If you want to help build a well in Kiriga Uganda and give hope through clean                    water, please click  on the link below -

            #3 - Due to the number of undies I am getting and have sorted them by sizes to                       help quicken the packing of a dress with an undie, am no longer able to                           identify which undies have been donated by whom. For everyone's info.                           Thanks!

20-Nov-2013 -
           Good Morning everyone! In reply to the emails i have been getting lately, want to
           reiterate that there is no need to rush sewing dresses and sending them over to
           me. I have an ample supply of both dresses and shorts and what is needed for the
           rest of the year is fully allocated. Nothing to do with the cost of sending as i have 
           already budgeted for these parcels but i do still have quite a supply. Besides, it is 
           difficult to send over the Christmas period. I will start scheduling again
           distributions in April of next year so please hold on to your donations until next
           year to avoid inconveniences at the post office. No new donations received
           (excluding the christmas bags and toys) will also allow me to clean my spare room
           that i have been using for the dresses. Thank you.

19-Nov-2013 -
          yes never give up even when am running low on funds -

          "If we are demoralized, sad and only complain, we’ll not solve our problems. If we
           only pray for a solution, we’ll not solve our problems. We need to face them, to
           deal with them without violence, but with confidence - and never give up. If you
           adopt a non-violent approach, but are also hesitant within, you’ll not succeed. You
           have to have confidence and keep up your efforts - in other words, never give up.
                                                          ~ Dalai Lama

More dresses are arriving

Yes, more dresses are on their way. Check out this bunch of 31 dresses from Jill, Elaine, Vicky and Haze, four retired friends from South Australia who wanted to help out dressing the less fortunate girls around the world and at the same time have some fun.

Thank you Ladies. I hope you did not have a difficult time hanging these dresses for picture taking. Looking forward to receiving these dresses. Thank you.

Christmas Bags #1 - 11 Bags from Mo

It is time to acknowledge Christmas Bags before they get packed. The first on the list are 11 christmas bags from Mo O'Brien. Just what I need which would fit a small dress, a headscarf and an undie. I might request my aunt who will be distributing these bags on Christmas day to purchase some lollies and add 1 lolly inside the bag. Am sure the lolly would bring a bigger smile to the kid's face :-)

Thank you so much, Mo! Much, much appreciated.

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/11 #157 - Dresses and shorts from Heather

Number 157 on the list is a parcel of 9 t-shirt dresses and 15 pairs of shorts from Heather Harris. The t-shirt dresses would be good for locations where culture requires for kids to wear dresses with sleeves.

To Heather, thank you so much for your kindness and generosity. Thank you for your unwavering support of Dress A Girl Australia. It is much appreciated. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/11 #156 - 3 dresses from Keren

Number 156 on the list is a parcel of 3 dresses from Keren Jacobs.

To Keren, thank you for supporting Dress A Girl Australia in its campaign to dress girls around the world. Thank you for helping make a world where every little girl gets to own a dress a reality especially in disadvantaged locations and not just imaginary. It is much appreciated. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/11 #155 - 26 Pairs from Kristen

I still am really busy sorting and packing but decided to squeeze in tonight a few donation acknowledgements for donations received for the month of November before I get drowned again with unopened parcels and before I send some of the items off in a few parcels am about to send. :-) 

Anyway, the first on the list came from Kristen Purvis and #155 on the list. 26 pairs of socks which is great to include in my 'Clothing Sponsorship' program - Winter edition for South Africa. Early next year I will be reviewing what I already have and what items I still would need and the way things are going, looks like I almost have everything I need.

To Kristen, thank you so much for the socks. It is much appreciated and am sure the kiddies of South Africa will enjoy wearing them to keep their feet warm during their winter. Thank you.

17 t-shirts closes my South Africa collection

These 17 t-shirts donated by Elaine Klein closes my South Africa Collection. From this time on my focus would be in completing the sorting and packing of all dresses, t-shirts and pairs of shorts and weigh up the parcels to make sure that I do not exceed 45 kilos. 
Here are the 17 t-shirts kindly donated by Elaine -

To Elaine, thank you so much for the t-shirts, for responding so quickly in my call for t-shirts for South Africa. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. It is much appreciated.

