Parcel Pickups More Info

There are times when I am too busy to post parcel pickups in my facebook page or on this blog but whenever I pick up parcels I always update my 'parcel received' logfile. If you have sent a parcel and wondering if it has arrived or has been picked up from the postoffice, you can always check my logfile by just a click of the mouse on the link below 

Parcels Received

or the quickest way is to click on the link which you can find on the right side navigation pane of this blog

Thank you for your understanding.

Deadline for Dresses for Christmas Distribution

Hello everyone! Just a reminder for those who are still planning and sewing to donate dresses for Christmas distribution, please do not forget the due date for all dresses to be in my postbox is Monday, the 1st of December, 2014. Early deadline is due to a cut-off date required by the mailing companies in order for the parcels to reach their destination before Christmas. Mailing companies' cut-off date is Dec 6 and I will need more time to sort and pack them. 

Also, please do not forget the guidelines on dresses in order to be included in the distribution and the new rule on number of dresses that can be donated and that is five for individuals and twelve if you are a group. If you are contemplating on donating more than what is allowed, please include a dollar per dress in excess of the limit. Exception to this new rule are those who are donating for the Christmas bags since this parcel is already funded. Thank you all. Thank you for your support, kindness and generosity.

More dresses for the Hope Project - Burma (Victoria Headquarters)

More dresses were made for the Hope Project - Burma at the Victoria Headquarters. This time it includes girls and boys clothing for the children of the Chin Villages which will be handcarried by a lady nurse who is a member of the Hope Project in Victoria. She will be leaving for Burma in early November. Here are the dresses and shorts -

Thank you again to Mary , Sue, and Jane of AMES, and Chris Byrden who will be bringing more on Wednesday. These will go to both the Karen and to Chin children in Burma. And again, thank you to Barbara Dodson for sewing and helping to organize all these distributions. Thank you. Much appreciated.

As of this date (and if am not mistaken) total dresses sewn from the Victoria Headquarters has now reached 104. Thank you Ladies!

Feedback from India on Parcel #2

Great news received today! Just been advised that the second box of dresses sent to New Delhi India two weeks ago has arrived.

It is so great and makes me very glad when parcels find their own way to its destination without me making followups at the postoffice asking where it has gone to. :-)

Dresses for Chin Villages Burma.

Basket full of girls and boys clothing on its way to the Chin Villages in Burma to be handcarried by a lady nurse who is part of the Hope Project - Burma. Thank you to Barbara Dodson for helping organize this project from the Victoria Headquarters of the Hope Project and thank you to the donors who made this basket full possible.

Feedback from the Romania Parcels of Quilts

Good Morning everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend! Just received an email this morning letting me know that the two parcels of quilt blankets I sent in August has been received. Quite a slow journey (can only do what I can afford) but surely they are getting to their destination. 

Here is the link to the album to refresh everyone's memory which quilts were included in those two parcels -

Romania parcels - 21-Aug-2014

Thank you to all the donors who made this possible. I think it is time to pack another two.

Dress Distribution #79 - Christmas Distribution Parcel 1B - Philippines (Liwan Enrile) - c/o Norie Bordador

This parcel 1B is going to be sent to the Philippines (Liwan Enrile) c-o Norie Bordador. It has 95 dresses. This is in addition to another parcel of 47 dresses and 11 pairs of shorts (Parcel 1A) which was a re-allocation from another location (South Africa) and also going to be sent at the same time as this parcel. South Africa will have another collection scheduled sometime next year. Here is the parcel -

and here are the contents of the parcel -

made possible by the following donors -

1) Pam Kilgallon

2) Sunnyside House Camperdown

3) Tannis Brennan

4) Australian Sewing Guild- Wollongong Group

5) Craft and Hope

6) Rowena Cook

7) Golden Girls 2

8) Elaine Dunemann

9) Patricia Burton

10) Michelle Cornish

11) Rachel

12) Elaine Klein

13) Vanya Bryant

14) Lyn Granger

15) Mel Elevato & Nat Lorigan

16) Linda Smyth

To see larger images of the contents of this parcel, please click here. For larger images of Parcel 1A, 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.

