Destiny Dresses

Here are my first two dresses I have made to be donated to Destiny Dresses.

I contacted Carol Schaefer to find out exactly what they need and ask my multitude of questions regarding what would be best for the dresses. I needed to know things like:

1) What type of fasteners are best?
Buttons as zippers when broken ruin the dress.

2) Front opening or back opening best?
Front opening so the girl can dress herself.

3) Natural fabrics OK?
Absolutely

4) What types of textile patterns and colours should I avoid? I asked this because I was unaware of what culture these dresses will be shipped off to.
Pray for wisdom and guidance. Need to be careful of the prints with faces and those kinds of designs. Most colours are probably OK

5) What is the best hem treatment, hand stitched for ease to pull out and adjust length of dress or machine stitched for strength?
Carol gave me a good suggestion, I combined both methods I first machine stitched the dress, flipped up the hem and then hand stitched it.

6) Can I make the dresses out of the same pattern and same fabric or should they be made out of different fabric with different patterns?
It's perfectly fine to make the same dress out of the same fabric as they may end up being sent in different directions

6) Do they have to be from fancy dresses or could I make nice cotton dresses?
Dresses do not have to be made from bridal or prom gowns. They can be newly made dresses. The important part of the dress is to make it appear as if it has come from a high end shop

I think the 'high end' shop is a bit subjective as we all have different tastes of high end. The main point is that the dresses are modest, beautiful and well sewn together. I was going more for the 'classic' look of well made, not the modern look.

Using my T&T pattern I made changes to accompany the needed must haves for the dresses. I drafted out the bodice back side pieces, moved the dropped shoulder seam to the top of the shoulder, made the bodice open in the front instead of the back and added length and width. For the smaller sized dress, I used the long sleeve pattern and cut it off to where I needed it and added a pleat. I also added some length to the skirt as I always found I needed more length.

Olivia is modeling the larger size dress, which is a bit too big for her.

Because these are to be special dresses, I chose to alter a few of the details so the two dresses are not exactly alike.




I wanted to make these dresses a bit more flexible for wearing. Sometimes these children share their 'best' garments with other children in the villages, depending on where the garments end up. I put in a bit more ease in the bodice and bit more length. I made a silk sash to be worn with the dress to take in the fullness as needed. The larger sized dress has the pleats while the smaller size has the gathers. Both dresses are fully lined. I used the same silk fabric from the sashes to cover the buttons and add flat bias piping to the sleeves of the one dress.



I am delighted to be able to assist Carol with this ministry to produce garments that will be loved by girls that otherwise might not have a nice new dress.

Happy to be sewing......

Carol