Fundraising Items for Sale

Christmas is really the time for giving. To help Dress A Girl Australia in its fundraising campaign for the cost of posting dresses to various locations, HeyBoom Shop and Kikay Designs again each donated to Dress A Girl Australia an item that I can sell. I still have not decided on whether to put it up for auction or just sell it outright(and I have to decide before close of business today) but the clutch purse from HeyBoom Shop and the handmade bag from Kikay Designs are really beautiful and of top-notch quality.

Also available for sale is a 'Be Green' 3D Fabric Wallhanging. This 48cms x 33cms 3D Fabric Wallhanging came about when I was making a 24"x24" quilt block for the Dream Rocket 'Dare to Dream project.

If you still have not done your christmas card shopping, then why not consider these Christmas Fabric picturecards. Pictures and/or images are fitted inside window cutouts like the bauble cutout or the Christmas Tree or the double mini hearts cutouts. Thin wadding is used to produce a raised effect of the images inside the window cutouts. Inside panel is blank for personalised messages. Comes with a matching white envelope.

And dont forget our Christmas stockings about 40cm  long and fully lined.
All these items I hope will sell. The proceeds from the sale of these items will go to the postage fund of Dress A Girl Australia. The more funds I have for postage, the more dresses I can send to the less fortunate little girls around the world.

Thank you very much to HeyBoom Shop and Kikay Designs for the wonderful clutch purse and handmade bag. With your donations, you are making a difference to the little girls around the world...one dress at a time. Thank you.

Check out these items being sold for a worthy cause. Any questions you may have on any of these items, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

The Round Tin that made me think

This round tin has been sitting on my benchtop for as long as I can remember. Inside are  coins that I remove from my wallet because it makes my bag heavy. Sometimes I could raise as much as $10.00 worth of coins from the tin. Whenever I need coins to buy something or I needed some cash to pay for lunch on a Friday at work (we usually go out for lunch on Fridays) or if I want to post a letter I would dig in to this tin. When I won the NRL tipping competition 2 months ago at work I placed all my winnings on this tin and took out some money only when I needed to post Dress A Girl labels. If I find pillowcases on sale, I would get the money to buy the pillowcases from this tin.

The first dress distribution I did in Sept-Oct 2011 was such a very inspirational and touching experience seeing those little girls being given dresses to wear that I decided that I have to find ways and means to keep on doing this campaign and keep on distributing dresses to the less fortunate people in this world.

Every now and then I would be thinking where or how to raise money to fund my postage of the dresses. Then I thought why not start to gather and sort items I have handcrafted which I can dispose of without feeling guilty about it or items that I can find in the house which I no longer need or dont really need at all, sell them and put the proceeds from the sale of the items on this tin. This could be my lucky tin. Dress A Girl Australia's moneybank for postage.

So now am back to making my fabric picturecards. I still have some blank cards leftover from the days when I used to make handmade cards to sell and donated a dollar for every card that I sold to a breast cancer research foundation. I might even go back to making fabric postcards. I also used to make buttons or pins to sell so now I have decided to make them again and put all proceeds from the sale of the cards and buttons to this tin. Any proceeds from selling handcrafts this Christmas will go straight to this tin for postage fund. A lot of little girls around the world will have big smiles on their faces wearing the dresses that Dress A Girl Australia will be able to send wherever they are located because of this round tin.

Please check out the handmade items that are up for sale. Proceeds from the sale of these items will go straight to my lucky postage tin. Proceeds from your purchase is going to a good cause.
                                                         Items for Sale

Any questions on any of the items for sale, send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Please help Dress A Girl Australia realize her imagination of a world where every little girl owned at least one dress. If you want to know more about this dream, send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Christmas Stockings for the Angels for the Forgotten Christmas Appeal

Dress A Girl Australia joined in the 'Sew for Charity Drive' of The Sewing Library facebook group. The drive is to collect as many Christmas Stockings one can make from the members of the group. These stockings are then donated to the Angels for the Forgotten Inc Christmas Appeal "Stockings Full of Joy" where they are aiming to distribute at least 3000 'Stockings full of joy' to Aussie children who will be in  Foster care or crisis accommodation this festive season.

Dress A Girl Australia donated 3 Christmas stockings one each from the designs which are available for sale at $10.00 for fund raising purposes. Each stocking is about 40cm long and is fully lined with a top fold where one can write the name of the little boy or girl recipient.

Dress A Girl Australia wishes these little Aussie kids a happy Christmas and hope will give joy to each of them who receives the Christmas stockings, bring a smile and sparkle to their faces.

Christmas Stockings for Sale @10.00 each

I needed to be very creative and take advantage of the Christmas season to fund my campaign so most of my time for the last two weekends were spent making these Christmas stockings.

