Shelley Baldwin never thought she would inspire so many women to join the ?Little Dresses for Africa? project. But once they heard what she was doing, they were eager to help.
The Oxbow woman originally set out to sew 24 dresses and send them to Africa, in order to do something worthy with her seemingly endless supply of fabric.
?It started out because I'm a quilter and I have fabric coming out my wazoo,? Baldwin explains. ?I thought I'm not going to make quilts out of all this stuff and I had to get rid of some of it - I just had too much.?
?So, I thought I'd make a couple of dresses up,? she continues. ?I was thinking 24 to begin with. I did the first one and I put a picture of it on Facebook, asking if anyone wanted to come sew little dresses for Africa.?
The response was surprising.
?I had quite a few people who were quite eager to do it, so we got together and started sewing.?
Since the first sewing party a month-and-a-half ago, the Little Dresses for Africa project has snowballed beyond her wildest imagination.
During any given sewing party, the woman have two or more sewing machines going, with a couple women focused on sewing and others focused on the prep side. On this particular day, four women including Baldwin were busy at work.
?Two of my friends out there [today] don't sew, but they're doing the pressing, threading the elastic and getting things ready for us,? says Baldwin. ?There are lots of things that can be done besides the sewing.?
Though the project started, in part, as a way for Baldwin to rid her sewing room of extra fabric, it's become so much more. It's become a community-minded project where women can come together and socialize while making a difference in the lives of little girls in Africa.
Baldwin found the pattern for the dresses on a website called creativekindness.com. The woman who operated the site posted information encouraging other people to sew dresses for little girls, and went as far as offering to send them to Africa if people could get the dresses to her.
The Oxbow woman decided to move ahead sewing the dresses, knowing there would be a place for them to go.
?Well, in the meantime, by posting it on Facebook, a [local] woman came forward who was adopting children in Ethiopia,? says Baldwin. ?They were going to sign papers and said she would take some [dresses]. They have to go back in June to actually pick up the children and she said she would take some more then.?
Since the first offer, Baldwin has received similar offers from other people in the area who were travelling to Africa or had family travelling to the foreign continent.
?A friend of my mother's phoned because her granddaughter was going to Zimbabwe to work in a medical clinic, and she said she would take some,? says Baldwin. ?So, the next 26 [dresses] went with her.?
The most recent batch of dresses the women sewed are destined for Sudan.
?My husband's sister has a Sudanese family in her pre-school, and the mother is going back to Sudan this summer for a visit and said she would take a duffle bag full. So, that 50 is going to Sudan.?
?Another woman in town, her son does missionary work in Uganda, and she said he would take some,? she continues.
And the list of people offering to take dresses goes on and on.
Baldwin's story has inspired other people to do their own version of the ?Little Dresses for Africa? project. Some have sewn dresses and sent them to Baldwin to distribute through her growing list of connections, while others are finding their own ways to send the dresses to Africa.
?My husband's aunt [is] in Onoway, which is outside Edmonton. [Her] quilting club, called the Grim Rippers, is going to start making some.?
The Grim Rippers is one example of a group finding its own way to distribute the dresses.
All the dresses are sewn from new, unused cotton fabric.
?In the [website] it said this dress may be the only new thing that these little girls ever have in their whole lives,? Baldwin says. ?So they need something new; not someone's cast-offs. They need something new, bright, cheery, pretty of their own.?
?Eventually, I thought if we got enough financial donations - we've gotten some already - I'd really like to have little panties to go with the dresses,? she continues.
Baldwin and the women she's working with hope their story continues to inspire others so that people from all areas and walks of life can become involved in the ?Little Dresses for Africa? project.
?It's addicting,? says Baldwin. ?I have quilts of my own to finish all over the place, but I have to make myself put down these dresses! They all turn out so different and so cute. We just keep imagining the smiles on the little girls' faces.?
