The ever-active Sun City group, Sew N Sews, has recently launched their latest endeavor. Their newest mission is to contribute to the world-wide foundation, “Dress a Girl.”
Since 2006, Dress a Girl has provided new dresses for girls around the World. The goal, as stated on their website, is “We dream of a world in which every girl has at least one new dress.” To date, the organization has delivered over two million dresses to 81 countries. People from the United States, Canada, Uganda, the UK, Philippines, Australia, Sweden, Costa Rica, South Africa, Germany, Norway, Okinawa, Japan, and Hong Kong are making dresses.
Dottie Bobzin said, “My sister-in-law, Sue Kamphausen, is a member of the group. It’s called ‘Dress a Girl’ and it involves…guess what? Making a dress for a girl! But of course, it’s a specific project with a specific, sun-dress style pattern made in many sizes for girls in 3rd world countries. The dresses are cute as can be. They have a specially designed label that they sew into each dress. Allegedly, some of the gangs that kidnap young girls think those labels provide unique protection, and sometimes they won’t take a girl in such a dress.”
Sue Kamphausen said, “We tried to get the group going in 2020. We got approval from the membership, but before we got started the virus started. It got put on the back burner and I felt that so much time had passed, I needed to present it to the membership again. The project was approved and we got started again in June.”
What kind of dresses are they sewing?
Kamphausen said, “The material has to be one-hundred percent cotton. All seams must be finished. There are no raw edges. All edges need to be surged, or have a French seam. The smaller-sized dresses have one pocket and the larger size dresses have two pockets. The label goes on the outside. The ‘Dress a Girl’ label is prominently attached to a pocket. It indicates that these girls are under the care of an organization and it could help to deter would-be predators and traffickers.”
What’s the reason for the pockets?
Kamphausen said, “For the smaller girls, we put a primitive doll in the pocket. For the older girls, we put a bracelet in one pocket and a pair of underwear in the other. It’s usually the first pair of underwear those girls will get. It will be treasured by them.”
What sizes do the Sew n Sews make for the girls?
Kamphausen said, “The dresses start for girls as small as 6 months and go up to size 14.”
The dresses then must be delivered.
“Groups that are formed work with ambassadors. The ambassadors package and mail the dresses to the location assigned to them. The ambassador that we work with is in Mundelein and the dresses are sent to Africa and Appalachia areas,” Kamphausen said.
The “Dress a Girl” group in Sun City has already made over 80 dresses. The group meets every second Thursday of the month from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Anyone is welcome to join. You do not have to be able to sew to help with this endeavor. Some tasks require no sewing, like putting together kits for others to sew. Anyone interested in joining the group please contact Sue Kamphausen at 224-766-6321 or antiochmueller@aol.com.
