Little Dresses for Africa is a charity that collects dresses and shorts for children in Africa who may lack clothing. Sewing dresses for charity is enjoyable because you can use attractive fabrics, and dresses are always fun to sew.
Many people have extra fabric and would be interested in knowing more about charitable initiatives. In 2008, Little Dresses for Africa was founded by Rachel O’Neill.
Her non-profit organization provides dresses and britches to children at orphanages, schools, and churches. Donors from around the world send stitched items, monetary donations, or travel to Africa.
Little Dresses for Africa (Template Test)
This is a worldwide organization, so there are representatives in many different countries ready to accept your dresses!
The Impact of Little Dresses for Africa
Rachel had hoped the dresses would boost girls’ self-esteem. She soon learned they were helping in ways she could never have imagined. For example, they offer protection from human traffickers and sexual assault. “Attackers assume girls in nice clothing are being watched over,” she says. “And so many children still go without clothes. We’re answering a critical need.
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The nonprofit runs a distribution center in Malawi and works directly with community leaders there to distribute donated dresses and pants and washable menstrual pads, which have proven key to keeping adolescent girls in school. In other countries, Little Dresses networks with established charities, such as Samaritan’s Purse.
Rachel works with 30 to 40 volunteers in Rockwood to sort and box clothing for shipments, sending thousands every week. “Nearly half of Malawi’s population is under age 14,” Rachel says. “We are nowhere close to meeting need.”
Generous donations have allowed Little Dresses to address other needs, including building more than 85 wells and two primary schools. “I couldn’t have done any of this on my own,” Rachel says.
How to Get Involved
Rachel emphasizes that opportunities exist for people who sew and those who don’t. “We only ask people to use high-quality, colorful material,” she said. She also asks for money to cover shipping costs, estimated at $2 a dress.
For dress patterns and shipping information, go to littledressesforafrica.org/printables.
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Following the simple steps, any size new or gently used pillow case can be quickly turned into a prized possession for a grateful little girl in Africa. Pillow case patterns are only a suggestion, so feel free to use your own material if you’d rather!
Any simple pattern is fine to use. Feel free to add pockets, or lace. Buttons as decorations are great, but please avoid zippers as they are difficult to repair in the villages.
These dresses will be the only item of clothing for many of the children. Please make sure they are machine sewn. They do not have to be fancy but they MUST be sturdy. Finish all edges and do not use ribbon for ties, as they are not strong enough to hold up in 3rd world climates. Elastic is a much better choice.
Thousands of little dresses are received from all over the world sewn by amazing volunteers, which is great! We aren’t going to run out of children in need. To help us get them to the children quickly, please group your beautiful dresses by small, medium and large size.
They do not need to be individually sized but just in groups for easy re-packing. They are measured from the shoulder. You get them to us and we get them to the kids. It costs about $2/a dress to get them to the children. We are grateful for any amount you can include for shipping the dresses to Africa.
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Other Items Needed
Any size boys shorts are welcome. Any simple boys shorts pattern is great. Elastic or drawstring both work well. Sizes up to size 12 are needed.
Boys shorts are needed desperately. All sizes, any style and even gently used shorts are welcome. Drawstring style or sports style is always great!
Can you imagine having to drop out of school because you cannot manage your menstrual cycle? This is a very real but often unacknowledged problem in 3rd world countries. According to UNICEF, one in ten schoolgirls in Africa miss classes or drop out completely due to their period.
We deliver these personal items to the women and young girls and they are received with joy! This is a simple and very necessary project. We’d love to have your help!
Little Dresses for Africa has seen the need among the young girls and women and encouraged our sewers to take part in sewing and sending what we call “sani-pani” as part of our Dignity Program.
Improvements in sanitation can go a long way to combating the problem. The distribution of these washable pads along with adult sized panties lead to very helpful discussions surrounding their use and general health. The resulting good hygiene enables the girls to manage their periods more easily.
Store bought new panties are always needed in all sizes for teen girls.
A Simple Dress Pattern
This post has a simple dress made from t-shirts and cotton. Sewing dresses for charity is so simple, especially with this easy tutorial!
Materials Needed:
- T-shirts
- Cotton fabric
Steps:
- Cut your fabric using the waist x 2 measurement and length. This will be your skirt width.
- Sew skirt pieces together along the side seams with right sides together.
- Hem the bottom edge by folding under 1/4″ twice.
Additional Patterns and Kits
Ms. Lillian makes raglan sleeve dresses using a pattern given to her by Geraldine Lowery. We have adapted those directions and included them in a FREE pattern project sheet. You can download the pdf file HERE.
Nancy’s Notions is also carrying a fabric kit to create three little dresses. These dresses are fast and easy to make.
