A couple of weeks ago, one of my favourite YouTubers, Janine from Canada, posted a plea for people to join her in sewing dresses for little girls in countries which aren’t as blessed as we are. This struck a chord with me and as I’d recently bought some fabric from Abakhan which I’d had second thoughts about, and perfectly fits the requirements, I decided to contribute.
The initiative is called Project Dress a Girl, and the UK website is here. There are free patterns available for people to use, and I chose the Oliver and S Popover Sundress, making 2 dresses for ages 2 & 8. The suggested pattern layout is quite fabric-hungry, as it suggests cutting both front and back on the fold. My fabric was too narrow to do this by folding both selvedges into the middle so, instead, I added a seam to the back pattern piece.
I managed to mess up when cutting out so that the front pattern piece on one of the dresses ended up too wide. I sorted that by adding a small amount of gathering to the front, but it worked out ok in the end. I will be honest, I did find making the bias binding to be tedious to make but the finished results were worth it.
Not wanting the boys to be left out, I knew I had some cotton fabric in my stash that would make a fairly smart – but still practical – pair of shorts for a young boy. For these, I used the free pattern at Craft Passion; it’s described as “Basic Kid Shorts with Pockets” and it’s a really well-drafted pattern – everything just fits perfectly together – which makes it a very enjoyable sew, and very quick too. I chose to make the “pre-teen” size.
So if you find yourself with a little bit of time on your hands, and some fabric that meets the needs of the recipients, then why not join in?
Fabric Engineering 