The 2 parcels will be on its journey to Liwan Enrile Cagayan Philippines on Tuesday, 28th of October for a possible distribution in the middle of November when the group volunteering to make the distribution will have a scheduled outreach program on that date.. Thank you to all the donors who made this distribution possible. Your kindness and generosity is much appreciated. Thank you.

Dresses this weekend - 23-Oct to 25-Oct 2014

A slow 3 days maybe due to the heat. Dresses made were mostly on sizes 1 to 3 and pairs of shorts between the sizes of 1 to 6. Sewing the past 3 days produced 8 pairs of shorts for boys and eight small dresses -

With this sewing, it brings my total to 71 dresses and  11 pairs of boys' shorts in 25 days. Please click here for the album to see individual images of each dress and pair of shorts.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#151 - From Monica O.

Last parcel of donation for this week of October is a parcel of goodies from Monika Osvald. Seven dresses, 3 school bags and 2 children's books (School Supplies #11) and three soft toys. If I knew I could have waited for this parcel and did not have to buy 2 teddy bears to give away this Christmas. Early this week, I bought 2 teddy bears with my $10.00 savings from my flybuys card (and just fork in an additional 2 dollars) for a bedridden girl and a blind boy in one of the orphanages in the Philippines that will be a recipient of this year's Christmas bags. I thought a teddy bear each is something great to hug when you are alone and feeling isolated  but am sure there are still a lot of kids out there who will have a chance to hug these 3.

Thank you Monika for the goodies. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. Much appreciated.

Dress Distribution #73D - Project Hope - Burma Parcel 4 for Chin Villages

This small package contains 7 pairs of t-shirts and pairs of boys shorts to be posted to Project Hope Burma. A lady nurse connected with the Hope Project is travelling to the Chin Villages in early November and wants to take some dresses with her including t-shirts and pairs of shorts. The dresses will be supplied from the stock of dresses they have at the Victoria Headquarters and these items are just in addition to what they already have. Here is the parcel to be posted to Barbara Dodson -

and here are the contents of the parcel -

made possible by the following donors -

1) Catherine Jenkins

2) Heather Harris

3) Golden Girls 2(Kay Innes)

4) Vanya Bryant

5) Eliza Leahy

6) Dress A Girl Australia

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

Thank you to all the donors who made this distribution possible. Your kindness and generosity is much appreciated. Thank you.

Sewing the night away

I think the last time I posted the dresses I made for the Project : Sew dresses for Backup Sewing marathon was last Thursday, 16th of October . Well, instead of dancing the night away I was sewing the night away and feeling no pressure here are the next 18 dresses I made since that posting and these are for the days 17th of October to the 22nd. Feeling glad I've got my mojo for sewing back again.

All these dresses will be for my personal box, my contribution for the year 2014 (Finally!!) and going to India next month.

Fabrics used for 3 of the dresses came from Kim Foster, 9 dresses from Millhouse Collections and the rest of the fabrics (6 dresses)are from my personal collection. All t-shirts used on these 18 dresses were donated by Joan Wolf. Thank you to Kim, Joan and Millhouse Collections for making these dresses possible. Much appreciated.

With these 18 dresses, the total number of dresses I have sewn so far since I started this marathon last 1st of October is 66. Please click here for the album of dresses.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#147- #150 - From Patricia B, Lyn G., Heather H., Mel E. and Nat L.