Simple christmas stockings for special people about 40cms long and fully lined with a special fold at the top for you to write that special boy or girl's name and 3 mighty mini bells hanging at the edge of the fold at a very special price of $10.00 each. Made of 100% quilting cotton fabric, you have 3 designs to choose from. Proceeds will help Dress A Girl Australia fund its postage cost for the next planned distribution of dresses currently scheduled for christmas(Dec-Jan 2012 timeframe).

Interested parties please email me at dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com. Online purchase will be available starting Wednesday, 7th of December, 2011. For purchases within Australia, postage cost for one stocking is $2.00.

Please help Dress A Girl Australia continue sending dresses to the less fortunate little girls around the world by purchasing this handmade Christmas Stockings.

Pillowcase Dress Kits for Dress A Girl Australia

Through the coordination of Erlyn Ballesta Sanchez, Dress A Girl Australia received 25 Pillowcase Dress Kits. Each kit included either a standard pillowcase or a piece of fabric the size of a standard pillowcase, bias tape, ribbon and buttons and/or lace for embellishments. Members of the Cenacle, Servants of the Lord and Espiritu Santo Parochial School each contributed to cover the cost of materials to make the 25 kits and members of the Espiritu Santo Parochial School were responsible for the actual preparation, creation and packaging of the kits. 

To complete the kit, Dress A Girl Australia provided each kit with a thread and a Hope 4 Women International dress label and will also be providing instructions on how to make the dress especially for those who are new to making dresses.

On behalf of Dress A Girl Australia, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the members of the Cenacle, Servants of the Lord and Espiritu Santo Parochial School for their contribution and a special thanks to Erlyn Ballesta Sanches for organizing and coordinating these activities. Your support to this campaign makes a big difference to this world and to the lives of each of the 25 little girls who will be receiving the dresses made from these kits. These kits would bring hope to the little girls around the world who deserves to own at least one dress. 25 big smiles on 25 little girls' faces proudly wearing a dress that each one of you made possible. Thank you from Dress A Girl Australia. Every effort spent on making these kits possible is very well appreciated. Thank you.

Here are some samples of the kits -

And here are the members of the Espiritu Santo Parochial School responsible for making the 25 kits possible. The organizer and coordinator of the group Erlyn Ballesta Sanchez, Ruth Oreas, Elma Oreas, Dena Robel, Glory Dickinson and Wenonah Azarcon.

Ten of the kits will be sent to Lilia Ramos Tapia of CDO, Philippines who wants to help make dresses and once it is done, she will also distribute the dresses to the less fortunate girls in her location.  Pictures from her creation and distribution will be posted on this site once available.

Again, thank you for everything. It is people like you who makes Dress A Girl Australia's dream of helping the less fortunate little girls around the world possible.

To see all the kits donated - click here.

If you like what these ladies are doing and feel inspired and motivated to help, please help by spreading the word around. Send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com for more information.

Dressed by Dress A Girl Australia in honor of Jane's memory

A couple of months back, I wrote about this wonderful lady from Virginia by the name of Jane who died at age 55 last September but wanted her mom to continue making dresses for girls around the world. In honor of her memory I donated two dresses on behalf of Dress A Girl Australia. These dresses were to be sent and distributed in Belize.

Well, the dresses have been given to the girls in Belize who deserves to own at least one dress in their lifetime by volunteers from the US last month and here is the picture of the lucky little girl who is the recipient of one of the dresses I donated. The feeling is awesome!  I never imagined it would happen that I would be making a dress to be worn by a little girl living more than 8,000 miles away from where I live...but it has happened. Amazing!

Thank you to the volunteers who went to Belize and made this dream possible for the little girl to own at least one dress and to Dress A Girl Virginia for giving me the opportunity to help on this campaign in honor of Jane's memory. Thank you.

If you like to feel the way I feel so proud whenever I see girls wearing dresses that I make, please come and join me on this campaign or help spread the word around.

For more information, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Here is the link to the original article on Dresses in honor of Jane's memory -

3 more dresses for Dress A Girl Australia

We will be seeing another three(3) big smiles from three(3) little girls around the world for owning at least one dress with Gillian Cockerill of Victoria's donation of three(3) pillowcases dresses to Dress A Girl Australia which I picked up from the post office this morning.  My heartfelt thanks, Gillian! Dress A Girl Australia appreciates very much all the dresses you have sent.

If you like what you read and would like to make dresses for little girls around the world to own and wear, please join us on this campaign. Please send email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com if you have any questions or need more information.

Please help spread the word around. It is a very worthwhile and fulfilling cause to support. Imagine a world where every little girl owned at least one dress. What if that dress were made by you.....or you helped make that dream of owning at least one dress come true. Wouldnt that make you feel happy and proud?

Where does it come from?

Sometimes I wonder where I get all this energy, time and resources I spend on Dress A Girl Australia activities and working full time at the same time. I guess when you love and enjoy what you are doing, that is whats important and counts the most. 


