A little bit of sewing this week

The month of March seems to be going so quickly. I have not been making a dress everyday since the month started. I have only made 5 so far and to think that I am dedicating the dresses I will be making this month to all my high school classmates that have left this world quite early I think I should be making more. :-) Schedule seems to be a bit tight with two markets coming (one next weekend and another in May)

Anyway, could'nt stay away from my best buddy, my sewing machine for too long and here are the dresses I made for Day 66 and 67 (dresses #4 and #5 for this month)

Hope to catch up and make at least 31 for 31 days of March most probably after next weekend.

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/03 #28 - From Clare McAdam

Number 28 on the list are these bundles of fabrics donated by Monika Osvald's colleague Clare McAdam.

This is going to keep Monika busy in the next few weeks thanks to Clare. Thank you Monika for helping spread the word around.

Clare, thank you for your kindness and generosity. These bundles will go a long way in dressing girls from the less fortunate locations. Thank you. Much appreciated.

New Logo

After 2 years of dressing girls and boys around the world, I am changing Dress A Girl Australia's logo to 'We dressed girls around the world'. Just fitting and proper after providing 1105 dresses and 209 pairs of shorts to the less fortunate children around the world with more to dress in the near future. This change coincides with another milestone Dress A Girl Australia is celebrating. She just turned two today! Yippeee!!
Here is my new logo -

Starting with just myself and my sewing machine two years ago with the help of my crafty sisters, Dress A Girl Australia is gathering momentum, quickly becoming an Australia-wide campaign.  With a career in IT including 15 years as a programmer I never thought I would one day be sewing dresses for the less fortunate children, dressed about 350 children in 2 years time. Redundancy was a blessing in disguise as it opened my eyes to the outside world and saw that there is life outside work and so much better when you are helping make this world a better place, helping make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate especially with children. I am still working but I consider it as my part-time and always look forward to going home everyday and start my full-time tasks with Dress A Girl.

Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart to all the donors, campaigners, supporters of Dress A Girl Around the World specifically Dress A Girl Australia. Without your help, kindness and generosity, Dress A Girl Australia the way it is now would'nt have been possible. Thank you so much! And more power to Dress A Girl Around the World.

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/03 #27 - From Sarah Tanmahapran

There are a lot of us making 2013 the year of living making a difference and Sarah Tanmahapran is one of them. Third batch for the year for the month of March are 11 dresses and is number 27 on the list, the first for the month of March.
Here are the dresses she donated for this month - dresses very well done.

Sarah, thank you for the dresses. I can see that you are enjoying making a difference in the world of the less fortunate. Soon your dresses will bring lovely smiles on the girls' faces who get to wear them.Thank you for your kindness and generosity. Much appreciated.

Dress Distribution #20 - Parcel for the children of Katuuso Uganda

Could not do much in such a short notice but we have done it again and very thankful to Annabelle Chauncy, co-founder of School for Life Foundation in Katuuso Uganda for letting me know about a container that was leaving for Uganda this Friday. I really wished I could send more but I only found 2 spare boxes in my garage last night. 

Anyway, I managed to pack 30 pairs of shorts, 45 dresses, about 50 girls undies, coloring and activity books I have collected, pencils, crayons and a few packs of small watercolor sets and about 20 exercise books. These school stuff every now and then I get to collect and receive from a few friends. I would have wanted to put an undie on the pocket of every dress but didnt have enough time so I just bundled them up and leave them to be given to each girl who receives a dress otherwise I would have gone beyond midnight and wasnt a good idea on a weekday.

Here are the goodies that will be sent off today and hopefully make it to the container on Thursday night to depart on Friday -
Dresses and pairs of shorts -

School Supplies and a bunch of girls' undies -

Due to time constraint I could only identify a few donors just by looking at some of the dresses and the packaging of the dresses and pairs of shorts where I pulled them out from. When I get to identify more (and will keep on trying), then I will update my list -

1. 2Betts (Betty Barrett and Betty Paull)
2. Sharyn Paull
3. Deborah Parish and the Ladies of Kapunda S.A.
4. Wendy Yates
5. Karin Maltby and the Ladies from Perth
6. and I think Monika Osvald and Lyn Crossley
7. Sarah Tanmahapran
8. Friends for the school supplies
9. Dress A Girl Australia

Thanks everyone for making these 2 parcels possible. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. Thank you for making another 45 school girls happy and 30 school boys jump up with joy with their new pairs of shorts from the School for Life Foundation, Katuuso Uganda. Much appreciated! 