Supplies:
- 1-1/4 yd. 40″ wide cotton fabric OR 5/8 yd. for dress body and 5/8 yd. for sleeves and ruffle
- 17″ of 1/4″ wide elastic
- Coordinating all-purpose thread
- 1 pkg. 1/2″ ready-made single fold bias tape OR make your own bias tape
- Optional: Bias Tape Maker
- Optional: 5-in-1 Sliding Gauge
- Optional: Flex ‘n Glide Bodkin and Elastic Lock Set
- Optional: Fuse ‘n Gather Tape
- Optional: Little Dresses Fabric Kit from Nancy’s Notions
Cut Out Dress:
- 40″ fabric folded twice.
- Fold selvages of fabric to the center of the fabric on each side.
- Fold the fabric in half lengthwise meeting folded edges.
- Place pattern pieces on the double-folded edge.
Note from Nancy: The illustration above will create a dress in one single fabric. Consider cutting two dresses at a time, of coordinating fabrics, to mix and match sleeve and ruffle pattern pieces with their coordinating dress body pattern pieces.
- Cut two of each pattern piece by placing patterns on the double-folded edge of fabric.
- Place ruffle pattern on the double-folded edge of fabric TWICE, cutting a total of four (4) ruffle sections.
- Use 1 pkg. of ready-made bias tape OR cut one bias fabric strip 1-7/8″ x 40″ for bias tape.
- Press all fabric pieces.
Construction:
- Press a 3/4″ hem in each sleeve. Use the 5-in-1 Sliding Gauge for accuracy.
- Open hem and press edge to the hemline, about 3/8″ to create a double-folded hem.
- Match right sides together, pin the sleeves to the dress body front and back.
- Stitch the sleeves to the dress body using a 1/4″ seam allowance. Stop sewing 1/4″ from the armhole edges. Leave this unstitched.
- Press seam allowance open.
Create Bias Tape:
- Use the 1-7/8″ x 40″ bias cut strip of fabric and Clover Bias Tape Maker to create custom tape.
- Following the directions on the bias tape maker, feed the bias cut strip into the tape maker.
- Press the strip as it comes out the narrow end; edges folded toward the center.
Finish the Neckline and Sleeves:
- Unfold one edge of the bias tape and pin to the dress neckline opening starting at center back. The bias tape forms casing for elastic.
- Carefully pin around the curved edges. Use the fold as a guide; stitch the bias tape to the neckline with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Leave the first and last 2″ unstitched.
- Fold the unstitched portions of tape onto themselves, making their folds meet. Press.
- Open the unstitched tape, match right sides together and pin.
- Join the tape ends by stitching directly on the pressed mark.
- Use a rotary cutter to remove the excess seam allowance; 1/4″ past the stitching line.
- Press the new seam allowance open.
- Join the unstitched portion of tape to the dress body.
- Press seam allowances towards tape, pressing tape up.
- Press the bias tape to the wrong side of the neckline.
Note from Nancy: Notice, on the left-hand side of the bias tape (pictured below), you can see a small amount of the dress body fabric. This is called favoring the seam and creates a more professional finish to the neckline edge. The bias tape will be completely concealed.
- Unfold the bias tape edge.
- Clip into the seam allowances at the curves to allow the tape to lay flat once finished.
- Working from the wrong side, edgestitch the bias tape. Leave a 2″ opening at the center back edge.
- Unfold the pressed sleeve hem.
- Stitch front to back, right sides together, using a 1/4″ seam allowance.
- Press seam allowance open.
- Refold and topstitch the sleeve hems.
- Using the bodkin elastic tool, glide the 1/4″ elastic through the bias tape casing at the center back opening.
- Use a piece of scrap fabric to join the elastic cut ends. This reduces bulk.
- Zigzag stitch over each elastic cut end, where they meet.
- Trim excess fabric.
- Gently stretch the neckline to ease the narrow elastic into the opening.
- Evenly space the neckline gathers; edgestitch the opening closed.
Ruffled Edge:
- Sew ruffle ends together to create a circle.
- Press seam allowances open.
- Hem the lower edge by turning up a double-folded 1/4″ hem; press.
- Edgestitch hem, working from the wrong side.
- Use an iron to apply the Fuse ‘n Gather Tape to the wrong side of the unhemmed edge.
Note from Nancy: I like to use Fuse ‘n Gather Tape for gathering. The results are fast and easy to accomplish. Press Fuse ‘n Gather, with blue threads facing up, to the top edge on the wrong side of the ruffle fabric. Pull blue threads to gather.
- Divide the bottom of the dress into quarters, placing a pin to mark at each quarter mark.
- Divide the ruffle into quarters, placing a pin to mark at each quarter mark.
- Wrap the blue thread of the Fuse ‘n Gather Tape around a pin and easily pull to create gathers.
- Pin ruffle to bottom of dress, right sides together, matching pins.
