sewhungryhippie: Pillowcase Dress Charity drive & tutorial links

There is this wonderful charity drive going on in the world to dress children suffering hardship. It's called Dress a Girl Around the World. In the UK and Ireland alone over 10,000 dresses have been made and delivered to children across the globe. You can read all the details here. Dresses and shorts (for the boys) have been delivered to Ghana, South Africa, Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, and many more places.

Pictures are often taken and sent back to the charity organizers and you can see them here.

If you would like to join me in making a dress (or ten), please do so! I am happy to collect dresses and post them off, or you can post them to me and I'll get them to the appropriate people. I have a neighbor traveling on a Missionary trip to Thailand and she will be taking whatever I have. She leaves early July. But wait-even if you don't get them done by then, anytime is a great time! I will mail them myself to charity organizers, just please include a self addressed stamped envelope so I may write you a letter of gratitude.

Remember that there are so many acts of kindness in the world every minute, and they are much more powerful than any act of unkindness.

Believe.

My mailing address for USA is:

Natalie Santini

PSC 41 Box 3065

APO AE 09464

I have a mailing address for the UK as well, but could you email me for it, as it's my home. ;)

I included some helpful hints and tips pictures below in case you get stuck on any portion of sewing a pillow case dress. They really are quick once you get the hang of it.

Full step by step tutorials are all over the internet, but the one I use is here.

Pinterest has loads of variations as well.

Remember, it doesn't have to be fancy. You don't HAVE to serge it. You can use up that fabric that's been sitting in your stash for ages and feel good in doing so!

As a helpful reminder, these dresses are put to the test with washing and wearing, as they are often the only clothing the child has. So please lock your stitches and use big seam allowances (5/8").

Cotton is best. No sheer fabrics please.

Thank you so much, and pass it on if you can.

My serger is being a beotch, so I pinked my seams:

I also did a double row of stitching and made my seams larger after this photo. LOL

This is how I cut the elastic for the top casing--I don't measure, just eyeball it. Pull it through with a safety pin.

The binding is an all-in-one seam encaser and tie shoulder strings, really ingenious actually.

I used fabrics from my stash AND fabric I was given by a lovely friend--from her mother's stash. I want to give Fiona a shout out, because it was so generous of her to think of me in probably a painful moment of clearing out her parents home. I figured she would want me to use the fabric for this cause, as she devotes a lot of time to charity events and the church.

Fiona's Mum's fabric is the 2nd from left (tiny pink roses) and the diamond shape on the far right. I've cut three more dresses from her Mum's stash to be sewn up as well.