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| Dresses made in Connecticut bless girls in Romania! |
Dress a Girl Connecticut has been sewing and blessing girls for two
years now! How we have grown in just two years! It started a small
group of 25 women sewing at my church, Cornerstone Church in Cheshire.
We have grown to well over 200 across New England that have helped in
some way! Small groups of friends are coming together to sew in their
homes, churches and clubs and then sending finished dresses to me. I am
humbled and touched at how this affects those that hear what we are
doing to bless little girls worldwide. I love that it moves them to get
involved and make a difference in the life of a girl! Girls are shown
love when blessed by their very own handmade pillowcase dress. They
feel pretty and smile ear to ear when blessed. Their self esteem is
raised. That is a wonderful thing!
There is a lot happening now with Dress a Girl Around the World! We
are currently sewing dresses nationwide to go to Cambodia in the fall.
We have a request for 10,000 dresses and the deadline to ship them to
the port in South Carolina is the end of August. We have sent about 500
so far from Dress a Girl Connecticut! Keep sewing!
I would like to invite you all to our next sewing event. We can fit
about 60 so if you think you can make it, please RSVP to me as soon as
possible. Come for some of the time or join us for the whole time. If
you sew, bring your machine and thread and we will set you up to sew.
If not, bring an iron and ironing board, sharp scissors, pins,
PILLOWCASES, or a dish to share at lunchtime. We will be working and
having fun too! Bring a friend if you'd like!
JOIN US!
Saturday, August 25, 2012
9am-3pm
Cornerstone Church
1146 Waterbury Road
Cheshire, CT
***** RSVP to dressagirlct@gmail.com ASAP *****
In June, I attended our first Dress a Girl Around the World conference
in Arizona. I'd like to share with you how our mission is changing from
simply providing a pretty dress to a girl who may not have one to
blessing a girl with God's BEST. This means the dress must meet some criteria that we feel is very important. Here's a wrap-up:
- Always start with pretty, clean
pillowcases and materials. Think to yourself, would I wear this or put
it on my own daughter/granddaughter? The material/pillowcase must NOT
BE SEE THROUGH. The test is, if you can hold your hand under a single
layer of the material and you can see the outline of your hand, it is too see through.
Consider lining dresses with any thin materials/pillowcases you have or
use these materials to make bias tape. We want to respect the modesty
and dignity of the girl. This may also protect her from would be
predators.
- The dress MUST BE CONSTRUCTED IN A DURABLE manner
using proper materials. Please remember these dresses may often be
washed in rivers on rocks or on washboards with harsh homemade soaps.
There may be no delicate cycle in many cases! Back stitch when
beginning to sew and when ending your stitches. Hide raw edges to
prevent fraying and unraveling over time. This can be done by serging
edges, sewing french seams or encasing raw edges in a double fold.
When making a dress that is 36" or longer, please make a kick pleat at
the bottom (side or middle) so the girl can run and play without having
to hike her dress up.
- We have found that making the elastic pieces one
inch (1") wider for the back of the dress fits the girl better. We
generally use 3/8"-3/4" elastics. Be sure and tack them in place
(backstitching) to ensure they will not fall out before you apply bias
tape straps.
- Armholes should be cut between 3"-5" in from the
top edge and down from the top of the pillowcase or fabric. Do not make
them any longer or deeper a cut or the straps will not be long enough
and the girls chest may be exposed.
- Straps should be made of DOUBLE FOLD WIDE (1/2") BIAS TAPE or grosgrain ribbon. When using grosgrain ribbon, use FRAY CHECK
on ends to prevent raveling. Stitch the ribbon in place on the casing
so that ribbons aren't pulled out and not able to be re-inserted. Do
not use craft ribbon as this is not soft, can fray and is not washable.
Never use wired ribbon or rope of any kind. Make sure the
straps are long enough to go over the girls shoulder and tie in a bow!
Too often we receive dresses that are beautiful otherwise but cannot be
used because the straps are too short to tie a bow. A good rule of
thumb is to make your straps a FULL 36" each no matter the size dress! When sewing straps on, start at one end, folding in edges, backstitch, and sew to the opposite end, folding in edges, backstitch.
- Extra touches make the dress even more special.
Add good sized pockets-minimum 5" wide- (girls love to carry little
things around in pockets!), trim such as ric rac, and sewn on bows.
Ruffles are pretty too. Buttons can be used decoratively as long as they are sewn on sturdily. Please, NO hot glued items adhered to the dress. They can fall off over time.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone for your prayers,
donating supplies, money for buying supplies and shipping costs, time
for helping out, prepping materials, sewing, rolling and bagging,
packing and shipping dresses. It is all of you who make Dress a Girl a
success. To date, Dress a Girl Around the World has blessed over
101,000 girls with our pillowcase dresses in 59 different countries. We
have people sewing in all states of the US, in the UK, Hong Kong, the
Philippines, Australia, Canada and Uganda. There are many more girls
out there waiting for a dress of their very own, so please keep sewing!
I feel like the more I share what we are doing, the more girls will
be blessed. I would love to come and share what Dress a Girl is doing
with your church, group, or organization. Please contact me to schedule
a convenient time. Also, we are in need of financial contributions to
help with supplies and shipping to our contacts. If you feel you can
help out in any way, please make checks payable to Cornerstone
Church-Dress a Girl Ministry and mail to Cornerstone Church, 1146
Waterbury Road, Cheshire, CT 06410 (this is a tax deductible donation)
or bring to our next sewing event! I hope to see you there and meet
more of you all in person! If you have not gotten involved and would
like to, call or email me with any questions you have!
Please continue to keep Dress a Girl Connecticut in your prayers.
