Dresses for Malawi

I was so blessed recently to be able to sew for a good cause.  It feels great to be able to use your talents to help others and I had some good times with friends and family to boot!  Let me go back to the beginning... The in-law's of my good friend, Anita, are missionaries in Malawi, and they do a lot of work with the orphans and widows there.  She organized a much larger sewing day to make dresses for Malawi, and when she came for a visit, she dropped off a bag of fabric, trims, and a few pre-cut dresses so that we could help, too. (Thank you!)  We ended up with these:



30 dresses!

I split the sewing into two separate mornings to accommodate more people.  We didn't have a huge turnout, but the ones who came were dedicated! I had the dresses all cut out and ready to go- I set up a super easy cutting system and tried to optimally use the fabric.

I set up tables in my sunroom, which is a beautiful place to work, as long as the weather is nice. My mom came to sew in between the days and we had sweat dripping down our backs until my sweet husband put a fan in the window for us.

This was a dedicated bunch!!!  They didn't let anything stop them from helping out!  Got kids?  Bring them along!  We often had as many or more children as adults there.  The littler ones played on the floor and the older ones played outside where we could keep an eye on them through the windows.  Sure, we could have sewed faster without stopping to referee or clean nail polish off of my furniture, but we still sewed!

 One of my friends even showed on ON HER DUE DATE!  Not a single complaint from her, either, working away in my sweatshop sunroom with a 10 pound boy in there less than 48 hours from delivery! That is dedication!!!

We had a wide range of sewing experience- my mother-in-law we called the "sleeve queen" because she did such a great job sewing the elastic casings and the hardest parts.  Another friend does not even know how to sew, but she was willing to learn and we had her hemming away!

 Two sweet women even came back to sew more on Saturday, even though both had big plans for later and it would  have been much easier for them to just stay home and get ready.

I really appreciated everyone that helped to sew the dresses.  Even though it would have been easy to make excuses and not come to sew, they came anyway!  And you know what?  They LOVED helping out! 

So, I want to challenge everyone who reads this to do SOMETHING to help others in the next week- NO EXCUSES!  It doesn't matter how big or how small, just give it a try! 

Take a shopping cart back for a young mom trying to wrangle kids into carseats. 
Make a meal for someone.
Donate a package of diapers to your local Pregnancy Care Center.
Call a friend who needs some encouragement.
You get the idea...

And you know what?  I bet you will feel good about it, too!

I am linking up with StudioJRU!