I live....I love....and I laugh. Woohoo!

Dress Distribution Part 2 - October 2011

Finally I received pictures of dresses distributed in the Philippines as part of the planned distribution of dresses last September. The distribution was made on behalf of Dress A Girl Australia by Mr Fred and Vergie Florendo. The distribution was held in two locations. In the frontyard of their house and in a reclaimed area in Marikina, Metro Manila where victims of Typhon Ondoy last year were relocated. Some of the relocated families I have been told have not really fully recovered yet from what they have experienced from the typhoon.

I feel very proud and want to extend my sincerest thanks to Fred and Vergie for finding the time to take these photos and distributing at the same time. I know it is not easy to be doing two things at the same time but they both tried their best to come up with great pictures of little girls wearing their new dresses and with their mamas standing proudly next to them.

Dresses were donated by Deidre Parker, Crafty Mamas coordinated by Gaylene Hermann, Heyboom Shop, Kikay Designs, Gallerie Marie, family and friends. These were the very first donors who made Dress A Girl Australia and its attempt to help the less fortunate girls around the world possible. Thank you from Dress A Girl Australia. It is very much appreciated. Your support and providing the dresses and the assistance made by Fred and Vergie in making sure the dresses gets to the girls is very inspiring and makes me more motivated to do more for Dress A Girl Australia.

Thank you so much!

Some of the donated dresses have already been posted earlier in the Distribution in CDO Part 1 and are available permanently on the right navigation bar. These pictures and a few more will be posted permanently on the right navigation bar tomorrow. If you like what you see and would like to join Dress A Girl Australia's campaign to dress girls around the world, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

31 more dresses for Dress A Girl Australia

Slack is the word to describe me these days as I have not even updated Dress A Girl Australia's numbers. I havent updated how many dresses I've got and where I stand in my campaign for 500 dresses for Christmas. For sure I will have to do it very, very soon.

Anyway, last Saturday I picked up a parcel from Australia Post and received 31 dresses from Gaylene Hermann. Thank you very much from Dress A Girl Australia. Your support on this campaign is very much appreciated and very inspiring. It motivates me to do more for Dress A Girl Australia knowing that there are people in this world who are willing to help and support what Dress A Girl Australia is all about and for all the little girls around the world, to help put a smile on their faces and let them proudly say to the world that they own at least one dress. Imagine how that would make you feel happy and proud to be a part of that little girl's happiness. Thank you Gaylene!

I may not have mentioned this previously but Gaylene was responsible for coordinating the dresses donated by the ladies from Crafty Mamas. One of the very first dresses I received and helped made possible Dress A Girl Australia's first attempt to provide dresses to the less fortunate little girls in the Philippines last September.  The first of the dresses that I hope helped and in a small way improved the confidence of the less fortunate little girls who received them. 

Am inviting anyone to join and support Dress A Girl Australia on this very worthwhile cause. Each dress that you make and give makes a whole lot of difference to the life of the little girl who receives that dress, makes this world a better place to live in.

All 31 dresses are posted or will be posted (when I find the time to take pictures) on the left navigation bar under B & G Hermann. These will help me identify where dresses came from when it is time for distribution. Three of the dresses will be included in the 'Dresses for Uganda' collection.

Christmas Shoeboxes

 Wow, its been almost 11 days since my last blog. I can't believe I have been so slack in blogging about Dress A Girl Australia's activities. It has been a very busy 11 days especially that the season of Christmas has finally arrived and here to stay for the next 4 weeks.

First Christmas activity for Dress A Girl Australia was the Christmas shoebox. I donated two shoeboxes for a boy and a girl in the 5-9 age category. Of course included in the shoebox was a pillowcase dress for a girl and a pair of shorts for a boy made by me.

Each box also contained school supplies (6 pencils each, erasers and a sharpener), box of crayons, car toys for the boy, scrunchies and a handmade bracelet for the girl, playdoughs, mini pillows, teddy bear pouch with a mini photoframe inside the little pouch, pair of socks, water bottle, mini coloring book which I created and printed, a toothbrush and toothpaste and a handmade card.

The handmade card is actually a picture card which I thought about and started to make about 5 years ago and for every picture card that I sold I donated a dollar to the Breast Cancer Foundation. When I went back to work after taking a break for more than a year, I only made them when someone ordered in packs. I fitted pictures and/or images inside window cutouts like the heart cutout on this card. If I could not find a fitting image on fabric, I would print the images on my old inkjet printer using 100% cotton fabrics. To produce a raised effect of the images inside window cutouts, I used thin wadding. 

Anyway, I have posted my Christmas shoeboxes and two days ago I received an acknowledgement email from Samaritans's Purse Australia and New Zealand.

Hopefully soon, I will get another email advising me which country in South East Asia and South Pacific the shoeboxes will be opened and whoever is going to receive the shoeboxes, I hope they will like what they see inside the box.