Thursday, April 17, 2014

Easter Dresses for the Eastside





Back in 2008, I walked a creative path that I had considered only as a child: to design and make girls clothing. Truly, the last time I even considered this career was when I was 16! Its been a developing effort, and last year my small business--GirlyGirl Productions-- went wholesale!  It was a "go big or go home"  year and after five trade shows I'm still learning the timing and logistics of designing, showing, selling, producing and distributing seasonal collections of girls clothes to wholesale customers.  I'm not going home yet!

Part of GirlyGirl's narrative is that "we dress and adorn girls 2-10 in bright, fun, age-appropriate, retro-inspired clothes." Although my end user has no problem affording one of my dresses, not all moms can--especially in parts of my inner-city neighborhoods. So an idea was inspired....

A couple of years ago I participated in "Little Dress for Africa".  I was supplied with a pattern, made a dress and sent it to an organizer in NC who then sent the dresses to girls in need in Africa.  It was great fun.  But that got me thinking about my neighborhood and my philosophy of keeping life--church, shopping, school, work--local. The thought has been stewing this long! But recently the thought bubbled to the surface as a need as the Easter Holiday approached.

Every little girl needs a pretty little dress for Easter.  What a perfect time to show the girls in my community how much they are loved and how much God and their neighbors truly care for them.  

I presented the idea to my missional community group at church and was amazed with the supportive response I received! Five to 12 ladies on four separate occasions got together at City Church Eastside in March and April and we made 60 dresses!  Not everyone knew how to sew, but everyone contributed--cutting, running ribbon through casing, tagging, etc.  It was so much fun and so rewarding. I felt such a sense of truly being in community.

The dresses were delivered to the Atlanta Dream Center, which serves the needs of  homeless, commercially sexually exploited and at-risk, underprivileged men, women and children. 

We are hoping to receive photos of girls in their dresses soon.  I will share with you when I do.

Happy Easter!

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