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!

I Spy: Ben Venom and heavy metal quilts

Ben Venom. Image from http://benvenom.blogspot.co.uk/

I was reading this list of male crafters when I spied Ben Venom. He makes the most amazing quilts made out of old heavy metal t-shirts. Apparently he tours around the U.S. with them. I love his designs and the up-cycling involved. Amazing!

A misadventure with Dylon dyes

A week or two ago I decided to dye our sofa throw a new colour. We'd just had our washing machine replaced because as well as eventually refusing to even turn on it had for several weeks been coating our washing in some kind of brown sludge. So the sofa throw, which was white, wasn't looking so hot any more.

Note: The throw in this photo is concealing all kinds of junk I couldn't be bothered to move off the sofa for this photo.

What better way to celebrate a new washing machine than throwing in a whole heap of machine dye? I decided on Dylon machine dye because it seemed easier and the least likely to stain my body in the process. 

I chose the Tulip Red  dye because we have various red things like a rug and a bin so I thought it would match nicely. Once dyed I was then planning on embroidering the throw in some beauteous manner. 

In went the dye, the salt and the throw.

I was mildly concerned that my washing machine suddenly looked like it belonged in a Japanese horror film. I hoped really hard that this wasn't a permanent condition. To be sure I ran the throw through several wash cycles.

Then I took it out and this....THIS.... was the result.....

Is that red? Is it?? Noooooo. Very likely I should have used more than one packet of dye. This photo doesn't quite do justice to what a BRIGHT shade of pink the sofa throw now is.

Oh the horror!!

T-shirts recycled into a quilt

A couple of years ago I returned to my home country after a few years spent living abroad. My parents had patiently stored my clothes, books and other miscellaneous possessions all the time I gallivanted around with nothing but a rucksack. Upon my return I was told in no uncertain terms that now was the time to 'sort it out'. I discovered that majority of the clothes I had stored away either did not fit me or were too scratty to wear any more. 

Oh this was sad.

Many of them were clothes I'd had since college and had sentimental value. Because of this and because they were too worn to give to a charity shop I decided to cut them up and make a quilt. A good thing about old, worn clothes is that they are lovely and soft. I homed in on the softer of the clothes, t-shirts, pants (waste nothing!), and some cord trousers.

The process of making a square.

I cut some 20cm/20cm squares out of an old sheet. T-shirts are made of stretchy material and to stop them warping when sewn together I thought it best to sew them onto a non-stretchy fabric, such as this cotton sheet.

I randomly sliced up the clothes. I cut strips out of some, I carefully cut around any pictures or slogans on others. I arranged the scraps onto the sheet squares and pinned them down. Then I zig-zagged the scraps down using a sewing machine.

Altogether I made 24 squares. I cut long strips out off another sheet and sewed it to the squares as a border, gradually joining all the squares together.

The squares were so soft I decided to use a piece of fleece for the backing of the quilt, no filling. I pinned the front of the quilt (with the squares) to the fleece and then hand-quilted it with a simple running stitch before sewing up the edges using a sewing machine again.

A collage of the finished quilt with some close-ups of panels.