This week of October's donation acknowledgement is a total 21 dresses, 5 school bags and 9 pairs of shorts from Patricia Burton, Lyn Granger, Heather Harris, Mel Elevato and Nat Lorigan.
1) Donation #147 is a parcel of 4 dresses and 5 school bags (School Supplies #10) from Patricia Burton -

2) Donation #148 is a parcel of 9 pairs of boys' shorts from Heather Harris -

3) Donation #149 is a parcel of 6 dresses and 2 tops/pair of shorts matching sets for girls from Lyn Granger -

4) Donation #150 is a parcel of 9 dresses from friends Mel Elevato and Nat Lorigan -

Except for the school bags which are for the "Education without Borders 2015" school project, all of the above are allocated for Christmas distributions. Thank you so much Ladies. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. It is much appreciated. Thanks!

Dresses for Christmas Distribution Status Update

With Kenya and Uganda out of the way and in-between my sewing, this is what is keeping me busy at night. Work-In-Progress Parcels for Christmas Distribution for the Philippines and India. 

Possibly another 3-5 parcels (plus personal box to India and christmas gift box to Morales Compound) more depending on donations coming in if everything arrives on time. Am looking at a  total of around 700-750 dresses for Christmas. WooHoo! Not bad at all!!

Thank you for your help!

Good Morning everyone! Just want to extend my heartfelt thank you to everyone who are helping in the Christmas Gift Bags for the kiddies of the Morales Compound. This is a small squatters area full of children in Barangay Sta Lucia Pasig, Metro Manila Phils recommended by a friend. Although there are more kids I chose the magic number of 36 and thanks to your help they will have a great Christmas experience this year. Thank you so much.

Would you like to help for a Christmas gift bag?

I know that I have been limiting the number of donations to receive but once in a while I get lucky financially and this occasion is one of them. It gives me the opportunity to send more but do not have the time to gather or collect the items or make them myself especially now that I am more focused on my sewing of dresses to India. So would be very happy if there is anyone out there who would be willing to help.

These are for a special group of boys and girls who are going to be given a christmas party and these items will be given to them on that day to let them experience a best christmas ever. Am not sure now where I read the message (bit confused but either here or a comment in my blog or email) that somebody wanted to donate dresses between the sizes of 1 to 4? Here is an opportunity for those who would like to help without the burden of donating for postage as this parcel has already been sponsored. 

For boys - Sizes I would love to receive are -
Size 1=7
Size 2=6
$ize 3=5. 

For Girls - Sizes I would love to receive are -
Size 1=5 
Size 2=6 
Size 3=7. 

If anyone would like to sponsor any of these items, it will be much appreciated. Please send me a message at dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com if anyone is interested to help on this. Due date posted to me is on or before the 15th of November. This will give me enough time to source the items if the need arises. Thank you so much.

Feedback Distribution - Peru (Oct 2014)

These pictures really brightened up my day today! These were taken during the dress distributions made to the children of the jungle of Peru. Some of the dresses were from the batch that I handcarried with me during my holiday to Peru last July.

Thank you so much to Julia Griselda Chuquitaype Quintana and her group for making this distribution so much possible. Made my day!! I hope I get a chance to visit Peru again in the near future. There was something about the place that was just awesome and the food was great.

Christmas bags for toddlers

Just spent the last couple of hours making these Christmas Bags for toddlers. 

Each bag holds a toddler dress, an undie, pair of socks and a soft toy. All 40 of them my back is a bit sore from the bending trying to make sure each bag contains all items. Still undecided which location gets lucky to receive these 40 bags but will boxed them now and put the label later. 

Feedback on Parcel sent to New Delhi India

Parcel 1 of 2 sent to New Delhi India last week has arrived today.

Latest update on dress distributions - 21-Oct-2014

Three locations down with two parcels each sent to each location (Kenya-88 dresses and 52 pairs of boys shorts, Uganda-132 dresses and 14 pairs of shorts, India-101 dresses and 12 pairs of shorts). Additional boxes to India on queue. Now to wait and keep on sorting to fill up boxes for last location (Philippines) and focus on my sewing for a personal box to India. 

Thank you to the dress donors who made these parcels possible and a very special thank you to everyone who provided financial support. Every single cent was/is such a very big help. Thank you so much.