Dress Distribution #46 - 25 dresses for QCCT

This is an unscheduled distribution. Am donating 25 dresses to the QCCT team who are on their way to the Philippines to work on their project in Valenzuela Bulacan Metro Manila. This parcel includes 25 undies, 9 headbands and 16 headscarves. 

This is the parcel -

and these are the 25 dresses in the parcel including headscarves and headbands -

made possible by the following donors -
1. Toni Kirkpatrick
2. Heather Harris
3. Fabric donated by Sarah Fraser and sewn by Evelyn Smart
4. Monika Osvald for the 16 headscarves
5. Vanya Bryant for the 9 headbands
6. Ladies of Kapunda Sewing group for the 25 undies

To see larger images of the dresses, 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.

Thank you so much to all the donors who made this distribution possible. Thank you for helping make this world a better place through your kindness and generosity. It is much appreciated.

100 Thongs off to Wilcannia

I still have a few parcels to publish with donors and I think I will only be able to do this once all the parcels have left my humble abode. I still have not finish identifying the donors of the dresses and needs time to be able to do it. Anyway, this one is easy as I have a ready list of donors.

I had the perfect boxes of 50 pairs per box of thongs and off they went to Wilcannia this afternoon two weeks ahead of schedule. (Looks like my schedule of parcel send-offs is not working. :-))

Here are the parcels with 50 pairs per box -

the thongs -

and here is the list of the 'More than a mile' with thongs' donors who made these 2 parcels possible and who made it more possible for the children of Wilcannia NSW to walk...hop...jump...skip...run for more than a mile without feeling too much heat from the ground -

1. Kaylee and Kate Healy
2. Margie Burke
3. Candace Quach
4. Sue-Ellen Cox
5. Gaylene Herrmann
6. Two Bettys' Betty Barrett and Betty Paull
7. Maureen O'Brien
8. Cassandra Biadacz
9. Agnes Kwong and friend Candy
10. Jenny F. 
11. Joan Lui
12. Jo Haesook
13. Yetman
14. Dress A Girl Australia

To see larger images of the thongs, 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.

My wholehearted thank you to all the donors who made this drive so much a success. Thank you so much.

Feedback from Wilcannia

Received this email today from my friend Belinda Ritchie who is moving back to Sydney and leaving Wilcannia. I thought I would share it with everyone -

I look forward to coordinating making a difference in Wilcannia with whoever is going to replace Belinda and wish her all the best for the future. Thank you Belinda for giving me the opportunity to make a difference with the children of Wilcannia.

To access a readable version of this email, please click here.

T-Shirts for South Africa

I was thinking today (I should not be allowed to think, it is dangerous) that it might be a good idea to include t-shirts on the South Africa parcel to match some of the pairs of shorts. I wanted to close and tape the parcel of shorts but I was not really feeling comfortable closing it because there were no t-shirts. I have a tin where I usually put all the coins that makes my bag heavy. When I came home I opened the tin and check if I had enough coins to buy t-shirts. And it was my lucky day and more lucky because Kmart had the t-shirts still on sale. I counted and I had about $25 of gold and fifty-cent coins. Drove to K-mart and was able to buy 10 t-shirts. Just added a gold coin from my pocket. 

Here is my lucky tin again and still has some coins left -

and these are the 10 t-shirts I bought for South Africa - 3 of them were $2.00 each and the rest were $3.00 each.

Went home, packed them up and happy to close the parcel. Just had to have t-shirts inside the parcel. And isnt it great to have a "save for a rainy day" tin that can help grant your wish when needed. :-)

Parcels on Hold

I actually do not like the idea of re-arranging schedules or tasks as it takes a while for me to go back and do it but unfortunately this re-arranging of schedules is a necessity. 

