Dress a Girl Around the World

It's funny. When I started my little blog I expected it to be full of crochet. But there's been hardly any. A couple of bits and pieces and some links to Ravelry projects on the side bar but that's it so far.
I keep thinking I'll write up the blankets I've made properly, and do a WIP thing on the ripple blanket I'm still making (over a year now...). But I never quite get there...
I keep being pulled back towards sewing at the moment. This may be due to having put so much time and effort into the book cover and needle-case I made for Mara. As my friend Andrew's trip approached it dawned on me that I could perhaps have made her a sun dress but by then it was too late and there simply wasn't time. I mentioned this to him and he said that a lady from America who formed part of the group he was going with, was taking 200 dresses!!! She hadn't made them all herself, she was part of a group who had worked on them. I made a mental note to ask him about it again when he got back.
Well, she was quite busy on facebook with photos of the girls the dresses were  given to - here's just one - and I followed her links to the website Dress a Girl Around the World. This is the official Facebook page. Then I started looking on Pinterest and I quickly created a board and started pinning.
(HERE is the link to my Pinterest board.)
There are several links on my board to blogs where you'll find further tutorials and ideas. I saw the picture below and just look at the girl in the middle - she looks so sassy!!

Such a simple design and so easy to make -and it can clearly make such a difference in a child's life as well. As the website says, many of the girls will never have had anything brand new as clothes are handed down from generation to generation until they are often just rags.

I have so much fabric that I've bought over the years, for clothes I never made and a sizeable stash of quilters fat quarters, that I thought maybe I could make a dress or 2. 

I've had a good look through the website and the instructions to make the dress. They suggest that the smaller sizes can be made from a pillow case - american pillow cases are a little different from ours I think - and the larger ones from just a length of fabric stitched up the side. A little shaping around the armhole, some binding and elastic and hey presto, a dress. There's no printable pattern as strictly speaking you don't need one for such a simple shape. But if you really can't cope without a pattern then try this LINK.

The same dress but cut as an A-line style, rather than straight.  There are some links on the main website for the "area organisers", including those outside the US and there are a couple of ladies in the UK, so maybe I'll get in touch and have a chat and find out what size they need most etc.  In the meantime, I might make a small size to begin with, using some fat quarters. Naturally, I'll take pics along the way to show you.



The question is, will I be able to resist going out and buying more fabric - I really do have enough to be going on with! But I'll need to get some elastic and bias binding at least. Watch this space...

Thanks for reading and talk again soon.