Important Info re future dress donations

Due to financial difficulties I am no longer able to sustain this campaign by accepting bulk donations of dresses from prospective donors. My handmade business is quite slow in generating income and can no longer cope with the cost of running this campaign. My attempts at fundraising is not doing well either. I am just your normal and/or average person who goes to work everyday to earn a living but probably has a big heart to help the disadvantaged people, lots of compassion and kindness to share but do not have the hundreds or the thousands or the millions other people have or other groups doing the same thing have to support this campaign consistently.

After careful consideration and with my desire to continue doing this campaign, I have decided to set up new rules in order for this campaign to survive. Please click on the document below to know what the new guidelines are -

New Guidelines on future dress donations

Please bear this new rule when sending parcels. I cannot keep any dresses in excess of these limits as I have no space to keep them and as of today, no plans have been scheduled or established regarding dress distributions for 2015 yet. Once they are known, they will be published on this blog or in my facebook page. Right now my focus is on dresses allocated for Christmas distribution.

Thank you all for your kindness and generosity and for understanding the current situation. It is much appreciated.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#142- #146 - From Golden Girls 2, Rowena C.,Lorraine W. and Elaine Dunemann

Although October has not finished yet, this is the last batch of the day that needs to be acknowledged. Parcels from Kay Innes and the Golden Girls 2, Rowena Cook, Lorraine Walker and Elaine Dunemann adding a total of 66 dresses received for the month of October.
1) Donation #142 is a parcel of 11 dresses, 2 pairs of shorts and 5 t-shirts from Kay Innes -

2) Donation #143 is a parcel of 12 dresses from the Golden Girls 2 (Kay, Pauline, Betty and Julie) -

3) Donation #144 is a parcel of 15 dresses and mini bags from Elaine Dunemann -

4) Donation #145 is a parcel of 17 dresses from Lorraine Walker -

5) Donation #146 is a parcel of 11 dresses from Rowena Cook who is a member of St David's Anglican Church of Bentleigh, Victoria -

Thank you to all the ladies who made all these dresses possible. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. It is much appreciated. Thank you.

Would just like to remind anyone or everyone who wants to join this campaign and wants to donate dresses. There is now a new rule on the number of dresses one can donate. 5 for individuals and 12 if you are a group. Please bear this in mind when sending parcels. I cannot keep any dresses in excess of these limits as I have no space to keep them and as of today, dress distributions for 2015 is still unknown. Right now my focus is on dresses and parcels allocated for Christmas distribution. Thank you.

Dress donations update

Two important updates and/or information regarding dress donations for today to those who are interested or are intending to donate -

1) I am starting to allocate and fill up boxes (a few are closed) for Christmas distribution. Just a reminder about the dress guidelines in order to be included in any of the distributions and the dress limits of 5 per individual and 12 if a group. It does not matter whether I am able to fill up a box or not, if you are donating, please send what is only required, probably less than the limit but not more as this is only what can be funded. I know the number am targeting that can be funded and with my sewing I can fill the gap if I receive less than what I expect. Thank you.

2) A few people have sent me emails asking if I would accept their dresses as they have rang charity groups and did not want to accept their dress donations. Some groups prefer cash donations. So just to be clear I did not say I will not accept dresses. What I have been repeating quite a few times already is that I will accept dresses but limited to 5 for individuals and 12 if a group. This limit is due to financial issues. If I had all the money in the world (if this world were mine) I will accept all your dresses but at this time dress donations should be based on the limits I have imposed so I can distribute them as funding is very, very limited. Thank you for your understanding.

Please click here for simple guidelines to follow when making dresses.
Please click here for the new rules implemented regarding number of dresses to donate.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#139- #141 - From Karen N., Kerry H. and Sharyn C.