This week is my schedule to send a parcel to Thailand and Mbale Uganda. They are all packed and ready to go just waiting for me to put the parcels at the back of my car to take to the postoffice, dresses and shorts for the kiddies in Thailand and quilts for the grandmas in Mbale Uganda. I have decided to put these 2 parcels on hold and instead send the money i have saved up and allocated for postage to a friend, an elementary/high school classmate) who i found is a victim of typhoon haiyan. They lost everything but thankful that they were saved. She is now in Manila with the rest of her family staying with her daughter and planning to go back to Tacloban to check up what is left for them over there, her friends and neighbours (who were less fortunate) and try to help them. A victim who has nothing in mind but to help her co-victims. I have offered some help and some dresses and shorts to bring back with her so i will be using the money allocated for these parcels to give to her. The amount is not that big compared to what other people are donating but it is heartily being given to her and I know it will go a long way for the victims who urgently need food and water. Perhaps food and water being made available to them will make them forget a little about what has happened to them. 

It's a bit sad to know that the parcels cannot be sent when I was looking forward to sending it but sometimes one has to be flexible, practical and sensible to make this world a better place. When I have save up enough money again from my selling of handmade items to pay for the postage of these two parcels, everyone will be notified. Thank you!

Soy Candles for Charity (Dress A Girl Australia)

About 5 years ago I used to candlemake and sell soy candles made of the environmentally friendly soy wax. I even sold books on candlemaking. Then I noticed that I was starting to become short-tempered maybe because I was starting to get bored (inspite of all the crafty things I was doing) so I decided to go back to full-time job after 2 years of not working. On the day that I decided I was going back to work, a week after I got a full-time job and this led me to becoming lax on my small home business which was by then starting to flourish. I stopped selling candles but I still kept on my hobby of making anything out of fabrics and sell one at a time.

Then my sister started making candles to fill the ceramic and porcelain bowls she was making and selling. This made me think why dont I start to sell soy candles again.. Soy candles for charity which will help me raise money for postage and most especially for the Dress A Girl well. I am not sure if I still have hours in a day left to allow me to make soy candles but there is no harm in trying. My motto is if there is a will...there is a way and it is for a very good cause. I really have no plans of making it big time selling candles. Just enough to meet the needs of Dress A Girl Australia.

So the past week I have been lighting candles again making sure they are lighting perfectly well and have now a small stock of small jar candles to sell. My first product for fundraising. I also hope I will be able to make tealights soon.

The candle with the lamp is only for a very short time while supplies last. These soy candles will be available for purchase in my e-shop in the next few days. They will make great christmas presents so I hope if you like soy candles you will make a purchase. 

Just to let everyone know that everything am handmaking and selling goes to Dress A GIrl Australia's petty cash fund. I am not trying to make money for myself. But selling items like this will help me sustain my Dress A Girl activities so I hope you will like some of my new products and make a purchase. Thank you.

Award from Threading My Way

I want to write about something different from what I normally blog about here in Dress A Girl Australia. I received an award from Pam of Threading my way. It is called the Sunshine Award, a blogger-to-blogger award for blogs that inspire and bring sunshine into people's lives. It will be so rude of me if I dont even mention it here in my blog nor give even just a little bit of acknowledgement. So I want to say a wholehearted thank you to Pam for the nomination. I never thought for a moment not even in my wildest dreams that I would be doing what I am doing now and that I would be inspiring and bringing sunshine into people's lives. Thank you so much Pam.

Now on to the rules for accepting the award -
1) Thank the blogger who nominated you which I have done above.
2) Post the award image in your blog which I have also done above.
3) Tell 7 facts about yourself - now this is the hard part but I think I can spare at least about 7 adjectives about myself
             1) easy-going
             2) very observant
             3) love to create
             4) live for the moment (this is the real me!)
             5) love to eat but dont cook
             6) practical
             7) loves travelling (dont suffer from jetlag at all)
4) Nominate 5-10 other blogs and let them know about their nominations. Now this is where I stop. Unfortunately I cannot comply with it as for the past few months I havent really had the chance to read other people's blogs. I follow a lot of blogs (more than 50 I think) but they all are unread whether it is on my iphone, my ipad or my desktop. LOL!

Once again, thank you Pam for the nomination. It is so much appreciated. I actually enjoyed writing this post. :-)

If you want to read more about Pam's creativity, please click here. Believe me when I say there are a lot of great things to read in her blog.

