Sewing for a good cause

Today we had a sewing party at my church to sew skirts, dresses, and shorts for children in the Philippines. My pastor, his wife, and a couple from my church are going to the Philippines in October and this was the perfect way to help meet a need the people have. My pastor has been to the Philippines many, many times to help start churches, do dental and medical clinics, support the missionaries living over there, and various other efforts. They recently got back from a trip and brought back photos of children in orphanages with sometimes nothing on their back. It was heartbreaking and one of the women who went on that trip decided to put together this sewing party and sew clothes for the kids. They are going to take them on their next trip in October.

We turned the foyer of the church into our sewing room. Now, remember that I just took my first sewing class about a month ago, so I needed lots of help. Thankfully, Linda was so patient with me and showed me step by step what to do. She showed me how to sew a casing to put the elastic in at the waist, how to read a pattern, how to cut out a pattern, and sewing seams. I sewed 2 skirts and all together we sewed 6 skirts and 2 shorts in just a few hours. We are planning on doing it again on another Saturday before they leave.

Rachel helping mom

Meredith starting her skirt

Sarah working on some boys shorts

Linda and Rachel picking out patterns

Me laying out a pattern for the first time

Sewing the seam on my skirt

My model wearing the first skirt I have ever sewn! It looked so cute on her and it brought tears to my eyes thinking about this skirt on a beautiful, little girl in the Philippines. Linda is going on the trip and she promised to take lots of pictures of the kids wearing the clothes.

Me holding my skirt and Elizabeth holding the one my mom sewed

I love this skirt that Melissa sewed....isn't the fabric too cute! We all had left over strips of fabric so Melissa had the idea to use it and make matching elastic headbands to go with the skirts. We are going to work on those next time.