Third batch of donations for this month is from Karen Neilsen, Kerry Hackney and Sharyn Cafee adding up to a total of 25 dresses and have been allocated to three different locations in the Philippines and an extra box for India which I am trying to fill up these days. Other locations such as Kenya (sent) and Uganda (for posting in Monday) have already been filled up and now closed.
1) Donation #139 is a parcel of 5 dresses from Karen Neilsen -

2) Donation #140 is a parcel of 8 dresses from Kerry Hackney -

3) Donation #141 is a parcel of 12 dresses, 3 t-shirts and 1 pair of shorts from Sharyn Cafee -

Thank you so much Ladies. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. It is much appreciated. Thanks.

Just a reminder to everyone about the dress limits of 5 per individual and 12 if a group. It does not matter whether I am able to fill up a box or not, if you are donating, please send what is only required, not more or probably less than the limit as this is only what can be funded. Thank you.

Dress Distribution #61 - Children of Mbale Uganda Parcel 2C

On Monday I will be sending two parcels to Mbale Uganda and this is the second parcel. This parcel of 79 dresses will be sent to Anne Wandendaya of the Bushikori Christian Centre. Here is the parcel -

and here are the contents of the parcel -

made possible by the following donors -

1) Sew for Charity Make and Learn

2) Rachel

3) Diane Ware

4) Pam Kilgallon

5) Sunnyside House Camperdown

6) Tex Tech students

7) Inspired Peel Sewers

8) Australian Sewing Guild (Wollongong Group)

9) Lorraine Brown and group

10) Eliza Leahy

11) Betty Barrett and Betty Paull

12) Dress A Girl Australia

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

 Thank you to all the donors who made this distribution possible. Your kindness and generosity is much appreciated. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#136-#138 - From the Temam sisters, TexTech students and Sarah M.

Second batch of donations for the month of October are 13 dresses and dress accessories from Sarah Macraild, TexTech students of Annie Zimmermann and the Temam sisters.
1) Donation #136 is a parcel of 5 dresses from Sarah Macraild -

2) Donation #137 is a parcel of 8 dresses from the Tex Tech students of Annie Zimmermann. All dresses were made one  Thursday afternoon by Olivia Clowes, Claudia Stevens, Sach Ixer, Zoe Zimmermann and Angelique Harrison -

3) Donation #138 are dress accessories made by 10yr old Tiggi and 8yr old Mimi Temam
These handmade bracelets were sent in by Gillian Schroefer. These bracelets will be placed in the pockets of dresses and will make a nice surprise gift to the lucky recipients.  

To all the ladies who sent in these dresses and the Temam sisters, thank you so much. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. Much appreciated.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#133-#135 - From Diane W. Pam K. and Sunnyside House

It is donation acknowledgement time once again. Dresses this time came from Diane Ware, Pam Kilgallon and Sunnyside House. Each of these dresses have been allocated to the current project for Christmas Distributions  in several locations and for future projects (although future distribution dates are unknown at this stage) as per the new dress limit rules where individuals are set at 5 each and groups at 12.
1) Donation #133 - is a parcel of 5 dresses from Diane Ware -

2) Donation #134 - is a parcel of 12 dresses from Pam Kilgallon -

3) Donation #135 - is a parcel of 22 dresses from the residents and staff at Sunnyside House (Aged Care Facility) at Camperdown Victoria -

Thank you, Ladies! Your kindness and generosity is much appreciated.

Reminder on Dress Guidelines

It is time to publish this note again to remind those who want to donate dresses that there are guidelines to be followed especially on the kind of material to use when sewing dresses. 

Here is the link to the guidelines on how to make dresses. Thank you.
                                                          GUIDELINES

Any dresses that do not meet the guidelines will not be included in any of the distributions. You will be contacted so I will know what to do with those dresses so an email address is required to be included in the parcel. 

Feedback on Dresses to Peru last July

I received a message last night that the dresses I handcarried with me to Peru last July have now been distributed to the kids in the jungle. Wow! Thank you for the feedback, Julia!

