Fabric Needs

Our next Days for Girls Sunday workday at Our Sewing Room is September 21.  Join us for the whole day, 10 am to 4 pm, or whatever part of that that works for you.  Most of us bring a lunch, but there are several places nearby to pick up something to eat if you prefer.

The workdays for the rest of the year are October 26, November 16, and December 14.

If you'd like to become involved making the kits, please do join us! To read about how each part of the kit is made and watch video tutorials by a DFG sewing specialist, please click here.

HOW MUCH FABRIC?
I'm often asked how many shields, or liners can be cut out of a yard of fabric, and never have that answer ready for folks.  So, here are the official figures from the Days for Girls International website:

•               1.75 yards of 44" width cotton yields 4 drawstrings bags and 8 shields

               (i.e., enough for 4 kits).

•               5 yards 44" width flannel yields 60 liners (enough for 7+ kits).

Here are some estimates for making 50 kits:

•               32-40 yards of 44" width flannel for liners.

•               12 yards of 44" width cotton for shields.

•               3.0 - 3.5 yards of 60" width PUL for shields.

•                12 yards of 44" width cotton for drawstring bags.

While not providing an exact "how many of one item from a yard" answer, you can see from those figures how fabric-hungry these kits are! If you are thinking of donating some material from your stash, or going shopping for some, here are more guidelines:

Some of you have asked about minimum sizes we can use.  For the flannel, strips 6" wide by at least 9" long are what we use for the hot spot of the serged liners.  Both the serged liners and the T&T liners can use strips 9" wide and lengths 9" and longer.  These measurements are after washing and drying.  Of course, it's easiest for us if you don't precut for us--serging and sewing longer lengths saves us time.

For the shields, we use good quality quilters'  cotton.  The pockets are made from 5" x 4.25" pieces.  Strips of 5" are great, as we can fold, press and topstitch before cutting.  Both already washed, dried, and pressed, of course, before cutting.  The shields themselves can be cut from pieces as small as 9" x 10.5", but of course with more yardage we can tesselate and use fabric more efficiently.

Each bag uses a piece of attractive, good quality quilters' cotton that measures 12" x 29".

What we use the most of is flannel for the liners (inserts).  Good quality flannel is more absorbent than the cheaper, thinner varieties, and that's what we are looking for.  Dark or medium-dark prints are wonderful, because they hide stains well.  If you have the time to wash and dry it before donating, that's fantastic, but if not, we will do that before cutting into it.

Here are some donated flannels that we like because of the colors, designs and quality.

Our next fabric need is cotton for the shields.  We have the same stain-hiding needs for the fabric used in the shields:  they also must camouflage stains, so once again, darker, busier fabric designs work best.  Use good quality "quilters" cotton for these.  Some examples:

Our third fabric need is for the bags.  Because the girls will carry these daily to and from school, they should be made of our prettiest fabrics.  We don't have the same need to camouflage stains here, but  they shouldn't be too light--because white-background and light fabrics will show dirt.  Please use good quality "quilters" cotton here too.  Many of the fabrics in the "shield fabric" photo above would make attractive bags the girls would be proud to carry.

What to avoid:  Because of religious or cultural taboos in many of the recipient populations, we are asked to avoid fabric designs that depict people, animals or animal fur patterns, camouflage, weapons and culturally specific patterns on all fabrics.