Sewing Event in Sydney?

I have been looking around for halls or spaces for rent in Sydney and even outside the Sydney area for at least half a day so I can hold a sewing event but the hourly rates are quite expensive more so if you hold the event on a weekend or on a public holiday. Holding sewing events on a weekday is out of the question as I work full-time. To make the renting worthwhile I reckon   an event should have at least a minimum number of 50 attendees to be able to make at least between 100-150 dresses. The other alternative would be to hold sewing marathons or sew-alongs and anyone can join in from home.

Hmmmm....maybe I should come up with a survey first and see if I can get a good feedback on the number of people who would like to join in a sewing event here in Sydney and take it from there. I was thinking of a sewing event sometime in June or at least before 2012 ends and I believe this would require a lot of planning and organizing. 

If there is anyone out there who live in the Sydney area who would be interested to join or help in making dresses for girls around the world for at least 4 hours one Saturday, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com. I would love to see you join and have fun making dresses.

More fabric bundles for Dress A Girl Australia

Last week my sister and I went to Lincraft to purchase some cotton knits for her crochet project and my t-shirt project. Since I started sewing pillowcase dresses, I have become more daring in my sewing projects. I plan to make myself a t-shirt. :-)

Since the materials were on sale at $5.56 a metre and had a width of 150cms instead of buying only a metre for my tshirt, I ended up buying 3 metres of the blue cotton knit. A metre for my t-shirt(in case I make a mistake at least I have some spare) and 2mts to make into pairs of shorts for Dress A Girl Australia's 'shorts for the boys' campaign which am officially launching in March.

Last Monday, we decided to go to Spotlight to see if they had cotton knits of the same quality we bought at Lincraft but they only had two color choices and didnt really convince us to buy as I think they were more expensive. We were about to leave when I noticed a sign that says a dollar per metre. I had a look at the fabrics and it had a width of 150cms. For $6.00 (yes $6.00 I paid at the counter) I was able to buy a  total of 7.5 metres of the red and black squares and polka dots which I considered shorts-quality kind of fabrics. And I think they will also make good pillowcase dresses.

So here is another haul of fabrics ready to make into pairs of shorts this time for Dress A Girl Australia.

Donation Acknowledgements for the year 2012 #1 - Fabrics from Incy Wincy Destash

What a good way to start the year 2012 with these bundles of fabrics from Incy Wincy Destash with a donation from Tashly Creations too. These fabrics will be sent to Katherine who has committed to making pillowcase dresses out of these fabrics.

To Simone and Natasha, thank you so much for the goodies. Every fabric donated from these bundles is very much appreciated. Every dress created by Katherine from these bundles will make a difference to the lives of the girls around the world who will own any of these dresses. Thank you.

New Year's resolutions for 2012

So what is it going to be for 2012? Would it be 'work smarter' and get less stressed at work? Or if you love handcraft work find a way to finish up all projects, reduce stash or acquire more stash? Or would you like to do more work for charity? Would it be a lifestyle change? Weight loss or walk 10,000 steps a day?

Whatever it is that you have decided or still has to decide on what to do in 2012, I hope you will enjoy and have fun achieving them  and get yourself rewarded with the biggest tick marks on the list at the end of the year. Remember resolutions you list down on a piece of paper or write in a journal are not wishes but goals you set to achieve. 

Dress A Girl Australia will be striving for more dresses and also have lots of exciting plans in store for 2012 so if you are looking for ways to be able to help especially the less fortunate children around the world, then come and join Dress A Girl Around the World - Dress A Girl Australia in its journey to make a difference in a small but surely way. Share whatever craft skills you've got to help and make this world a better place.

For more information about Dress A Girl Around the World - Dress A Girl Australia, please send email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Happy New and Great 2012!

Let us all sing and dance and SEW and make good cheer, let us all make it last throughout the year. Happy New Year!

Happy making a difference in this world...one dress at a time in 2012!

Donation Acknowledgements for the Week #4 - Anonymous Donor

The other item I picked up from the post office yesterday was a parcel full of fabrics. Unfortunately, there was nothing in the parcel that would help me identify where it came from and just from the number of fabrics I think it could generate about 10 pillowcase dresses.

Whoever you are, my heartfelt thanks to your donation to Dress A Girl Australia. I wish you included your name in the parcel or even initials but thank you so much. I am sure you are a reader of this blog so come and visit this site often as once your donated fabrics have been sewn into dresses, they will be posted here. Again, thank you.

Donation Acknowledgements for the Week #3 - Katherine's Collection

Luckily we were made to leave work early (1pm) yesterday and from there made a last-minute drive to our local post office to pick up a couple of parcels and one of them came from Katherine Nott. Inside the parcel were 14 pillowcase dresses and 18 pairs of shorts. Woohoo!! 
Below is a picture of some of the goodies -

A few weeks earlier, I did an acknowledgement of donated fabrics given and sent to her by small business shops and crafty mums at home. These are some of the dresses she has made so far out of those donated fabrics. The 18 pairs of shorts came from Katherine's Katz Creations.

