Sew Sew

   Waaay back in January (where did the time go????), I got an email from my Aunt. She asked me if I had any extra fabric for a project she was doing. The project was to make dresses and shorts for children in a Kenyan school. She, her brother, his wife, and several other people were going to Kenya in July and they wanted to take clothing for the kids. It is a mandate from the Kenyan government that if children go to school in Kenya, they must have a uniform. Consequently, as these families are very needy, it takes a lot of resources to supply those uniforms leaving little or nothing for other much needed clothing.
   I'm thinking, duh. I can sew. Why can't I help make the dresses, not just give fabric? My original goal was 75, but DH's stroke put the kibosh on that lofty goal, but I was able to sew 51 dresses.
   Reality set in soon as I went to buy a couple yards of fabric, it set me back $25. Not a huge outlay, BUT I thought, if I am going to make a mass amount of dresses, I have to make it economically feasible. First thing I thought of: Goodwill As-Is. If you have never been there to one of those As-Is stores, you are in for a treat! It's a crazy, noisy warehouse where-old-Goodwill-stuff-gets-a-last-chance. You buy things by the pound! Woohoo! At first I was shocked how much brand new fabric I found. I loaded it into the cart...then I got another inspiration: Why can't I cut down big lady clothes into smaller clothes? So the horizons got expanded. I found a brand new duvet cover, plaid on one side, flowers on the other. And a great deal of fabric...enough to make 6 or 7 dresses! New sheets, new pillowcases, all for dresses; I was like a kid in a candy store. When all was said and done, I spent $25, enough to make about 35 dresses. THEN another miracle, a good friend has a consignment shop that supports the homeless. Her shop is amazing and everything is donated.
   Well, sometimes she gets clothing that is a little outdated, so she collected these dresses/skirts for me....great fabrics, weird styles.  PLUS, she donated many many skirts that went to the elder women in the village too,
http://www.gunghoministries.org/
 Since I used to design re-purposed clothing for children's wear, this was a no-brainer. So, after all was said and done, a total of more than 300 dresses were sent, and I believe over 200 pairs of shorts.
   So thought I would share some pictures with you. It made me cry. If you are interested in helping this ministry, here is their website   http://kizimani.org/kz/About_us.html

 Without further ado, here are the sweet children wearing new dresses (look for the plaid dress with a flowered heart decal...the famous duvet cover lol!   PS, this was one of the most fun things I've ever been a part of. Thank you Auntie D for sharing this project and TH for the dresses and sis-in-law for more fabric!