Dressing Girls Around the World

I'm going to do a little bragging here.  I have a great mother-in-law.  I call her mom, and since my mama's death fifteen years ago, she has in many ways helped fill that void for me.  She's kind and gentle  and loves in a maternal way.  Around here, most people (and not just family) call her mom or grandma, and she wears those titles proudly.  She loves children, so it's really no surprise that she has spent the last year making 150 dresses for little girls all over the world.  But what an accomplishment!

The idea to make dresses came to her as she visited with a friend who had served a mission with Hope International Ministries. This friend told her about the children, living in poverty, who would line up to receive supplies and gifts.  The wheels started turning in her mind and she began searching for ideas on the internet.  When she came across "dressagirlaroundtheworld.com" she knew she had found what she had been looking for.  This site had patterns and directions for making the dresses and she took from them ideas and made her own designs.  Not overly impressed with the pillowcase dresses shown on the site, she wanted to make something that would be beautiful as well as functional.  She said, " I wanted to give to other little girls something that I would be happy for my own grandchildren to wear and I would think about that as I made each dress."

Once she got started, she just kept on sewing.  In August of last year, she set a goal to make 100 dresses by her next birthday.  As it turned out, she exceeded her goal.  On August 14th, of this year, she celebrated her 73rd  birthday and all of these little dresses are  now stacked  in her guest room, waiting to be delivered.

I think her design is so clever.  She starts with a girl's shirt, from 3 months to 12 years in size.  Then she finds matching fabric to add the skirt, making it into a dress.  She pays less than $2 for each shirt, often receiving donations, when people find out about her ministry.  She brings the shirts home and washes each one before making them into dresses.

I asked her where she found all the fabric for the skirts and she smiled when she told me, "everywhere".   She's used pillowcases and other bed linens, as well as curtains.  Some adult and teenage clothes have enough material, that they can be taken apart and used. This is recycling at its finest!

All three of these little dresses had the rose print skirts that came from "Barbie" curtains that she found discarded and unopened. She says, "Once you start making these dresses, you always have your eyes open for fabric that could be used to make the skirts."

This picture shows how she sewed the skirt onto the shirt.  What an easy sewing project, one that even I can do.  Just a few straight seams and it's finished.  Sometimes she adds embellishments, like this little pocket, onto the dress.  In fact, she says it often takes longer to come up with the design, than to actually sew the dress.  But matching shirts and fabric, adding a little pocket or buttons, that's the fun part!  It's surprising what you can do with a simple, plain t-shirt.  She has even taken baby Onesies and cut the bottoms off to make dresses for the smallest girls.  She admits the littlest dresses are her favorites.

When each dress is completed, she holds it up and gives it a hug.  "I want my love to go with that dress to the little girl who will wear it.  I want her to know that someone in the world loves her", she says.

There are so many things about this ministry that impress me.  But  one thing I keep thinking about, is how motivated she was to begin and complete this on her own.  After some serious health challenges in the past few years, she is feeling much better and wakes up every day thanking Heavenly Father for the gift of a new day.  She says, "I have been so blessed and I want to spend my time giving back."

I find it's easy to get caught up in a service project with a group of people, but to see a need and then act upon it, by yourself, is something all together different.  How  many times have you thought, "well there must be something I can do that will make a difference," and then quickly dismissed the idea, because it seemed too hard, too inconvenient, too big to do by yourself?   I know I have done this more than once.  Mom has reminded me that one person can do so much good, one little dress at a time.  Personal ministries, we all can have one (or more), and wouldn't the world be a better place if we did?  Maybe we won't be sewing dresses for little girls, like mom has done, but surely there is something we feel led to do that would make a difference.  I'm already beginning to think of some things that might work for me.  One thing I'm definitely going to be doing is shopping for shirts and fabric, at yard sales and thrift shops, because Mom has plans to make more dresses by her next birthday.  It wouldn't be fair for me to reveal her goal, but I will say it's lofty!  Thank you mom, for inspiring me, to seek out new ways to serve.  I once heard someone say, "a need seen, is an assignment given."  As disciples of Christ, our eyes should be open to the needs around us, and with prayerful questioning, I believe the assignments, as well as the means to accomplish them will be made evident in our lives.