60 Handmade Dresses For Africa!

Wow. On Saturday a dozen or so women got started on these dresses. By the end of the week, myself and few others finished up the details and we sent 60 handmade dresses to Africa.

Stay tuned for more postings about Handmade For Africa events in the Mommy Said Sew Sewing Room!

It's a Girl! Baby Shower Gift Set

I love it when my friends find out. It makes it so much more fun to pick out girly fabrics if I know there's a girl on the way. And trust me, the boy babies will appreciate it too if they aren't subjected to my "gender neutral" choices. I hosted a baby shower recently for a mom who was expecting her first girl (second child). I whipped up a nursing cover with one of my favorite all time prints by Tina Givens. That bird cameo from Fairy Tip-Toes is just soooo sweet...

In addition to the nursing cover I made a pair of burp cloths backed with chenille instead of diaper cloth (which I'm pretty much over - I don't like the way it gets all distorted after repeated washing, which Hello! is what you have to do with cloth diapers). Anyway, and rounding out the gift set is a handy Diaper Clutch to carry a travel sized wipes case and several diapers.

The other fabric I used is also Tina Givens from the Treetop Fancy collection. I love how all my Tina Givens (and there is a whole shelf of it) mixes and matches so well.
Here's the gift set all packaged up in a cute fabric box to be used in the nursery...

Handmade Dresses for Nairobi, Africa

These are just three of the lovely pillowcase dresses I finished up after our sewing event. A generous group of women from Park Community Church gave up their Saturday morning to hand make dresses for our partner church in Nairobi, Africa to distribute to needy little girls in some of the cities poorest areas. The three dresses above were made from pillowcases, elastic, bias tape and ribbon and button adornments.

Birthday Party Dress

Grace turned two today and for her birthday I had worked up this Shattered Knot Dress from mostly Anna Maria Horner fabric. The collection is called Innocent Crush. It has good old fashioned yo-yos with button centers.

There is big sister in the middle with her own handmade dress. All the kids enjoyed the bebeautiful weather and the pinwheel favors. Happy birthday darling girl!

For more details about the birthday dress visit the post about it's creation here.

Sewing Dresses for Africa Event

 These are just a few (badly photographed via my cell phone camera) pictures from our sewing dresses for Africa event at Park Community Church. The African gentleman speaking to our group is Pastor Shiramba. He is a pastor at our partner church in Nairobi, Africa and they will be taking these dresses back with them to give out to girls in their community. He was very touched that although we have the means to buy dresses for those little girls, that we decided instead to create one of a kind dresses with our hands and give of our time. Each dress was created with prayers being being lifted up for the little girl who would wear it.

Morton Arboretum Photo Shoot

Again, our favorite place for a photo shoot. The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL has a huge kids area. Outside of that, the settings are limitless. We did a shoot under some large oaks and one in a more formal garden adjacent to the Thornhill Education Center.

My husband took the leading photo about 2 or 3 shots into the first shoot and promptly showed it to me via the digital display on the back of the camera. "That will be $500." he joked. Good thing I make the dresses (and the models!) myself and get my prints done at Costco, or I'd be in debt.

Happy 4th of July

A few little sweet pieces for my girls for 4th of July. Big sister is wearing an a-line dress with bias tape straps that knot on each shoulder. The hem of the dress matches little sisters peasant top.

Little sister's dress is a cap sleeve peasant style with a full neck and shoulder line of elastic for easy on and off. She also has matching shorts with a short ruffle on the hems. All fabric is from JoAnns. Cute fun and easy projects for a patriotic holiday! And aren't little sisters baby ponytails reminiscent of sparklers!?!