Parcel Acknowledgements

Good Sunday morning everyone! I think I have about 10 parcels to acknowledge which I have received in the last 2 weeks. Just so no one starts to worry if the parcels they have sent have been received or not, my priority task at the moment is sorting and packing my Christmas and South Africa parcels. I will be acknowledging first those that have items inside the parcel that will help quicken up my sorting/packing(i.e.Christmas). Once I have done my packing then I will go back to acknowledge the rest of the parcels. 

If anyone wants to know if their parcels have been received, please click here or click on the special 'News/Newsletters' tab found at the top of this page. Or you can click on the globe (Parcel Updates! Want to know whose parcels have been received?) which you can find on the right navigation pane.

Although I have not really been updating this page yet for the latest parcels sent or about to send, for updates on dress distributions and any feedback received, please click here or click on the special 'Dress Distributions' tab found at the top of this page. There will be more updates made on this page soon.

Thank you!

We can do it.....We can make this happen !!

Hello everyone !  It is finally here and I hope you will support Dress A Girl Australia in its mission to raise money to build a well and provide clean water for the people in Kalagi, Uganda. The fundraising page is now active and accepting donations. To access the page, please click on the image below -. Same image is also available on the right navigation pane.

All donations go directly to the Water-4-Kids program of the Water-4-kids International who is working in partnership with the Dress a Girl Well project of Dress A Girl around the World and all donations made using the fundraising page will be earmarked for Friends of Dress A Girl Australia. The goal is to raise the amount of $10,500 US (approximately $11,200 AUD at today's exchange rate). The village information on Kalagi Uganda is available on the fundraising page which you can share to all your family and friends who may want to give towards the well. Donors can leave a message with the amount of their donations or donate anonymously on the page. A receipt is issued for your donations. **

Please help spread the word around. Through everyone's kindness and generosity we will be able to give hope and make good health, safety and abundant life become a reality for the families of this village. What better time to help and make a difference and aim to reach the goal this Christmas season. Let us spread good cheer not only to our dear family and friends but share the holiday spirit we always have and enjoy with a village in need and celebrate Christmas in the most wonderful way possible...hope through clean water for the people of Kalagi, Uganda in the very near future.

Spread the word around! We can do it!  We can make this happen! 

Thank you in advance!

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** Highly recommend anyone making a donation to talk to their accountants for advise regarding donations you make and the receipt issued for the donations.
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Feedback on quilts sent to Romania

This was the biggest surprise this morning which made my day. I never expected to receive pictures of Romanian kiddies with some of the quilts I sent from the first parcel I think. Here are a few of the kiddies and the quilts -

Monica Tabarac of Humanitas Charity said that the pictures shows how much the blankets I sent were very well appreciated and sends her thanks for the support. Thank you to all the donors who made these wonderful gifts to the children of Romania possible.

To see individual images, please click here . For more information on Dress Distributions, click on the special 'Dress Distribution' tab located at the top of this page.

Dress A Girl Well....is almost here!

WooHoo!!  The fundraising page for the Dress A Girl Well is almost here. Might be available in a day or two. Just a minor question regarding the page and once this is cleared, the page will be made active and will be capable of accepting donations. 

For more information on the Dress A Girl Australia well, please click here.

Get ready everyone to help this village for once get clean water through your kindness and generosity. Make it the best Christmas ever for the 700 children and 300 adults including the people from five surrounding villages, four schools and five churches. Please help spread good cheer not only to our dear family and friends but share the holiday spirit we always have and enjoy with a village in need and celebrate Christmas in the most wonderful way possible....giving hope through water.

For more information, please feel free to send an email todressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Parcels for South Africa

I finally was able to confirm that I can send unaccompanied baggages and/or parcels with my concession form up to 45 kilos. I bought these boxes today and each of these boxes can hold 10 kilos worth of dresses and pairs of shorts. That is roughly between 75 to 80 dresses depending on size. 

So that means for 4 boxes I am able to send about 350 dresses or a combination of dresses and shorts to Johannesburg South Africa and will only take between 3-5 days to get there. WooHoo!! Even if I packed them first week of Dec it still will get there before Christmas. Another Woohooo!!! I better start sorting for South Africa!

