A Happy Birthday Dress ~ For Dress A Girl Around the World

Oh what fun Birthday celebrations are!  Dress A Girl Around the World turned FIVE this year and part of the celebration is making birthday dresses!  I stumbled upon Dress A Girl a couple of years ago while searching for pillow case dress instructions for my shoeboxes.  I jumped in with both feet and got heavily involved just like I have with Operation Christmas Child.

I have donated well over 100 dresses and have gotten to see several on little girls around the world.  This last year I have cut out sewing for Dress A Girl directly and have sewn exclusively for my shoeboxes--still dressing girls around the world, just thru a different delivery system.  When I saw the birthday celebration I knew I had
to participate--I just couldn't resist being part of the party.  And when Robin donated fabric for my dresses from her Etsy shop, Red Thread Stitches, I knew just which one I would use.

A few of these sweet girls are wearing dresses I made.

This delightful pink with white dots and Little Red Riding Hood border print is perfect.  Rachel, the
founder of Dress A Girl, loves pink.  So I chose this in her honor.

There was a little "story" along the bottom of the border but I took that part out...except for the wording, "One Lovely Day.." in the design itself.  I think that perfectly describes the day Dress A Girl Around the World began.

I wanted to incorporate FIVE into my design somehow to signify the five years of DAG.  At first I thought I'd use five different fabrics, but I just thought this fabric was so perfect that I changed my mind.  So I have included FIVE elements on the dress.

1. Fabric
2. Lace  -- I added lace along the bottom just like on Little Red Riding Hood's pink dress in the border
3. Ribbon  -- I loved that this aqua with white dots matched so perfectly and I just the right amount to finish the dress
4. Buttons
5. Bias Tape

Not too inspiring, but it gets the job done.

I cut some of the white border off the bottom and used it at the top make a little ruffle.  I like to bring the color from the bottom of the dress to the top.

I was tickled when I looked in my ribbon stash and found this blue that matches the leaves, boots and roof of the house perfectly.  And a bonus was the fact that it has white dots just like the pink fabric does.  I don't usually ad lace to the very bottom edge because of sturdiness, but it worked perfectly on this border print and the dress on Little Red Riding hood has a lace edging so I couldn't resist.

I loved using part of the border print for the pocket on this dress.  I make my pockets double layered and like to use bias around the edges making it extra strong.

I added my signature "button & bow" to the pocket.  I turned the dots to the inside so the flower button would show up well.

"One Lovely Day little girls around the world were thought of and plans were made to give them all a new dress."  Here is one more to add to the more than 300,000 they have already delivered in more than 80 countries.

For a little glimpse of what has inspired me to sew dresses for little girls read this snippet from their website:

What If You Made That Dress? 

Go around the world with us and see girls who live in a society where they have no value—where they are used as slaves, abused and preyed upon.

Imagine kneeling before a little girl...You are holding a beautiful new dress—made by you.  You tell her “I made this dress just for you because you are precious to me and to God.”  

Imagine as you drop the dress over her head that the shame she feels is dropping away. She lifts her chin toward the heavens—allowing her to stand tall.

And here she is, a little girl in the Philippines, wearing her new dress.

Image courtesy of Suzanne (upper left) of Sew Delightful.
Suzanne hand delivered the dress for me.

You can see other dresses I've sent thru OCC in this series of posts:  Dresses Made by Cheryl for Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes.