Visit us in West Hartford this Saturday!

I am honored to have been asked to partner with a fabulous woman's boutique ~BK & Co~ in West Hartford Center this weekend for the West Hartford Spring Stroll.  Click here for more information!

They seek to bring attention to charities that business owners in West Hartford support.  It is a wonderful opportunity for me to share Dress a Girl with even more people and perhaps get more people involved in donating and sewing!  This just means more girls will be blessed with dresses!

I will be selling pillowcase dresses for $25 to raise money for shipping dresses and to help buy more supplies to bless more girls.  100% of the money will go back into Dress a Girl!  It is a wonderful way for me to raise money and for you to out one of our cute dresses on a little girl in your life.  Walking advertising too!  Just share where the dress came from and how your money has dressed that many more girls!

Think you'd like to help sewing dresses?  I will also have kits available for $5.  Kits include a pillowcase or fabric sewn into a pillowcase form; all the notions needed to make the dress, directions and an address for you to send the finished dress back to me.  In this way, you can sew a dress, donate a small amount and bless a girl.  If you find you enjoy it and want to continue, you can start collecting pillowcases and supplies needed to sew the dresses!  I am always in need of more help sewing!

Please come out and support Dress a Girl Connecticut!  I look forward to meeting you!

What a month it has been!

I am so grateful for all that has happened in this past month!  It has been a mega month for Dress a Girl Connecticut!

Thanks to Farrah Duffany of MyRecordJournal.com's article and video news report on Dress a Girl Connecticut, this ministry has gone viral!  The Associated Press picked up the article and it has run in a viral manner throughout New England in major and local newspapers!  It still continues to run a few weeks later!  I have been completely overwhelmed and swamped with calls, emails and requests to help from all over New England! 

You can view the article and pictures here:  MyRecordJournal.com-Dress a Girl Connecticut.

In addition, I have been contacted by the owners of an upscale store in West Hartford Center about partnering with them to celebrate girls and women!  Two big events are in the works!  What a blessing this is!!!  I don't want to go into details yet as we are still solidifying plans but trust me, it is REALLY big & exciting!

I have been contacted by so many people!  Everyone wants to help!  So wonderful!  We really need more help and here are ways you can become involved-even if you can't sew!

DONATE !!!

We need PILLOWCASES of all sizes and colors.  We just ask that they not be see-through!

We can use lightweight cotton and cotton blend FABRICS in larger pieces.  If you are/were a quilter and have fabric left over, we'd love it-just no tiny pieces please!

Pretty, patterned, colorful TOP SHEETS make a good starting place for dresses.  Please NO white sheets.  We'd have to dye them first...

DOUBLE BIAS TAPE 1/2" wide in all colors.  This gets quite expensive to buy-however- it is easy to make if you are interested!

3/8" BRAIDED ELASTIC white or black works.

 GROSGRAIN RIBBON in any color 1/2" to 1" in diameter.

GALLON zip-lock bags (any brand) for packing the dresses in for shipping.

June Tailor DARK T-SHIRT TRANSFER PAPER for label making.

CASH !
Always needed for purchasing supplies and shipping dresses!

DONATE TIME & SEW!

Stay tuned for more information about Dress a Girl Connecticut and what we are up to!

Join us to sew, pin, cut, iron and package dresses:

Saturday, March 31st 

9am - 1pm
Cornerstone Church
1146 Waterbury Road
Cheshire, CT 

Great turnout this weekend and another date planned!

What a great turnout on Saturday!  So many new faces!  What a week this has been!

I am so pleased that the recent articles and video articles have brought Dress a Girl to so many! 
http://www.myrecordjournal.com/following_farrah/dress/  What a wonderful blessing this has been to our ministry!  So many have asked how they can help.  Obviously, we need pillowcases!  Please-nothing see through!  We want the girls to have modesty and proper coverage.  We also need help sewing and constructing dresses-consider volunteering your time!  We can show you how to make the dresses!  They are SEW EASY! :)

One of our young helpers models a dress!

We also need financial assistance.  We buy supplies for dresses, labels and shipping supplies and shipping costs.  We estimate that $100 donation will make and ship about 50 dresses.  $500 donation will make and ship 250 dresses!  Know of a company that may want to give back?  Corporate sponsors welcome!  Any amount of donation is welcome and 100% will go towards dress supplies and shipping.  We want to bless as many girls as possible!

We also want to find local groups going on missions trips that can carry dresses with them and bless girls with their own handmade pillowcase dresses!

Our next sewing date is Saturday, March 31 from 9am-1pm at Cornerstone Church, 1146 Waterbury Road, Cheshire, CT  06410.  Watch for more to come about this date!

Please contact me with any questions you may have!  I love to talk Dress a Girl!

Join Us to Sew (No experience necessary!)

"DRESS A GIRL AROUND THE WORLD"

 Imagine a World Where Every Little Girl Owned at Least One Dress

 
 

Join Us!
The Dress a Girl Ministry is meeting
this Saturday, February 18th
9:00am - 12:00pm

Cornerstone Church Sanctuary 

1146 Waterbury Road

Cheshire, CT  06410

Whether you sew or not, we need help cutting, ironing, pinning, 
rolling & packaging dresses for shipment to David Wagner of 
Father’s Heart Ministries.  These are very fun, easy to make &
will make a huge impact on the receiving girl!

Please come, bring a friend if you like, be involved!  

You’ll be helping to bless a little girl who might not have ever owned 
a pretty new dress if it weren't for your kindness and generosity. 

 Any questions, please contact Janine Mahan, Dress a Girl Connecticut at dressagirlct@gmail.com.

Hope 4 Women International's "Dress a Girl Around the World" has blessed over 61,000 girls with their own pillowcase dresses in 56 countries including the US.  Volunteers are sewing dresses in all US States, Canada, Uganda, the UK, Philippines, Australia, and Hong Kong. 

****Please donate new & gently used pillowcases****
All colors & sizes welcome!

Financial donations can also be made to:
“Cornerstone Church-Dress a Girl Ministry”, 

1146 Waterbury Road, Cheshire, CT  06410

 

Together, we really will dress girls around the world.

Sewing in a jiffy!

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a woman who works for MyRecordJournal.com.  This is an online news website that wanted to feature Dress a Girl Connecticut on their site!  She asked if I had any dates planned for a sew-a-long that she might come out and video record what we are doing and interview me.  A couple of days later called the administrator at our church to find that she was in Mexico for a week or so!  The deadline was fast approaching and I was under the gun to get a date on the books at Sal's House-a cottage for fellowship on our church property.  I intended to throw a few people together and do a mini-sewing event.  On Wednesday of last week, I booked a Saturday 9am-12pm slot to use the cottage.  I frantically advertised it on Facebook, emailed and talked it up.

Saturday morning came and I had 5 women all show up to help throughout the morning.  It was perfect!  Not too many and they came staggered so that I actually got to talk with everybody!  We even had two new people come help that hadn't before!  Some ironed labels on, another sewing instructor that has been sewing for us did some sewing too. 

As it turned out when I was setting up, I realized just how many dresses I already had completed that just needed to be rolled, bagged and packaged for shipping.  I set a big table up and showed a friend how to do just that.  We worked on opposite sides of the table and talked while we worked.  I am usually running around like crazy instructing, helping and trouble shooting and don't really get to catch up with people as I would like to at sew-a-longs.  This was really nice for me.  And, I loved the smaller setting of Sal's House!  We rolled and bagged hundreds of dresses that have been sitting in a giant covered plastic container on my deck for months just waiting for funding to ship!  I will be so glad to mail those dresses out!  These will go to David Wagner in Florida to be taken to Africa and South America this year on his missions trips.

Dresses completed & labels just sewn on

Sewing on labels

Supplies boxes

Rolling/bagging dresses here

Rolled and Bagged & Counted!

Cutting, Serging & Sewing Station

Sponsor a Woman, Host an Event, email sign ups, Slideshow and Pillowcase party info!

In mid-January, I spoke to a group of Delta Kappa Gamma's and they were so moved by Dress a Girl and what we are doing in Connecticut that they opened their wallets on the spot and donated just over $100!  Now that I have that money in hand, I can afford to ship some of the dresses!  How wonderful!

The video recording went well, she interviewed me and a few others as well.  She took video for nearly 3 hours.  The article will run on Valentine's Day and I am anxious to see how it comes out.  I hope this drums up more interest and excitement for Dress a Girl and that more people will want to become involved.  I also hope that a Corporate Sponsor will come forward!  Surely there is a company out there that would like to help a not for profit help bless little girls by helping with shipping costs and supplies costs?

Either way, my hope is that more eyes be opened to see what we are doing to help bless girls!

Girls blessing girls!

Last year, New Hope Anglican Church in Watertown held a Sew-a-Long and I met a bright young lady by the name of Sara LePine there.  She contacted me near the end of last year wanting to organize a Sew-a-Long event with her Girl Scout Troop to help her achieve her Silver Award.

Well Sara and her troop put in about 70 hours and made Dress a Girl 50 pillowcase dresses!  They are beautiful!  I am so touched that a young lady would be so moved to want to do this project to help other girls!  Girls blessing girls with new dresses!  Awesome.

Sara was a bit camera shy tonight but did give me permission to use her name in my blog.  I think it is worth sharing however as today's youth are sometimes sold short.  It is inspiring to me to meet one who cares enough about others to DO SOMETHING!

So a heartfelt thanks from me to Sara and Troop 85501 in Connecticut!  I am sure all the girls who receive the dresses will feel blessed by them!

Why do we dress little girls?

Why do we dress little girls? Well, it is the right thing to do.  When I heard there was a need for this, I was drawn to it.  It brings smiles to their faces, raises their self esteem and let's them know they are worthy and loved.  They feel the love of those that touched their new dress but also that of a love by Jesus.

I was listening to my bible reading today and a verse kept coming to my mind.  Do all things to glorify God.  1 Corinthians 10:31 (ESV)31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

I will admit-not everything I do is glorifying God.  I fall very short everyday.  But I am working on this.  This morning I started thinking that I want to make sure that my work with Dress a Girl is done to Glorify God.  So I did a little research on the subject of how Jesus felt about caring for children.  Here is what I found:

Children are a blessing and a gift from the Lord (Ps 127: 3)i. We are responsible to care for them and to bring them up to be God-fearing and loving (Deut 6: 4-9)ii; (Prov 22:6)iii.
 

Jesus cared deeply for children (Luke 18 vs 16)iv. At the time of baptism we commit to bringing children up within the Christian faith. We need to ensure that they do not stumble (Luke 17: 1-3)v3. 

Our love for them is an expression of God's love through us (John 4:19-21)vi. We need to teach
parents responsibility and care for them as a precious gift (Jas 3:1)vii.
 

Our care should be not only for our own children but also the children in our community. Jesus spoke strongly about caring for others in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Children and others in need are those we are called to serve.

Well, in a nutshell, I think we are Glorifying God in our mission to Dress a Girl Around the World.  I will continue to work to do this everyday.  If you hear me doing otherwise, call me on it!  It will keep me on track!

Have a blessed day!