Katherine, thank you so much for your unwavering support of dressing girls and boys around the world. Thank you for your perseverance in converting these fabrics into dresses. Your time and effort spent on helping Dress A Girl Australia become more successful in achieving its goal of dressing the less fortunate children around the world is very, very much appreciated. Thank you!

To see all the dresses, click on the image above or copy and paste the URL below in your browser :

            https://picasaweb.google.com/dressagirlaustralia/KatherineSCollection?authuser=0&feat=directlink

My 'Dress A Girl Australia' Journal

One of the presents I received on Christmas Day is this beautiful fabric journal which my sister made. I labelled it my 'Dress A Girl Australia' journal and soon will be filled with everything I do on Dress A Girl Australia. And I mean literally everything including dress measurements, pictures, pattern doodling and even postage calculations. 

Another one of those items you will find inside my bag which will make my bag more heavy to carry. If you want to know more about me and what is going on in my life, just look inside my bag. :-)

Dress A Girl Australia's Christmas Drive Update

This really amazes me. To see is to believe and I have always believed that I will be able to do it but everytime I see the piles of dresses and unopened parcels I cannot believe what am seeing. I get speechless! The response I had with Dress A Girl Australia's Christmas Drive of 500 dresses for girls around the world is overwhelming. Thank you.

As of last night's count I have on-hand 317 dresses. I have 2 AusPost parcels for pick up and several emails letting me know in advance that they have posted dresses or will be posting dresses after the holidays. It will take awhile to take pictures of all the dresses but they will be taken.

My heartfelt thanks to everyone who made this Christmas Drive for girls around the world a success! Thank you for believing and supporting this very worthwhile campaign. Every pillowcase, fabric, lace, button, thread, ribbon, elastic and most specially the time and effort you spent on making these dresses to give to the less fortunate girls around the world is very much appreciated. I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Reflection Time

It is time to reflect on what Dress a Girl Australia has accomplished in year 2011 and what it has in store for the new year 2012! Dress A Girl Australia has lots of exciting things planned for 2012. Come and join me on this journey!

For general enquiries, please send email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Dress Distribution - Dress A Girl Australia's First Dress Recipients of the Year 2012

The past three days I have been sorting the dresses by sizes and attaching Hope 4 Women Intl Dress A Girl labels and today am happy and proud to say that the first parcel for the year 2012 Distribution # 3 has been mailed to a good friend of mine who works at SEARCA College, Los Banos Laguna. This is actually a Christmas present for Edna Lisa. Instead of buying something from a shop I told her I will be giving her 12 pillowcase dresses. These dresses she then will be giving to the Children's Joy Foundation in Laguna, Philippines. She has been asking for the dresses for over a month now (I last saw her in Sept) and finally it was sent today. 

This orphanage I believe houses 12 orphans between the age of 4 and 5. It is unfortunate that inspite of the number of dresses I handcarried with me to distribute  almost 3 months ago I could not share it with these children so now they are priority and number 1 on my list.

These dresses will be a delayed Christmas present for each of the 12 orphans and am keeping my fingers crossed that the parcel will arrive in its intended destination. More details about this orphanage will be posted on this site once available.

For the 12 dresses that were included in the parcel to be given to the girls in the orphanage, click here. Dresses were from i-craft i-sew and from the Bridgetown High School students.

Donation Acknowledgements for the Week #2 - Family Affair

From my sister Joan. Fabrics are all cut-up and ready to be sewn into 9 dresses including for the pocket, armholes and straps. All it needs is a sewing machine and the time to make them into dresses to bring smiles to 9 lucky girls around the world. Thank you Joan!

Last but not the least, I happen to pass by a small fabric shop last week and saw these 2 bundles of fabrics and 2 new pillowcases. I know I do not have to buy anything but since it is Christmas the $10 dollar purchase was justified. My Christmas present to Dress A Girl Australia, these bundles will make between 8-10 pillowcase dresses not right now but when the time is right. Thanks heaps, Gigi!

For those readers out there who wants to donate fabrics they no longer need, please send email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com. Dress A Girl Australia will put those bundles into very good use for you.

Donation Acknowledgements for the Week #1 - Dresses from The Sewing Library

First acknowledgement for the week is for 173 dresses from The Sewing Library facebook group. Yes, you read it right. 173 dresses. The Sew for Charity drive was organized and coordinated by Renee Webb during the months of Sept/Oct 2011. The dresses you see in the picture represents only a quarter of the dresses received by Dress A Girl Australia. Each dress all 173 of them will be pictured as they are allocated or distributed to girls around the world.

