A FABRIC SALE!

DONATIONS FOR OUR KITS

Our volunteers and many who support our mission have donated beautiful cotton and cotton flannels that work well for our kits.  Seriously, you folks are incredible, and other chapters are envious of our fabric donation wealth.

For Days for Girls kits, there are many restrictions in what fabrics we can use.  Because it's so important for the components to camouflage stains as they're hung out to dry (often publicly)  our main focus is on busy medium-dark to darker fabric prints.

Because of cultural considerations, we need to avoid prints depicting weapons, people/animals with faces, insects (butterflies are usually fine), camouflage, religion, words, holiday, patriotic.  Food prints can be difficult for somebody who is food insecure, so we typically don't use those. 

We also avoid solids, glittery/metallic fabrics and bed sheets.

FABRIC SALE OPPORTUNITY

On August 10, Our Sewing Room is having a fabric sale--various people have rented tables at which to sell fabric they no longer want.  I put our name on the waiting list, and yesterday learned that we will have a table!

So, my request of you is to contribute fabric--any and all fabric you'd like to have out of your life.  Probably cottons will sell best because most of the folks are mainly quilters, but really anything goes.   Please use a bit of masking tape or a small label to mark yardage on each piece of fabric.  (If somebody donates some that's perfect for DFG, I'll pull that for us.)  

This is a wonderful way for your other fabric to benefit our chapter.  Also please consider sewing-related items--things that should appeal to other sewers. 

Please bring anything you can donate to our July 6 or August 3 workday.

And . . . come and shop on August 10!

UNDIES

PBS FEATURE

Good reporting by PBS.  Of course if you're reading the articles I link to, you're already aware that menstrual equity is an issue in our country too. 

ZIMBABWE'S FIRST LADY

The first lady of Zimbabwe has partnered with Days for Girls to focus attention on the need for affordable supplies.  On Menstrual Hygiene Day, she donated some kits to some local girls and women.  Nice article.  It would be nice if more people of influence would speak out.

MENSTRUAL HYGIENE DAY

It was unfortunate timing that May 28th fell so close to our first Saturday in June workday, but we had about a dozen great workers assembling kits.  To celebrate their 11th birthday this fall, Days for Girls International plans to send 11,000 kits to female refugees in three countries--33,000 total.  I pledged that our chapter would contribute 500 towards that goal.  On Tuesday, we assembled 271 kits!  They're not needed until September at the earliest, so I'm feeling confident about reaching our goal.  About half of those volunteers were able to hang around and serge or sew after we put the kits together. Great day with great people!

Now I'm really looking forward to the back-to-school underwear sales this summer.  Five-hundred kits (1000 pairs of undies) really puts a dent in our inventory!  

Of course, all underwear we put it kits needs to be new.  The best styles for our needs are briefs, bikinis and hipsters.


If you've got an idea for replenishing this with donations, I'd love to hear it.  Do you know of a teen needing a community service project?

Here are some ideas from the past and from other chapters:

• Middle school kids (in Hawaii!) had bake sales to raise money for undies, bought at Target.com and had Target ship them to us
• A high school had a competition--which grade could bring in the most pairs of underwear
• A couple of churches had Sundays for Undies drives.  One served ice cream after services and called it Sundaes for Undies.
• A high school girl organized a dance and raised thousands dollars for the local chapter
• Other ideas?  How about a service organization or church group that might like to contribute or hold a raffle or other fundraiser for us?

Here's an article about a group of high-schoolers in Australia and how they're making a big impact.

JUNE 1 WORKDAY

Just four days after our Menstrual Hygiene Day work session, we also had a busy crew that gathered on June 1st.  

Patty is one of our amazing volunteers who's serged miles of liners for us.  So many, in fact, that she can do it with her eyes closed.  Of course there's a small outside chance of camera operator-error, or blinking.  You be the judge.

JULY 6 WORKDAY

I polled the group at our June 1 workday, and nobody had any conflicts with meeting two days after Independence Day.  So, we decided not to try to change our July workday date.  If you want to have an enjoyable Saturday and join some fun and interesting people while improving the lives and futures of some struggling girls and women you'll never meet, do consider joining us July 6 (or any other first Saturday).  If you have a serger, please bring it.  I have a few sewing machines people can borrow, although many prefer the familiarity of there own machines. And there are many necessary non-machine tasks too.

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