ARE WE HAVING A WORKDAY ON MARCH 2ND?

MARCH 2 WORKDAY is ON!

I'm sorry I've dragged my feet on announcing if we'd meet tomorrow, but I've really been watching the forecasts and how fast this pretty stuff is melting.

I just drove over to Our Sewing Room from my house, and the streets are just fine.  Granted, this is a completely level route, and I didn't venture into smaller neighborhood streets.  I know those of you in the hills are seeing a different scene.

But for those of you who are able to make it, we will have our regular workday tomorrow, 10 am to 4:30.

I do know that they say there's a chance of more snow tonight, and the temperatures will probably be in the mid-20s.  So, please use your own best judgement as to whether it's safe for you to travel.  And if it's worse than predicted, watch your email for a change of plans!  How's that for wishy-washy?

The on-street parking by Our Sewing Room is an absolute mess of snow and ice, but the parking lot at the bank is clear.

OR, WORK AT HOME?

If venturing out in this winter wonderland doesn't appeal to you, there may be some things you can do at home.  I know some of you left our February workday with homework, so you might still have some of that to work on.  

Donate fabric to DFG?  If you are a sewer/quilter and you'd like to spend the day downsizing your stash, (first off, that's fantastic! and) let me remind you that we must wash (no perfumed detergent/fabric softeners) and dry all our fabric before cutting into it.

It's so important to follow DFG guidelines when selecting fabrics.  For all components, we need to avoid solids and fabric printed with animals of any kind (except faceless butterflies), weapons, camouflage, religious, patriotic or culturally-specific symbols.  Also no glam or suggestive prints.  I personally like to avoid prints with words, as many recipients don't speak English.  I can imagine a girl  being punished for using an item that has words with unknown meaning--or having to throw it out.  And food fabric is not a great choice to give to someone who might often be hungry. 

For shields and liners, we use medium/dark to dark, busy cotton prints.  These will hide inevitable stains the best.  (If stains on a component are obvious, a girl is less likely to dry it where the sun can do its magical germ-killing.)  The pockets are the parts of the kit that get stained the most, so we want to use our darkest and busiest prints here. Quilting weight cotton for the shields and cotton flannel for the liners. 

For the bags, we want to use our most appealing quilting weight cotton fabric, so the girls are delighted to carry them daily.  We're told that they don't just use them when they have their periods, but every day as they go to school.  I love this!  And I love that the bags aren't a "flag" that indicates this is "her week."  

Bag fabrics don't have to be as dark as for shields and liners, but too light will of course show normal soil (some kits are distributed in pretty dusty or muddy regions!).  The beautiful fabric for bags (after washing/drying/pressing) gets cut to 12"--13" by 30"--32".  

For pockets, 5" strips (on-grain) are what works best, minimum length 4.5".  Since we prefer that our shields have pockets that match each other, ideally we'd have enough of each pocket fabric to make pockets in even numbers.

We typically put yardage in the die cutter for our shield shapes, and the smallest size we can use for the body of a shield is 9" x 10".

For the liners, we use 100% cotton flannel, the best quality you can afford.  More expensive flannel (as in quilt-shop quality) is thicker, with a higher thread count, so it would be more absorbent.  NO SOLIDS.  Busy, darker prints are the goal here.  As with the other components, the most efficient way to cut liner flannel is yardage, but if you've got smaller pieces, the sizes we use (after it's washed, dried and pressed) are 5.75"x 8.75" and 8.75" x 8.75".  Perhaps you have some leftover from that flannel quilt you made . . . .

WASH

WASH is a project/division of UNICEF which works with local communities, schools and governments to research and provide information about menstruation, promote positive hygiene habits, and break down taboos.  

This is a good article about teaching girls in Nigeria to make their own menstrual supplies.  The shape looks like ours, and that red/white fabric looks like PUL--I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they'd worked with our headquarters for permission to use our design.  After all, our goal IS: 

Every Girl.  Everywhere.  Period.

Little by little, though, Days for Girls is spreading the word and teaching local women (and some men) to make DFG supplies.  Often groups wanting to distribute in a Third World area are able to buy the kits from a local DFG Enterprise, which usually has someone trained and available to provide the educational component of the distribution.  We strongly support utilizing the Enterprise kits and personnel.

Some of our chapters supply DFG Enterprises with much of what they need to have a successful business.  Our long-time volunteer Glenda just took two 50-pound suitcases to a new enterprise in Ecuador last month.  That's a lot of donated material and other supplies that they won't have to purchase, as they get their feet on the ground.

Some chapters with deeper pockets are able to mentor, support and build an Enterprise.  This is something we can think about if we're ever able to secure some larger donations and grants.

Which reminds me, please let me know if you have grant-writing experience or know somebody who'd like to take on this task for us!