Introduction

 What is the need?

 Patterns

 Fabrics

 Sewing tips

 Finishing Touches

 Recipients

 Organizations

 Dressmakers

 Photos

 But I don't sew very well!

 Getting Started

 How to contact us

One Dress at a Time is aimed at local action.

We have no dues, meetings or membership requirements.

Individual sewers can make dresses and arrange for their distribution, or groups of sewers can join together and do the same thing in a particular area. While most of our experience is from the United States, there is no reason why the same techniques cannot work in any country.

Dress tags

We have attractive One Dress at a Time “brand” dress tags available on which you can write in the size of the dress you have made before attaching it to your finished creation.. To get a supply of tags, contact us as shown on our Contact page.

Finding recipients

Of course if you know a little girl in need, that is an obvious place to start, but often the underprivileged in our society are isolated from others. You can contact charitable agencies like the Salvation Army, Goodwill, member organizations of the United Way, or other agencies specific to your own area. Many of these groups are accustomed to distributing used clothing to those in need, and are delighted with an opportunity to give a little girl a brand new handmade outfit.

These agencies have a duty to protect the privacy of their clients, and in some cases like shelters for battered families, they may be reluctant to give any specifics about the recipients, including the physical address of their facility. In other cases, it is possible for a sewer to establish an ongoing relationship with an agency and learn the sizes of girls who are in need of dresses so they can make individual dresses for specific girls.

Getting together

In some cases One Dress at a Time participants have come from an existing sewing club, with multiple sewers but central organizers taking care of acquiring tags, contacting distribution agencies, etc. If your style of sewing is to do it in a group, this is for you.

Helping without sewing

If you want to help in some way other than sewing get in touch with us as shown on our Contact page.