The Pleasant Hill Quilters Group is putting fabric scraps and pillowcases to good use by sewing clothes for children across Africa in their latest charitable endeavor.
Little Dresses for Africa is a nonprofit which takes handmade dresses shipped from across the world and delivers them to kids in need, as well as funding schools, wells and other projects. Many dresses are made from pillowcases, but the Pleasant Hill Quilters Group is getting creative using yards of donated fabric left over from Sleep in Heavenly Peace quilts.
“We made three quilts out of our donation and then we still had, as you can see, lots of fabric left that we wanted to do something with, so we just came up with this,” said organizer DaRonda Robinson.
LDFA has patterns on their website for dresses, shorts (known as Britches for Boys) and reusable pads. The seamstresses also consulted YouTube tutorials, but most of their design process simply comes down to experience.
“We take a piece of fabric, look at it and go ‘Yep, that’ll make a dress,’” joked seamstress Barb Hart.
Dresses ship to 97 countries. Their impact is immense — Robinson explained receiving clothes builds children’s self-confidence, allows them to attend school and protects girls from sexual harassment. She recently spoke with a distribution volunteer who said “that it just was exciting to see the girls when they were dancing around with a new dress on.
“All of us agree that it just kind of is a warm feeling, that we’re making these dresses, to know that some little girl is going to be smiling because of this,” she said.
The organization was founded by Rachel O’Neill. Her original goal was to donate 1,000 dresses to Malawi, according to ldfaconnect.com. Since then, volunteers around the world have stitched 8 million pieces of clothing. The Pleasant Hill group’s goal may be more modest, but it is still significant.
“We’re just excited because we’re what, 20 dresses from our goal? We were wanting 50 and we got 30,” Robinson said.
The quilters are accepting donations of supplies, cash or extra hands up until the dresses are shipped out. The exact date is to be determined, but Robinson said it will likely be mid- to late August.
Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church, where the quilters meet, has already provided generously for the project.
“We do have donations from people here in the church who...don’t sew, but have given us money to buy rick-rack and elastic and things that we need...And then we have a member of the church who’s already volunteered to pay postage to ship them off,” said Bonnie Connelly.
Still others are donating panties to accompany the reusable pads, which are made of flannel and open the door for girls to stay in school during menstruation.
Pleasant Hill Quilters Group will accept donations during its biweekly meetings at Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church, 913 Garfield St., next to Wheatley School. More questions can be answered by calling the church at 573-785-6715.