We’re still in the midst of the dog days of summer here in the northern hemisphere and it gets me in the mood to sew a girl’s sundress. I’ve been very busy lately sewing Popover Sundresses, fifty to be exact! This month I’ll be sending them all to Dress a Girl Around the World.
You can help Dress a Girl Around the World strive towards their vision of “every girl deserves at least one dress.” People from all over are forming groups and sewing pillowcase style dresses. To date they have delivered over 300,000 dresses to 81 countries! From their website: “People from all States, Canada, Uganda, the UK, Philippines, Australia, Sweden, Costa Rica, South Africa, Germany, Norway, Okinawa, Japan, and Hong Kong continue to make dresses. Together we really are dressing the girls around the world.”
The free Popover Sundress (available in sizes 2-8) is the perfect dress to sew and donate to Dress a Girl Around the World. When donating dresses to them, one very important thing is to make your dresses sturdy. These dresses need to last. Many of the dresses will be washed in rivers or on washboards using harsh homemade soap. The sides seams are a great opportunity to practice French seams. That way the seams are nice and strong. For all of the sewing, backstitching or lockstitching is a must!
For the bias ties at the shoulders you can use store bought bias tape or you can make your own. You’ll find some help here on the Oliver + S website:
Also consider adding a pocket or two, for some ideas on adding Oliver + S pockets, head this way. One last thought I had would be making matching Seashore Bloomers for sizes up to 4, wouldn’t that be adorable?
I know the online sewing community has a huge heart for service. I encourage you to sew a Popover Sundress to donate to this wonderful organization. It’s such a good thing. If you live in the United States, find out where to send your dresses here and outside of the United States check here. When they receive your dresses they attach their Dress a Girl label on the outside of each dress. Or if you’d like you can make labels or purchase labels and sew them on yourself.
Thanks so much for your consideration! I’ll be back later this week to offer you some inspiration for sewing Popover Sundresses. See you then!