Dresses - 13-Oct to 16-Oct-2014

Sewing Marathon here we go. Here are my dresses for the past 4 days - 13-Oct to 16-Oct-2014. All 12 of them for my India Parcel. As of tonight, I have sewn 45 dresses and 3 pairs of boys shorts. 24 of the dresses has been allocated for New Delhi India which I hope to send at the end of this month. If I consistently do 3 dresses a day, I surely will fill up the parcel. Anyone up for the challenge?

Here is the link to my Sewing Marathon Project : Sew Dresses for Backup album which holds all dresses and pairs of boys shorts as of tonight.

Re-allocation of dresses for distribution to the Philippines

The dresses I intended for a new location in South Africa will be re-allocated to the Philippines to add numbers to the Philippine distribution. The money raised for postage for Christmas distribution is still a bit tight. A new dresses/funds allocation will be made for South Africa early next year.

New deadline of dresses for Christmas distribution

Good Morning everyone! One of the locations who will be recipients of dresses this coming Christmas is the Philippines. I will have to move the deadline of dresses from the original date of Dec 5 to the 30th of November. A couple of people who volunteered to handcarry dresses to the Phils is leaving on the 5th of Dec and parcels to be posted to arrive before Christmas has to be picked up by Dec 8.

I need more time to do the sorting and packing so for those who are still interested to donate dresses (5 for individuals and 12 for group) please note the change of date to 30th of November. All dresses must be posted on or before the 30th of November to make it for the Christmas distribution. Thank you.

Quilt Label Panels now available for Sale

The Quilt label panels that I want to sell to raise money for postage for the dresses I am sewing for India is now available for sale. You can purchase them either through my facebook page or in my soft treasures website which is now up and running and in the process of being updated with more craft items to sell to support this charity. 

To check out the quilt labels from my facebook page, please click here .
To check them out from my original Soft Treasures shop, please click here.

Please go to these sites and check out the items. You may like any one of the panels and make a purchase. Proceeds from the sale of these items goes to a very worthwhile cause.

More fabric panels will be posted for sale soon. Hopefully this activity will slowly sustain the Dress A Girl (around the world) campaign to provide dresses to the disadvantaged kids anywhere in the world. Although there will definitely be a reduction in the quantity of dresses but at least it will go on. So would appreciate if you could help spread the word around on the items that I sell. Thank you.

Quilt Label fabric panels for sale

Any quilting ladies interested in fabric quilt labels, I found the bag that had all my fabric quilt label panels which I have collected (2005-2010) and am selling the duplicated ones to raise money for postage. If anyone is interested please send me a message. I will take pictures of the fabric panels today and post in my shop. Here is a sample (part of the panel) - am selling each panel for $10.00 hoping to raise $100.00 for the dresses am sewing for India. Thank you.

Another parcel updates for today

Two boxes of 101 dresses and 12 pairs of boys shorts left my humble abode for India today. I hope to send another box full at the end of this month. Now to finish my sorting/packing for Mbale Uganda, send the boxes and clear space in my garage.

Parcel picked up from postoffice today is from Sarah Macraild. Thank you Sarah.

Parcel Pickups and updates

These are the parcels I picked up from the postoffice in the last 4 weeks : Karen Neilsen, Sunnyside House, Kay Innes, Pam Kilgallon, Diane Ware and Rowena Cook. Thank you Ladies. 

The recently implemented 5i/12g dress limits also applies to these parcels so some of the excess dresses will be put in stock until it is time for it to be allocated. Thank you.

Sometimes I cannot immediately acknowledged donated parcels of dresses. If anyone had sent a parcel and did not see any acknowledgement, please check on the 'Parcel Updates !' Want to know whose parcels have been received? section which you can easily find on the top right navigation pane  of my blog page. If you click on the link, you will see when parcels have been received and which date.. Thank you for your understanding and patience.

More dresses for Project Hope Burma from Victoria Hdqtrs

More dresses have been sewn for Project Hope Burma in Victoria Headquarters. The fabrics were from Dress A Girl Australia and sewn by Barbara Dodson.

