Little Dresses for Africa

For this swap, you will make a pillowcase dress for Little Dresses for Africa - a non-profit organization that distributes dresses to orphan girls in the remote villages in Africa.

Because of the widespread AIDS pandemic, little girls are often left to be the primary care givers of their young siblings. Little Dresses for Africa hopes that in delivering dresses to these young girls, that a seed will be planted in their hearts that they are worthy.

When creating the pillowcase dress, please refer to the instructions provided on LDA's website:

http://www.littledressesforafrica.org/blog/?page_id=477

Remember not to use buttons or zippers because these can be difficult to repair or replace in Africa. Instead, sew on decorative trims, ribbons, and other embellishments to make the dress pretty.

Also, pockets are both useful and fun for little girls. Perhaps adding 1 or 2 pockets on the dress would be a nice touch.

When you have completed your pillowcase dress, take a picture of it before measuring it and placing it in a plastic gallon ziplock bag. The instructions for doing this are here:

http://www.littledressesforafrica.org/blog/?page_id=477

You will mail the dress directly to:

Little Dresses for Africa 24614 Curtis Drive Brownstown, MI 48134

Little Dresses for Africa will then distribute the dresses to the girls in Africa.

Then, to each of your 2 partners, please E-MAIL the following (note: if you are not able to take digital pictures and attach them to an email, sending a photograph and letter via snail-mail is fine):

• a picture of the dress you made (if you feel inspired to make more than one dress...that's great!...show everything you created for Little Dresses for Africa)

• a 1-2 page email/letter about what inspired you to join the swap, what you felt when you were making the dress, and any other thoughts you have as you send this dress that will clothe and comfort a little girl in Africa

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Swap Requirements:

• Swappers must have a 4.95 rating or better, with no unexplained 3s or 1s in the past year.

• Swappers must have 5 completed swaps.

• This is a U.S. only swap. If there is enough interest, perhaps another person on Swap-Bot would like to create an international version. (Why only U.S.? Just in case there are swappers who are do not have a digital camera and are unable to upload digital photos, this keeps the postage cost lower for them since they will be mailing their swaps.)

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This is a closing thought that I read on another website about a group of women who made dresses for Little Dresses for Africa:

[In doing this project we are] "honoring a special group of moms... who can no longer hold their daughters or provide them clothes. Most died from AIDS or other illnesses and their children were left as orphans.

"We honor those precious moms by putting our hands to work and creating beautiful dresses for their little girls. We may not have changed the world, but for those little girls when they pull those dresses over their tiny heads – their worlds will change."