Dress a girl around the world (and boy)

I recently stumbled across a great charity called "Dress a girl around the world"  through Louise Horder (@SewScrumptious), who is their UK ambassador. This charity encourages people to make dresses (and shorts) for underprivileged children around the world out of pillowcases, or leftover fabric. The patterns are easy to follow and the resulting clothes are really lovely.

As someone who has recently started working with an orphanage in Uganda (more on this later) I can really see the use in this charity. So many poor children in the world wear worn second hand clothes. having a nice piece of clothing that is theirs and was made just for them can make a big difference to their self-esteem. It may seem like a small thing when these children often don't have enough to eat. But  I think knowing that a stranger cares enough about them to hand-sew them something has the potential to improve their lives, if only minutely and for a short time. The photos of children receiving their clothes speaks volumes I think.

Malawi 2011

Uganda 2012

You can believe if I had a sewing machine I would be making up a batch of these straight away. However, as I don't I will instead be collecting a bundle of clothes from Louise in August and bring them back to Uganda with me instead. 

If you have some spare fabric and time please think about making some clothes for children around the world. You can read more on this, including where to get patterns and how to donate here on Louise's blog. There is also a useful magazine article pattern here.

Let's all dress some children!