Friday, December 16, 2016

Dresses for the Dominican Republic

Service Project/Handicraft
For Your Winter Break


A friend sent me a text in October about a Home Economics class in Cy-Fair that made dresses and sent them to Africa to be used as school uniforms. Inspired by this story, we set out to find a place that could benefits from similar dresses. We reached out to a ministry in Rowanda and to a local church, but there wasn't a need that we could fill. Finally I called my sweet friends who are missionaries with AIM International. They have spent several years in the Dominican Republic and confirmed that these dresses would be a blessing down there. On our family trip last year to the DR, my girls fell in love with the country and the people, so it seemed like a perfect project.

We would like to invite you to join us as well. Winter holidays feel like the perfect time to work on sewing skills, and these dresses are incredibly simple.  All you have to do it make a dress and get it to me by January 15. Local friends (West Houston) can work out a time to meet. Others are welcome to mail them to me. Comment below for my address.


Here is a link with ideas on how to make your dresses. There are many different ways and styles. You can pick any one.  This one just seemed easy because the double bias tape on the arm hole was easier for my littles to sew.

Tutorial from Dress a Girl Around the World 


Here are the cliff notes for the instructions above. These helped me visualize it and have a quick reference for buying supplies.


We've been working on a few and had a sewing party today with another family to work on some more.  The two-year-olds played, but everyone else got a chance to sew. 


Let us know if you'd like to join us in our sewing project this winter.  We'd love to see pics as you enjoy working on your dresses.