For larger images of the contents of these parcels, please click here. For more on dress distributions, please click here or click on the 'Dress Distribution' tab found at the top of this page. I try to update this page whenever a parcel leaves my humble abode....and I still have about 5 more to publish. Still need to find the time to do it so watch this space!

Dress Distribution Feedback from Katuuso Uganda Mar 2013

Here are some pictures of the school kids of the School for Life Foundation wearing their dresses and the boys their new pairs of shorts taken from a completed dress distribution in Katuuso Uganda. I just love looking at the pictures of the kids having a good time.

For individual and larger images, please click here.

Thank you to Annabelle Chauncy, co-founder of the School for Life Foundation for providing me with these pictures. Much appreciated.

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/02 #26 - From Bronwyn also from Tasmania

Yes, I seem to be getting a lot of support from Tasmania. Number 26 and the last name on my list for the month of February is a parcel of 12 dresses from Bronwyn Reynolds. I would'nt be surprised if Bronwyn, Monika and Louise are group of friends as they seem to have the same name of suburb. And what a way to spread the word around...thru family and friends.
Here are the 12 dresses from Bronwyn -

Bronwyn, thank you for supporting this campaign. Your dresses will make a dozen children happy. Thank you for your generosity. It is much appreciated. Thanks!

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/02 #25 - From Monika Briant

This time is a bundle of pink fabric from Monika Briant of Tasmania and this is donation #25. I would guess that she learned about this campaign from Louise Wright, another generous donor of fabrics as her return address had a care-of  Louise name on it.
Here is the pink bundle which surely will dress and make at least 4 girls happy anywhere in the world -

Thank you Monika for your kindness and generosity. Much appreciated. Thanks!

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/02 #24 - From Linda Smyth

Number 24 on the list is a parcel that was dropped off at my place last Tuesday by Linda Smyth. She lives about 10-15 minutes away from my place. The parcel had 8 dresses and 5 pairs of shorts and 4 bundles of fabrics. Also in the parcel was 2 sets of patterns for boys' shorts.
Here are the dresses and the pairs of shorts -

and the 4 bundles of fabrics -

Linda, thank you for the dresses and the pairs of shorts and the bundles of fabrics which will make children from the less fortunate locations happy. And thank you for the patterns. Thank you for thoughtfulness.

Another Sewing Bee schedule for the ladies of Kapunda S.A.

Yes, Ladies of Kapunda S.A. and from the nearby suburbs, there is another Dress A Girl Around the World sewing bee scheduled for this Saturday, 9th of March 2013 from 10:00am - 4:00pm at the Lutheran Church Hall, South Tce., Kapunda S.A.

Craft and Hope in collaboration with Dress A Girl Around the World where everyone meets and sew, quilts, knits, crochets for your favourite charity.Everyone is welcome.

For those who plan to join in this event, please contact Kathy Pfeiffer (85662189) and/or Deborah Parish(85663628)  and/or if you want more details on this event. Please help spread the word! Thank you everyone!

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/02 #23 - A unique parcel from Betty Barrett

Number 23 on my list is a parcel full of unique handmade items from Betty Barrett and with the help of her best friend Betty Paull making sure that the parcel arrives in Sydney. As some of you would probably know these two Bettys wants to dress the whole world (and she and friend Betty are both 85 years old!) but what was inside the parcel were not dresses but handmade items she made for me to sell to help raise funds for postage.

One of the handmade items was a doorstop(in fact 13 of them) and I filled one of them using the decorative pebbles I used for my terrariums. Here are the items I received which I will be selling in a market very soon and also I will be posting in my shop. Don't forget to check them out as they would have full details on how to fill up the doorstops.

And here is one of the doorstops already filled - I just love the result of it once it was filled with 2.5 kilos of decorative pebbles. 2.5 kilos of pebbles weigh the same as 2.5kilos of rice if you prefer to use rice or 2.5 kilos of clean sand.

If anyone is interested to purchase any of these items, please feel free to send me an email at dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com. It is going to a very worthy cause and the item is made with full of love.