This batch of dresses are in preparation for early 2015 distribution. Thank you so much to Barbara Dodson for sewing these dresses. Watch out for a possible dress collection to be overseen by Barbara at the Victoria Hdqtrs to be announced once details are established and finalized soon .

This weekend's dresses - 11&12-Oct-2014

The reason why I am sewing again is because I do not want to end up as a "collector" of dresses only, a sorter, packer, picker and sender of parcels lifting as heavy as 30kilos to the extent that I injured my arm due to the lifting of parcels and financier. This is not how I envisioned Dress A Girl Australia when I started in 2011. I also want to see children wearing dresses that I sew. The last 18 months not one of the dresses I sent was mine.  The only way I can go back to how it was is to limit the number of dresses that can be donated. This way I do not feel pressured to just keep on looking on ways to raise money for postage, become a sorter and packer every night and picker and sender of parcels on weekends, leaving work early just so I can send a parcel. Things have to change so I am going to be happy again and enjoy what I am doing. If I am happy with what I am doing, I can be happy and probably be more accommodating too in helping other people who want to make a difference in the future when things improve.

For this weekend I made seven more dresses and have never been happier since I know that in the future I will be able to see seven girls wearing these dresses. 

The maximum number of dresses I will be accepting of 5 for individuals and 12 if a group still stands as of this date.

Updates on Dresses and fabric donations

Here is an update on dresses for Christmas distribution and fabric donations.
1) Dresses for Christmas distribution -
For those who are willing to donate 5 dresses if single/individual or 12 if a group, please start posting them to my postbox address if you can. I would like to know how many dresses I can collect from donations by the end of October and also would like to have an idea as to how many I should aim for in my sewing to make up for less dresses. Thank you.

2) Fabric donations -
In response to a few enquiries on fabric donations for me to sew on their behalf, I am not accepting fabric donations at this time. As previously posted, if you have any fabrics to donate, please let me know where you are located, which suburb/state and I maybe able to help you find willing sewers. Thank you and thank you for your understanding.

Last night's sewing - 10-Oct-2014

I always take pride in accomplishing what I have committed myself to do that even if my eyes and hands are quite tired I have to keep on going. And I cannot go beyond the time I have allocated to the task as once I missed the rest of what has been scheduled misses as well like a domino effect. Sometimes it is difficult to catch up.

My aim for doing a sewing marathon for the next 3 months is so I can compensate the lack of dresses to distribute with my sewing. And the lack of dresses is due to the fact that there is a shortage of funds to pay for the cost of sending dresses I have to restrict the number of dresses to receive, accept a number that can be funded. And thank you so much to a handful of people who have been very kind and generous.  But me being me, I just cannot sit down and wait for more things to happen.So here are three more dresses from last night's sewing to add to my first parcel for Christmas at the end of this month - all materials (fabric and t-shirt) from my personal collection.

As of last night, I have sewn 26 dresses and 3 pairs of shorts for boys. The boys' shorts is not that important really. I only do it if I happen to find a fabric suitable for shorts. 

On average, a parcel normally can accommodate 65 dresses. With my 26 completed, I think I need to sew 39 more between now and end of October to reach 65 and I think with 21 days to go and if I can keep up with the pace of 3 dresses a day, the goal is achievable. So now.....am aiming for the stars. If I can dream it, I can do it.

Yesterday's dresses - 9-Oct-2014

If I can keep up with this pace of at least 3 dresses a day by the end of October I will have my first parcel full for Christmas distribution. What I probably will do is ask a few friends around to sponsor the postage cost of the parcel. Also a few of them have said that they will sponsor a parcel if the dresses in the parcel were sewn by me. I think this is a good motivation for me to sew. 

Here are the 3 dresses I made last night. I could only post it now as it took me a while to identify the donor of the fabrics as I know these fabrics are not from my personal collection. Finally remembered who donated them this morning after looking at all my logfiles. Fabrics were donated by Jennifer Howlett (Batch May 2013) and the t-shirts are from my collection. It is time to use the t-shirts too so a lot of my dresses will be t-shirt dresses. If am not mistaken, I still have about 70 of them given to me by my sister plus the ones I normally buy when shops are on sale. I have not been sewing as my time has been eaten up by picking up and sending parcels, sorting, packing and making followups and making handmade things to sell,  it is time to act on them so I can clear up a space in my cabinet.