Sewing for Charity in Sydney

Something that I always wanted to do but could not find the time to do it. Happy to announce that finally we are going to have a sewing for charity here in Sydney. These workshops have been organized by Natascha Wettmarshausen of Make and Learn. Natascha wrote that she has been very impressed with the work of Dress A Girl Australia and has arranged for these workshops to benefit this charity work. She has listed two class dates so far (13th of December and 24th of January 2014) and is going to be held in Kingsford NSW and is hoping it will get a good response. 

There is a workshop fee of $15.00/person which will be used to cover posting of the dresses and to donate to Dress A Girl Australia to help cover postage of distribution of dresses to the different countries. Venue, use of sewing machines if you do not have one (or you can bring your own sewing machine) and lovely cups of tea and coffee and biscuits will be provided to make this event possible. Please see below for more details -

When: Friday, 13. December 2013 or Friday, 24. January 2014

What time: 6.30pm - 9.30pm (It's OK if you can only get here at 7pm or need to leave a little earlier, just let us know in advance)

Where: Our beautiful lightfilled shopfront studio at 243 Botany Street, Kingsford NSW

How much: $15 (all proceeds go towards the charitable cause)

For more details on what is required or what to bring to the workshop and if you are interested to enroll and join in the fun, please click on the image below -

As Natascha has advertised it in her 'Make and Learn' website, it is a great opportunity to pick up a new skill on simple garment construction, a chance to meet some interesting people, perhaps polish your sewing skills and at the same time contribute to a great cause! A great opportunity to have a very fun evening with like-minded people and together make a difference to the lives of disadvantaged children around the world. 

So if you have been looking for an opportunity to make a difference before saying goodbye to the year 2013 which Dress A Girl Australia has chosen to be a 'year of living making a difference', then this is your chance to accomplish that wish. This is also for anyone who is looking for something different to do on a Friday night, make a difference for at least 3 hours and help make this world a better place.

Please come along!!! Bring along family and friends!!! Help spread the word around!!!

Thank you Natascha for supporting this campaign. Much appreciated.

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*** Please contact Natascha if you do not know how to sew and would like to learn. Contact number is 0410-510828 or please click here to fill up a contact form.
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Be Kind everyone!

This week is World Kindness Week and today is World Kindness Day.  Although being kind is supposed to be a part of our everyday life, today why not make it more special. It is not an expensive thing to do. 

Be kind everyone! Make it a habit! You will be surprised how it makes you feel good everyday and contribute to making this world a better place. :-)

Christmas Bags and Soft Toys

I have been sorting and packing for my Christmas Bags and I think I need more stuff to complete them. If there is anyone who would like to donate string bags or similar to library bags about the size of an A4 paper that I can use as Christmas bags (does not have to be fancy) and some small soft toys it will be much appreciated. Soft toys will have to be small enough to fit the bag as these items will be posted and not handcarried and need to fit as many items in the box. Will be accepting contributions until the end of November and as usual please post to the address below –

Dress A Girl Australia

P.O. Box 240
Casula Mall Casula
NSW 2170

Am actually doing more packing these days just to be ready if and when a parcel is needed then I don’t have to cram when something comes up.

To all those who will be donating to my Christmas bags,  thank you so much in advance. Your contributions are very much appreciated.

Last day of the 'More than a mile' with thongs charity drive

Today is the last day of the 'More than a mile' with thongs' Christmas charity drive for the children of Wilcannia NSW. The final number of thongs received is 104 which is 4 more than what I wanted to raise. I am not expecting more thongs so am closing the charity drive today so I can start packing them up, seal the box, add it in the queue and ready to be sent when its schedule to be sent comes up on the list in the next couple of weeks.

Heaps and heaps of heartfelt thanks to all who made this charity drive so much a success, for allowing these kids to hop, run, skip, walk and jump for more than a mile without feeling so much heat on the ground. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. Thank you everyone for your kindness and generosity.

More details of the charity drive from beginning to end can be found here.

