Happy New Year 2021!

 Wishing everyone a safe, happy and healthy new year 2021!

A Merry Christmas morning to all!

 Merry Christmas Morning to all! 

Last year 2 weeks after I repotted my poinsettia plant it died. So I bought another one last week and this time am not going to touch it anymore. I know it will still die eventually but I can enjoy it for a longer period of time this time.

Have a Safe and Merry Christmas everyone!

 Here is wishing everyone a very Safe and Merry Christmas!

Update on Christmas Shoeboxes 2020

An update on the 15 trackable Christmas shoeboxes out of the 26 boxes I donated.

The 6 shoeboxes are on their way to Madagascar. Estimated arrival date and for distribution is sometime in Feb 2021/Mar 2021. Six shoeboxes for 6 disadvantaged kids in Madagascar. Thank you.
 

My Fabric Nativity Set is out once again!

 It is Christmas time as my favourite nativity set is out once again. A set which took me almost 8 months to finish (in between working, holidaying, gardening, walking etc) back in 2009 that is why it is a real treasure for me to keep.  Am not sure how many people around the world manage to make it but I know I did and loves to share it with everyone every Christmas time. :-). 

For this year I have cactuses as my background behind the stable -

and have christmas lights decorated around the set.

I try to enjoy my nativity decor set it as much as possible as I know that pretty quickly it will have to go back inside my wooden chest again for another 11 months. 

#fabric #nativityset #fabricnativityset #handmade #handmadenativityset #christmas #xmas #celebrate #imadethis #softtreasures #madebyhand #fabricmanger #fabricstable

Handmade Greeting Cards

The last few weeks I spent my spare time making fabric picture cards out of my fabric scraps. I mailed a handful of them to a few special friends around the world. I have more cards left which am selling as a fundraiser for Dress A Girl. Proceeds from the sale of any of these cards will help maintain Dress A Girl Australia's dress distributions to the less fortunate kids. Click on any of the images below to check them out and if you like any, please make a purchase. Whatever money you spend goes to a very worthy cause.

1) Christmas greeting cards -

2) Friendship and other greeting cards -

The inside panel of these cards are blank for your personalised messages and each card comes with a matching white envelope for easy gift-giving. Please help spread the word about these cards around. Keep safe and healthy always. Thank you.

New Products for Sponsorship

 Want to help make a difference in 2021? I have new items for sponsorship (aside from dresses of course). A bunch of colourful unisex t-shirts donated by myself and a bunch of handmade t-shirts from donated fabrics and a bundle of school supplies for my ongoing Education without Borders project. I also made a few handmade post-it Notes. These t-shirts could be matched with handmade skirts, pairs of shorts for boys or be made part of a t-shirt dress. Click on any of the images below to check them out -

1) Donated unisex t-shirts from Dress A Girl Australia -

2) Handmade t-shirts from donated fabrics

3) Bundle of School Supplies - 

4) Handmade Post-it Notes -

If you are looking for a simple, low-cost and safe way of making a difference to the lives of disadvantaged children, then sponsoring any of these items is for you. Proceeds from sponsorships will help me maintain and support distribution projects of Dress A Girl Australia. Please help spread the word around and keep safe and healthy. Thank you.

Plans for 2021

 The year 2020 was hardly a year for distributions for Dress A Girl Australia. In fact, the only distribution I made were  the 26 Christmas shoeboxes I donated to Samaritan's Purse last week. And that was only for 26 handmade dresses, 26 undies, 26 handmade totes, 26 pairs of socks, 26 bundles of school supplies and toothbrushes which I saved and collected from travel pack giveaways from my travelling. I could not believe I could come up with 26 toothbrushes and I still have about 6 left in a box in my garage and a few combs. 😀.  Except for the travel I did in February early this year which unfortunately I could not bring any dresses with me as I only stayed there for 5 days to attend a high school reunion and came back just in time when the pandemic started and not going out at all unless it was really necessary, I did keep myself busy behind the scenes. Here are some of the things I did the past 8 months - making handmade projects, sewing dresses and t-shirts for sponsorships . I did not forget my gardening of course. 

I found out that the Optus donate your data program is still active so ended up donating a few gigs of unused Optus data to help power the potential of young Australians in need. They are already paid for and at least going to a good cause. I had a very small balance of unused frequent flyer points from a couple of overseas  airlines which I thought I will not be able to use in the immediate future and will be hard to earn more if there won't be that much travelling to be made I decided to donate to the airline programs'  "Unicef for every child'' program. 

All the things I handmade are in preparation for next year's plan to resume my dress distributions (with no travelling of course!). All for sponsorships and to sell for a few items to help fund and sustain Dress A Girl Australia's distribution projects for next year 2021. All these items will be posted in my website for everyone to check out and if there is anyone who would like to make a purchase or sponsor please do so. It will be a great help financially. And if you have a time to spare, please help spread the word around by sending them a link to this page and keep safe and healthy always. Thank you.

Contactless way of Making A Difference in 2020

 If you are thinking of making a difference before the year 2020 ends and with less contact or no contact at all, then why not donate a toy online via Simply Giving. You donate online and at the same time you select which charity organization you want your toy donation to go to for needy kids supported by your chosen charity. I just did and easy peasy - no need to go to a shop, pack and go to a local post office to post my parcel. And once you have processed your online toy donation, you will receive a certificate of appreciation as an acknowledgement to your donation.

Why not make Christmas this year a joyous one for a needy child. All you have to do is click on the image above or on the link below to create a moment of joy for that special someone in need.

