Pillowcase dresses for little Haitians.

My first pillowcase dress.

When I wrote Growing.  Up, up and out of the ashes. on February 24, I mentioned a project I think is worthwhile, making dresses for little girls in Haiti.  Two readers, Caroline and Tish, indicated interest.  I don’t know what the official site for this project would be.  I googled Haiti pillowcase dresses and found numerous sites about this project and similar ones as well.  Caroline, there are  sites for the same type project in Africa.  With your love of the Dark Continent, you might be interested in one of the African projects.

Several sites give instructions for making the dresses in a variety of sizes.  If you have extra fabrics lying around you can use that instead of pillowcases.  There are instructions for both types, including templates for the armholes.  The pillowcase is quick because the hem is already done for you.  I don’t know if you can tell in the photo, but I put a little daisy decorative stitch around the top of the hem.  Also, the armhole cutouts make perfect little pockets for the dress if you’re so inclined.  There are many ways to make them look like dresses, not pillowcases.

I had a meeting with my group at church yesterday and we decided Henry Ford’s assembly line would serve us well.  We can turn out more dresses faster that way.  We have decided to make it an ongoing project in our group.

FYI:  One of our pastors met with us yesterday and confirmed the story about the rapes.  She went to Haiti recently.  For me, that makes the need all the more urgent.

Happy sewing if you choose to pursue this work.  I know it makes me feel glad to be able to help.

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