I really hope I can keep up with this pace and I have a feeling I will be able to do it as I am getting less and less emails these days. A lot of people did not like the idea of setting limits on number of dresses so I think they have decided to leave this campaign. And a few have given up because of my constant comments about quality of dresses. If I have to spend a lot of money, time and effort I want to make sure that what am sending are really good but some cannot seem to understand. But what to do. I can only do what I can do. Am glad that I still am capable of making a difference on my own.

Heartfelt thank you to everyone

My heartfelt thank you to everyone who is helping raise funds for postage, to everyone who is helping find ways and options on how to raise funds for postage. It is very much appreciated.

Please if anyone is contributing to this cause, please make sure that it comes from the heart. No one is being forced to make a donation most especially that I cannot issue a tax receipt to make your contributions tax deductible. So donations must come from the heart and also to avoid inconveniences. Only contributions from the heart can bring more comfort and more joy to the children who will be wearing those dresses.

Limits have been made on the number of dresses that will be accepted for Christmas distribution to make sure that they can be funded. To refresh everyone on the limit setup, for individual donors it will be 5 dresses only and for the group 12 dresses. Please do not send more as plans for 2015 distributions is still unknown and will depend on the financial capability of Dress A Girl Australia. All those who want to make dress donations, please make sure that they get to my postbox by Dec 5 to allow me more time to sort, pack and know how much more funds is needed to send the parcels.

Or if you feel more comfortable purchasing items from any of my shops, please feel free to do so. Proceeds from all sales goes to the postage fund of Dress A Girl Australia. I have temporarily stopped all donations to the Dress A Girl Australia well. Until the end of the year 2014, all proceeds from purchases made from my webstores will go to the Dress A Girl Australia postage fund to pay for the cost of sending dresses for Christmas distribution.

Thank you everyone.

Re-allocation of dresses to India

Two parcels intended for two existing orphanages in India have been re-allocated to a new location still in India but in New Delhi this time. I did these re-allocations based on the following reasons. 

1) I want to send dresses to the Sunshine Project based in New Delhi but because I have no dresses that can currently meet the requirement of dresses with sleeves and these 2 parcels are still awaiting dispatch, I have decided to re-route the parcels to New Delhi instead.
2) To send new parcels to New Delhi will require funds and because I am short of it this time and funds have already been allocated to these 2 existing parcels, I thought re-allocating these parcels and the funds for it is justifiable. Anyway, I have already sent about 251 dresses in one location and 91 dresses in another I do not feel that guilty and also it is time that I send and share dresses to another area. Spread the dresses around. (Come to think of it I never received any pictures from the 251 and 91 dress distributions although acknowledged that the parcels have arrived safely.)

To check out the dresses that have been reallocated, please click on the links below -
Parcel 1A of 57 dresses, click here.
Parcel 1B of 44 dresses and 12 pairs of shorts, click here.

More dresses for Project Sew Dresses for Backup - 7 & 8-October

My intention is to fill at least a parcel full of dresses and be ready to provide dresses in case needed anytime and the way things are going it looks like am apt for the task. Although the commitment is a little too much but the thought that there are still many kids out there who deserves to own at least one dress keeps me going. I have lots of fabrics to use from my personal collection it is time to give them away and the best way to do that is make dresses out of them and make a difference to the lives of the disadvantaged kids but will just have to be a bit slower than it used to be and only when able. This way I enjoy making a difference.

Yesterday and today I finished 6 dresses and 2 pairs of shorts and I hope I am able to continue on doing more. Time seems to go so fast these days. I do time my sewing making sure that I do not go beyond an hour making one dress. :-)

Let me see what I can do for tomorrow.