I got an e-mail from Nancy's Notions & she had a box about Little Dresses for Africa. I was curious so I checked it out & now I want to make these too! It's a very simple pattern (free) & many sizes you can make depending on the amount of fabric you have. I have a lot of fabric that is dated but still very nice & it would make wonderful dresses for the girls in Africa. So if anyone wants to check this site out it is littledressesforafrica.org They have a list of states that haven't participated yet & the Dakota's were one of them. I'm thinking that may be this summer when I'm at the lake I may try & work on things just for all of these great charities that I want to help out. If I would quit checking all these new sites then maybe I would get some done but I keep finding more & more that I want to help. Knowing how all you quilters feel about these special things I thought you would like to check this site out.

I could not get the pattern to show up. Do you have the pattern?

I couldn't get the pattern to open either , but did notice they are the pillow case dresses :thumbup:

I also Had the same problem can't get the pattern directions

try this...

http://littledressesforafrica.org

If you cant find it i did and i can email it to you so leave me a pm with your email address and i will send it to you. You can find it by hitting the tab more information then pillowcase directions then hit the highlighted section in the second paragraph not the first one the second one.

When you get this site click on the More Information box and you'll get both patterns, the pillowcase one and Nancy's fabric one. May in Jersey

I was able to get the pattern by clicking on the red X. This sounds a great project. Thx for sharing.

Thanks for this informaion. I'll share it with my Guild.

Is this the same thing I saw on Sewing with Nancy. What a great cause.

The also would accept "Little Britches"
Don't forget the little boys. A simple draw string pant pattern would do. You can find many pattern that only require three seams for the legs and one for the waist band.

Thanks for letting us know about this charity. I just forwarded this info to my Bee. I think that this is our next project...

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing. I'm like you Fritzy, I want to help all these causes too. I wish I had more time. I am involved in making quilts at church to send to Lutheran World Relief. I will sure fit this one in too. I know how great the need is.

I bought 3 sets of pillow cases at WM's in different designs to do these. Sew easy. Soon as I get 'em done I will show pics. By the way, the little fabric pouch the cases came in, I am going to make little 'totes' for the girls. Won't that be cute?

You can sometimes pick up good pillowcases at thrift shops for next to nothing especially if you go on their "senior discount" days (usually a Wednesday and sometimes also a Saturday. I wash and iron them and then sew. Helping two causes at once.

I just made my granddaughter about 3 of these, they're fast and easy to make and look great too! I also personalized them too.

It looks like the pillow case dress or top that my grandaughters made in sewing class.

Some of my quilting friends and I made Little Dresses for Africa (and britches too). Attached is a pattern I wrote up.

Thank you!

Can't find the Nancy's fabric one...

nursie76 go to Nancy's Notions.com & scroll to the bottom of the page & click on the "creative kindness site" & the infor & pattern instructions will come up. It also has a few other items that can be made for cancer patients, walkers, etc.

thank you for the information. God bless. Penny

Those little dresses are SO cute!

This is a great project. Our church participated in a similar project for girls (dresses) and boys (shorts) from Haiti. They told us to machine stitch everything because they had such primitive laundry conditions (rivers). It was fun to sew for kids again.

Fritzy, Got it, thanks a bunch!

Mary Jane, I agree it sounds like a great project and I can hardly wait to sew for kids again too.

Question, can you put little touches like simple embroidery or applique on the dresses, something that would hold up to the river?

If you type in a search for "little dresses for Africa" the site will come up. there are a couple sites that give you instructions or One of the pattern companies (simplicity I believe) has a pattern.
You can also search Pillow Case Dresses. They originally were made out of pillow cases.
We had a work day at a local quilt shop and got 76 dresses in various stages of completion and 45 boy's shorts. I talked to the organizer of the Little Dresses and she said they get very few shorts.
It took me about 30 min to make the first dress and about the same time for the shorts. The dresses are all made the same way. the size is determined by the length so fabric as little as 18"xwidth of fabric works.

What pattern did you use for the little boys shorts. I would like to make some of them too. Did you use just cotton material for both of these items? I know that some pillowcases are blends.

Yes. They encouraged us to embellish them in any way we could dream up. Some of the ladies who do machine embroidery were able to use this feature on their machines. I did some simple applique on some, used rick rack and other trim on some. Most of us have bits and pieces of trim that work well on these dresses. I also used my decorative stitches along the hemline.

A pattern was provided for us from the church - very simple elastic waist shorts - machine hemmed. They used heavy cotton for most of them. I believe the fabric was donated by church members from their stashes. Instead of finishing off the elastic, we were asked to just put a safety pin at the ends of the elastic and leave it exposed to they could adjust it to size for the child receiving it. They also suggested we zig zag or serge all the seams in these.

Mary Jane,

Thanks for the info. I have an embroidery machine so that will be fun. Have decorative stitches also. :)

I will look for a simple little boys shorts pattern. What size ranges?

Having just finished making 95 pillowcases for the military, this can be a next project. Thanks for letting us know about it.

We were provided patterns for sizes 4-6, 6-8 and 10-12 I believe in the boys shorts.

Thanks, I will look for a pattern this weekend.

I made a pillowcase dress from a pink pillowcase in my linen closet! It turned out very cute... I picked up some trim at WM to add to the next one. I am going to have my friend that shops garage sales look for next to new pillowcases to make some more.

As for the Britches for Boys - I have a pattern for shorts that I was going to use for my GD Violet that I will use... I have some heavier fabric that I was going to make a bag from for them. I like to idea of safety pinning the elastic so they can be adjusted.

I have tons of knit fabrics. Would this work? Especially for the boys shorts?

I don't ever sew with knits but I would think they would work for little boy shorts.

I don't think they specify a certain type of fabric so it should work.

As long as the knits aren't so heavy that they'd be hot to wear, I think they should work. I made polyester knit shorts for almost every dress my daughter owned when she was in grade school so she could play on the playground equipment without being exposed. They wear very well.

Someone donated quite a few childrens tee shirts to our church, different sizes (S,M,L)and we were asked to make dresses out of them for girls in Africa. We just added material to the bottoms of the tee's, in different lengths. They turned out adorable. Some of them were decorated with ric-rac, others had buttons or applique, etc. Remember to increase the width of the fabric so that the little girls can walk without hinderance. Very easy and quick to finish.

That would be another fast & easy way. Never thought of that but I have to keep telling myself I'm not super woman & can't try & do everything.