Thank you so much for the items Betty B and thank you so much for making sure the items get to Sydney Betty P. You two are a great inspiration and I hope to other people as well. Thank you from the bottom of my heart....and never miss your walks. I just think about the 2 of you doing your daily walk and am out the door walking too! :-)

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/02 #22 - From Bethany Greenaway

A few weeks back I posted an entry about a 17-year old Girl Guide by the name of Bethany Greenaway of Blaxland NSW. She received a Queens Guide Award and had to undertake a service project for a minimum of 30 hours over 3 months.  She chose to set herself the challenge of completing 60 dresses in 3 months and has completed it. Donation #22 are the 60 dresses Bethany did as part of her award and here are the 60 dresses she has donated -

And in case you missed the picture I posted earlier of Bethany, here she is with her 60 dresses -

Look at the dresses. What a pro! Congratulations, Bethany! What a job and very well done! Thank you so much for choosing Dress A Girl Around the World campaign as your service project. Thank you for dressing 60 girls from the less fortunate locations around the world. I hope with your work it will inspire a lot of kids your age to help make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. Thank you so much!

March dresses dedication

Last week a high school classmate and friend passed away. Actually it was on my sister's birthday, the 21st of February. In memory of her passing and all my other high school classmates who have left this world quite early I am dedicating all the dresses including pairs of shorts I will be making this month of March to them starting with last night's dress. 
This is the first dress I made for the month of March (Day 60) last night -

I want to say thank you in advance to all the donors of the fabrics I will be using in making this remembrance possible this month. Thanks everyone! 

To be updated on my one-dress-a-day project, please click here or click on the '365 Days Diary' tab found at the top of this page and every other page of this blog.

An unwanted fabric egg

Last night I decided to make a fabric egg and spent about two hours trying to perfect it...to make it look like an egg. Here is the egg I made -  

This morning when I woke up the first thing I saw was this egg sitting on top of my benchtop and I started to wonder what I should do with this egg. I cannot even break it because it is made of fabric and filled of hobby-fil. If I wash it am sure it will stand up again looking like an egg when it dries up. LOL! I think I was challenged last night to make it look and shaped like an egg that is why I had to finish it but I went blank this morning on how to make it useful to me.

Anyway, am sure I will be able to come up with something in the next few days on what to do with it....how it can help Dress A Girl Australia. :-) If you have any ideas, please feel free to let me know.

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/02 #21 - From Heather Harris

A parcel of 4 dresses and 4 pairs of shorts is number 21 on the list from Heather Harris of ACT. She sent me an email about a couple of weeks ago letting me know how excited she was to make more dresses. Her sister and her mum gave her more fabrics but she also said that she cannot find her shorts pattern after rearranging her sewing room. :-) To make you feel better Heather, most of the time I cannot find my elastic or bias tapes when I want to use  them and I do not even re-arrange my sewing room. How much more if I do. And when I do not need them..well guess what... I can find them. LOL!
Here are the dresses and pairs of shorts from Heather -

Thank you Heather for supporting this campaign of dressing the less fortunate children around the world. Please extend my heartfelt thanks to your mum and sister for providing you with fabrics to sew. Thank you all for your kindness and generosity. Much appreciated. Thanks!

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/02 #20 - From Lyn Granger

This is Donation #20 from Lyn Granger of NSW. A parcel of 5 dresses and 2 pairs of shorts and a note full of love. This must be the reason why it takes me a long time to finish donation acknowledgements. I look at each dress and admire and I read every word on the note that comes with the parcel. :-)
Here are the 5 dresses from Lyn -

the two pairs of shorts -

and the note full of love - (I removed the contact details so please ignore the lines shaded with white.) It says 'much love' and with colourful hearts drawn underneath. Isnt that sweet?

Lyn, thank you for the dresses and the pairs of shorts and thank you for the note. It is very much appreciated. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/02 #19 - From Sarah Vaughan

Number 19 on the list is from Sarah Vaughan of happy tuesday. A parcel of 11 cute dresses.

To Sarah, in reply to the note you wrote on the packaging, the dresses are very ok. :-). Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity and for supporting this campaign of dressing the less fortunate children around the world. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/02 #18 - From Narelle Cox

It is time to close off February donations so here I am again trying hard to catchup. Been doing a lot of analysis work lately helping a work colleague in his project that needs to be finished by the time I get home my brain can only accommodate  making a dress for the day. Not complaining but if it was helping sew a dress it would have been more interesting. :-)

Anyway, for donation #18 for February, it is a parcel of 5 dresses from Narelle Cox which she made during her summer break. She learned about this campaign from her aunt Frances Cornish. (Thanks Frances!)
Here are the dresses that she thinks are nowhere near as perfect as that of her aunt but they hold together. :-) -

Narelle, thank you for spending the time and effort to make these dresses. You may not believe it but my dresses are nowhere near as perfect as well when I compare them to the dresses I received but am very sure that they would make girls happy. Thank you so much for the dresses. Much appreciated.