My sincerest and heartfelt thanks to all the members of The Sewing Library facebook group for the 173 dresses for 173 girls around the world and my special thanks to Renee for organizing the drive. 173 dresses is just amazing. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

If you want to join in this very worthwhile campaign or want to hold sewing bees or sew-alongs for Dress A Girl Around the World - Dress A Girl Australia, please feel free to do so. If you need more information or assistance, send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com

** The Sewing Library is a facebook group created with the hope of a community coming together to share their sewing know-how including great tutorials, tips, hints and advices. For those ladies out there who wants to know more and perhaps would like to join the group, click here or copy and paste the URL below in your browser - http://www.facebook.com/groups/210023235698596/

Sewing TV Reality Shows

This week with Mon, Dec 26 and Tues, Dec 27 being public holidays, we only needed to go to work from Wed till Friday and possibly just a half-day on the last day.  Most of the people at work are on leave or were forced to go on leave but I opted to come to work as I didn’t want to end up with a negative 3 days in my vacation leave credits on a new year. As much as possible I want to save up my vacation days just in case I would decide to go to another country somewhere in Asia in 2012 and do another dress distribution myself. Besides you tend to finish more work when there are less people around.

There weren’t that many people on the train and I was seated next to a lady who was reading a magazine featuring the top and worst TV shows of the year 2011. Looking at what she was reading, something snap inside my brain. Am so used to scribbling or listing things to do (a list that keeps on getting longer and never shorter)  and could be for work or at home or lately for Dress A Girl Australia…for a change, why don’t I create a list of possible sewing reality shows based on the reality shows available on TV? Hahaha!! Check this out. Although I don’t really watch most of them, here is what I came up with (on possibly the most productive 30-minute train ride I ever had. :-) ). There might be more but these were the only ones I could think of . I have thrown in one TV ad too:

TV Ad –

i cant believe it is butter                                                i cant believe it is sewing

 

 

TV Reality Shows

so you think you can dance                                             so you think you can sew

the x factor                                                                   the sewing factor

the 'celebrity' apprentice                                                the 'sewing' apprentice

Survivor : celebrities                                                      Survivor : Sewers

the australian idol                                                          the sewing idol

I'm a celebrity...get me out of here!                               I'm a sewer...get me out of

                                                                                               here!

Big Brother                                                                     Big Sewer

The Simple Life                                                              The Sewing Life

Dog Whisperer                                                                Sewing Whisperer

Dancing with the Stars                                                    Sewing with the Stars

The Biggest Loser                                                           The Biggest Sewer

Farmer wants a wife                                                       Farmer wants a sewer

Deal or no Deal                                                               Sew or No Sew

The Price is Right                                                           The Sewing is Right

Celebrity Duets                                                               Celebrity Sewing

Have fun! Click here to check out the complete list I made.

No, am not insane. Am just trying to enjoy life to the fullest and be the happiest on the last 60 hours of the year 2011.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Dress A Girl Australia wishes everyone a very happy Christmas!

Happy, happy Christmas!

Last-minute Handmade Presents

It is an expensive hobby but sometimes it pays to be a fabric hoarder. This morning while trying to pack my christmas presents for our family christmas dinner tonight, I noticed I was missing two presents but could not figure out for which member of the family. I sat down and listed the names and ticked each name when I found a present and that was how I discovered that I was missing one for my 8-yr old niece and another for my 6-yr old nephew. No way was I going to drive to the mall and join hundreds of last minute shoppers.

Thanks to my being a fabric hoarder, I decided to make a couple of items to give and this is what I came up with - a pillowcase dress for my niece and a pair of shorts for my nephew.

I hope they will like my last-minute handmade presents. Their names would definitely be called out to receive a present from their aunt. 

Two Pairs of Shorts for Ujamaa Children Ally and Kevin

I always thought I have already written about the Ujamaa Children of Tanzania but I could not find it anywhere in the posting log and the items have already been sent over to the Crafty Ladies Movement facebook group who organized the drive weeks ago. These two boys Ally and Kevin from the Ujamaa Childrens Home of Tanzania will be the lucky recipients of  2 pairs of shorts made by me.

   

Ally is 5 years old and has a twin sister Halima and Kevin is 9.

They both live in the Ujamaa Childrens Home in Tanzania which was founded by Carley Andrews. To make the pair of shorts more interesting as Christmas presents, I had each pair wrapped in a fabric pouch with the pictures of both Ally and Kelvin printed on it. I also included a handmade Christmas fabric picture card and greeted each boy a merry christmas to make this gift-giving more memorable. 

If you want to know more about Ally, click here. To know more about Kevin, click here.   To know more about the Ujamaa Childrens Home, click here.

I hope these two boys would love the pair of shorts I made for them. If and when pictures would be available I will be posting them immediately on this site. Making these shorts was a good way to prepare myself to make more pairs for Dress A Girl Australia's 'shorts for the boys' campaign. Although I am starting to get enquiries on whether they can make shorts as well as dresses, the official launch of this 'shorts for the boys' campaign will be in March 2012. 

If you are keen in joining me on this campaign, please feel free to email dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Angels for the Forgotten Charity Drive Update

The Christmas Stockings has now made its way to the Angels for the Forgotten charity organization. I could just imagine the glow of happiness on each child's face when they receive it.