Christmas Items for Fundraising

Wow! Day 4 of November and 51 days before Christmas. There will be a few items for sale which I hope will be good enough to purchase for your love ones or family and friends. As usual, Christmas cards will be available to purchase as well. Proceeds from any purchase will go directly to Dress A Girl Australia's postage fund for next year. Christmas season is always the best time to promote items for sale as most of us will be buying something for family and friends and since I will not be having any market stalls anymore for the rest of the year (next market will be sometime in April 2014) I thought I would put up the items I made especially for Christmas in my Dress A Girl online shop. I might even put them up in Etsy. This way I feel a little bit relax in selling and raising funds as anyone can buy them from the shop anytime. The great thing about the online shop is I dont have to wake up as early as 5am to setup my market stall.

Most of the items if not all will be made available in the next few days so watch out for it and if there is anything you like, please make a purchase. It is going to a very good cause.  Thank you!

Reminder on Dresses

I think it is time once again to remind anyone who is contemplating to make dresses to donate to Dress A Girl Australia on the guidelines on how to make dresses, what is acceptable and not acceptable for distribution. Please bear in mind that the dresses you make and given out to these children could only be the dress they will get to own for a long time so it will be great if they are made with care and quality. Please also remember that we are all volunteers on this campaign, we all volunteer to make dresses to make these children own dresses.  Some of us are working people too but happy to find the time to make dresses. There is no one in the group whose time is focused on making repairs or improvements on the dresses so PLEASE be considerate. 

Materials should be thick enough to withstand washing in rivers and good enough to last for a long period of time. Thin and flimsy materials should not be used. If you can see the outline of your hand through the fabric, then you should not make it into a dress at all.

Pockets are great in dresses but please make sure that they are sturdy enough just like the dresses.

Make sure bias tapes and/or strong ribbons are long enough and washable especially for those who use ribbons.

When making a longer dress, make a kick pleat or slit at the bottom and reinforce the top of the kick pleat inside of dress. 

Make these dresses special especially because you made them with your own two hands.

Also, please note that I do not accept used dresses. There are requirements for sending used dresses overseas and requires time and money which I cannot spare. 

I want everyone to feel happy making dresses and feel more happy when they see the dresses made being worn by the children so please be guided accordingly.

Donors of dresses which I deem as not acceptable and requires repairs will be contacted and advised. Unfortunately you are dealing with someone(and that is me of course :-)) who likes beautiful things and want to make sure that what goes to the children are beautifully made so am a bit strict on quality. This is the reason why I like handmades because they are supposed to be beautiful and done with great care. 

Let us all make a difference by making these dresses with much love, care and quality and not just for the sake of making a difference.

Please help me spend whatever time, money and effort I have more productively by not sending me used dresses and following guidelines accordingly. I hardly have time to go to the postoffice (have to wake up early on Saturdays just to be able to pick and send parcels)so please help by not letting me do an extra errand of dropping used dresses in opshops which by the way there is none near my place of residence.

For questions, please feel free to send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/10 #154 - Another bundle of dresses from the Gawler Community

Dress donations' acknowledgement this time and number 154 on the list is a bundle of dresses from the Gawler Community of South Australia. Dresses by Julieann Bolton and the 84 year-old Norma Schubert who loves sewing dresses for children.

To Julieann and Norma, thank you for the dresses. Thank you for supporting this campaign of dressing the less fortunate children around the world. You do help make this world a better place...with one small dress at a time. Heaps of thanks!

Important Reminder on Parcels

Just want to remind anyone who is planning to send parcels in December, please delay them till Jan next year to avoid inconveniences. As we all know December is a very busy month for parcels especially at the postoffice. Thank you.

More than a mile #15 - 15 pairs from Kaylee and Kate

Have not had the chance to continue on my acknowledging the past week so today am focusing on donation acknowledgements again and the first on the list is from a mother and daughter team of Kaylee and Kate Healy and happy to help with 15 pairs of thongs, their contribution to the 'More than a mile' with thongs charity drive for the children of Wilcannia. These pairs brings my total to 104.

To Kaylee and Kate, thank you so much for bringing 15 more happy faces to this great world of ours, 15 feet that will not be feeling any heat on the ground from hopping, walking, jumping and running around for more than a mile. Thank you so much.