Dresses looking for a ride! :)

Are you traveling to a country with basic clothing needs for it's girls?  We are an organization of caring people who want to bless little girls with a new pretty pillowcase dress to raise her self esteem, maker her feel pretty and put a smile on her face...as well as meet basic clothing needs.

A girl in Zimbabwe waiting for her first pretty dress.

My name is Janine and I am the Connecticut State Representative for Dress a Girl Around the World.  We transform ordinary pillowcases into extraordinary, beautiful pillowcase dresses.  Each dress is handmade by a caring individual who selflessly constructs the dress, primarily out of donated materials, into something any girl would be proud to wear.  The dresses aim to meet basic needs but more than that, to make the girl who is blessed with it feel pretty.  The dresses are put on a girl right over any existing clothes she may have and a moment is spent on her level to fasten the ties over her shoulders.  She is told that the dress is a gift from someone who made it by hand simply out of love for her.  She is told that there is a God that loves her and that she is important.  For some girls, this is more individual attention than she may have had in a long time.  In many countries, girls have no value, no worth in the eyes of the people.  However, every person, every girls is special and important to God and we are trying to spread God's love by sharing these dresses with girls everywhere.

You can see she feels pretty and loved!

To date, Dress a Girl has blessed 126,000 girls in 64 countries with dresses of their own.  I am actively looking for people in and around Connecticut who are traveling where there is a need for these dresses.  I can offer you dresses and all that I ask is that you bless the girls as described above and take photos of the girls receiving the dresses so that we may share those pictures with everyone that sews for us.  The photos and stories are what drive all of us to continue to sew.  I can hardly put into words how awesome it is to see a dress I made on a girl who is smiling and feeling good about herself!  This goes for every person who sews for Dress a Girl. 

Dress a Girl Connecticut has made over 4500 dresses since I started in 2010 and we have many women getting involved each day.  It takes many volunteers, generous donations-both of materials and financial donations to keep us going.  Every penny we receive in will be put back into dress materials, label costs and shipping when necessary.

If you, your organization or your church are traveling soon, please contact me to arrange to get dresses to bless girls.  I currently have about 500 dresses looking for a ride to a needy girl.

Sharing Dress A Girl with your church

Since becoming involved last fall with Dress a Girl, I have been touched and overwhelmed by the response of those I share what Dress a Girl is all about.  It is much like my own response still today.  I love being able to help in blessing little girls and in the process raise their self esteem and feelings of being loved and valued.  It breaks my heart that girls around the world haven't even the proper clothing to wear.  That they may never have felt pretty or owned a pretty dress.  Maybe never felt anyone cared enough to give them a handmade treasure.  When these beautiful pillowcase dresses are put on the little girls, the pictures show their faces absolutely lighting up.  It brings tears to my eyes to see the beaming little girls!  Shouldn't every little girl have that feeling?

I would love to come to your church and share how I became involved with Dress a Girl.  I can help you host a pillowcase drive of your own.  We are always in need of new or gently used pillowcases!  I would love to organize a sewing event for your interested people.  Many who I have shared Dress a Girl with have hosted an event and then some go on to continue sewing on their own for us!  What a blessing!

I have found that those people who help out in constructing dresses also feel blessed to take part in this great cause!

Please contact me if you think you'd like me to come to your church or organization and share Dress a Girl Around the World.  I would only take up about 10-20 minutes of time depending on your schedule.

Thanks for listening!

God Bless,

Janine Mahan
dressagirlct@gmail.com

Ahhhh, Sunday.

I enjoy Sundays.  Aside from the chaos of getting three kids out of the house on time for church-which is always a challenge-I love looking forward to the message.  Our Pastor delivers great messages in a real world way,  arms us with tools we can use in our lives and he is funny.  I really look forward to church!  We have a great group of people there too.  It's all good.

Today, Kevin's sister Kitty is coming to church with us.  She lives about an hour away and we used to drive to their church before we discovered Cornerstone.  That ups the fun factor too as we get to see someone we love & don't see often enough!

When we get home we have the whole day to do whatever we choose. Today I think I will be sewing again.  With two days off I feel behind now!  So much to do, so little time! 

I am really pleased at all the people who have just discovered Dress a Girl-whether through this blog or otherwise.  I love to share what we do and why we do it.  It makes me feel good and I love knowing what it can mean to a little girl somewhere who has never had a dress of her own.  I love the idea that I can help raise the self esteem of a girl even just a little bit when she feels pretty in a dress.

Last night our elementary school held a dinner and auction fundraiser.  I donated some jewelry which is always popular and also donated a pillowcase dress.  I put my business cards out and inevitably a conversation is started about Dress a Girl!  Some don't know that it is me doing this, others don't know what it is at all.  Then I get to share what we do.  Some are interested in general, some want to know if they can buy a dress, others want to help or know someone that would love to hear about DAG.  Awesome!  It was a fun night.  My husband and I were out without our kids, enjoying the company of other adults we like, good music, good food and it was for a good cause!  Now it's Sunday and we can take a deep breath and relax and enjoy the day and the message we hear.