Simply Giving

  Thank you and be safe as always!                                      

Christmas shoeboxes (2020) for Samaritan's Purse

 These Christmas shoeboxes for Samaritan's Purse were picked up yesterday for distribution to disadvantaged children to enjoy this Christmas. This year's locations for distribution I believe are Fiji, Cambodia, Vietnam and Madagascar and any of these 26 boxes could end up in any of these 4 locations.

Inside these Christmas shoeboxes are well-thought of items which I believe the recipients would love and enjoy. Each shoebox includes a handmade dress, undie, a pair of socks, a tote, 2 exercise books, 2 pens, a box of coloring pencils, a toothbrush, an eraser, a colour-me-card for a child to create their own work of art, a few buttons to wear and/or pin on their tote and a fabric picture Christmas greeting card.  For the handmade dresses most of which were donated, you can check them out here. A small sum was also donated for these boxes which you can find here. My sincere thank you to all those who contributed to this distribution.

Inspite of everything that has happened and still happening around us and around the world, it was nice and felt great to still be able to make a difference to the less fortunate kids this year.

Be safe everyone!

Dress Distribution #122 - Christmas Shoeboxes 2020

 Christmas is just around the corner and soon we will be welcoming the new year. Well, I cannot let the year 2020 go away without making a difference to at least a few disadvantaged kids so I decided to donate 27 of the last few dresses I still have in my possession to Samaritan's Purse for their Christmas Shoebox project. I have made 26 Christmas shoeboxes and each box has one each of the dresses below. Click on the image below or click here to see a larger version of the individual dresses -  

I needed to finish all the boxes by today so there was no time to identify who the donors are of some of the dresses but thank you to all who donated these dresses. It is much appreciated. When I purchased the boxes I was told that this year's shoeboxes will be distribubuted in Fiji, Cambodia, Vietnam and Madagascar. I will be following the journey of 15 boxes so hopefully by early next year I would know where the boxes were sent more specifically for the 15 Christmas shoeboxes.

Christmas Shoeboxes

Time for Christmas Shoeboxes!  A hands-on way for you to bless children in need across the world by filling shoeboxes with toys, hygiene items, school supplies, and fun gifts. I received my boxes two days ago and will be filling them up this weekend.  If you still have not done any box yet, it is not too late.  Click on the image below or click here for more information -

Spring Cleaning and Lots of Fabrics for recycling

Spring is almost over and I have lots of fabrics in stock to recycle. The linens practically still looks new perhaps used only once or never at all and they are of high quality cotton.  

Fingers crossed I will be able to come up with something good and practical out of these fabrics in the next few weeks. A few shopping bags, throw pillows and/or dresses for sponsorship which can help raise funds and hopefully by the time I finished, things will be back to a new "normal" and perhaps start to plan distribution again. Keep safe everyone!

Donation #1/2020 - Dress Donations from Esther

Due to the pandemic, i have decided not to make any dress distributions this year for health and safety reasons of the people who are responsible for distributing dresses. Hopefully things will be better in 2021.

But I would like to acknowledge a donation from Esther, a young student from Queensland who was taught by her grandma to make dresses and donated to Dress A Girl Australia. Sometime late last year (if I remember it right or was it early this year) her grandma actually sent me an email letting me know about her plan to teach Esther how to sew and asked if they could donate it to Dress A Girl Australia. Last week I finally received the dresses that Esther made.

These dresses will be distributed when everything more or less is back to normal and/or safe to make distributions. Thank you Esther for the dresses and a job well done. And thank you for your and grandma's postage donation. Much appreciated.

Dress A Girl Australia's final statistics for the year 2019

It is time to post the 2019 stats for Dress A Girl Australia. Only a few dresses were distributed for the year. Total number of dresses distributed was 102, 75 totes and 57 undies. All the distributions were made in the Philippines when I travelled to Siargao in March and to the Young Focus non-profit organization in Tondo, Manila. Also donated were school supplies consisting of 200 notebooks and dozens of pens, pencils, erasers and sharpeners.

With the above 2019 distributions added to the grand total, below is a summary of Dress A Girl Australia's grand total distributions -

Total number of dresses (including kits and skirts) - 10,120

Total number of t-shirts/boys' sets - 1,129

Total number of shorts for boys only - 789

Thank you to  everyone who made these numbers possible. I hope to continue with the distribution in the future when everyone and everything around us becomes a little bit normal. Thank you.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

To all the mothers and grandmothers out there -- "to the world you might just be one person but to one person you might just be the world!" Happy Mother's Day! 

Enjoy your special day safely!

For Sale : Pre-Owned Dress-Skirt Zip-Zippers - 50x

Pre-Owned. Good Value for money. Never been used Dress and/or Skirt Zip Zippers. 50x of various brands, sizes and types. Sizes include 15cm, 20cm, 30cm 40cm, 45cm, 50cm and 60cm. At $18.00 for the whole lot it just comes out about 40 cents per zip zipper. Plus postage of $12.45 for the bundle.

          

Click on any of the images above to check it out and make a purchase. Proceeds from the sale of this bundle of zippers will be donated to Dress A Girl Australia to help pay for the cost of distributing dresses to disadvantaged children anywhere in the world". Thank you.

Happy Easter everyone!

Enjoy your Easter Celebration! Stay Safe!

Want to make a difference?

For those in the USA who wants to help make a difference at this time, here is an information that I found which may be of interest to anyone. Just click on the link below for more information. Be safe everyone and please help flatten the curve.

Make a Difference : Fabric Surgical Masks Information

Thank you.