Moda Fabric blog about Days for Girls!

This is a nice blog piece about Days for Girls, from Moda, a company whose fabrics I love!

Help Wanted!

DAYS FOR GIRLS INTERNATIONAL

Want to help our Eugene/Springfield team?  

ANYTHING you do brings us closer to 

Every Girl.  Everywhere.  Period.

WORK:

Come to one or more of our workdays at Our Sewing Room and learn all the different sewing and non-sewing tasks that go into making a complete kit.
Then continue to work with us each month, and/or pick your favorite task and work on that at home.

PURCHASE:

Would you like to contribute some of the items we need for our kits?  Here's a list of what purchased items we need, in order of current need:

• Top-quality flannel fabric, in darker, busy stain-hiding prints [Botanicals and geometrics are best.  Because of cultural considerations, please avoid prints with animals (including insects and reptiles), people, camouflage, weapons, religious symbols, and anything culturally specific].
• Cotton or cotton-blend underpants, girls' sizes 10-16 (briefs or hipsters, no "boy shorts" or bikini)
• Washcloths, in colors (no white)
• Twill tape, 1/2" --5/8" is best. If you can find colors, that's wonderful, but not essential.  We use 2 yards per bag.  White shows soil, so darker is better.
• New spools of polyester thread, for regular sewing machines and sergers, any medium to dark color
• Ziploc brand gallon-size freezer bags (not the slider style)
• Hotel travel-size soap, environmentally friendly, if possible.
• Good quality quilting-weight cotton fabric, in medium to dark stain-hiding prints [Botanicals and geometrics are best.  Because of cultural considerations, please avoid prints with animals (including insects and reptiles), people, camouflage, weapons, religious symbols, and anything culturally specific]

DONATE FUNDS:   All donations are 100% tax deductible and help empower girls, women and communities around the world.  You will receive a receipt.

• Online through the Global Sew-a-thon fundraiser.  You'll get a receipt immediately.   This fundraiser runs through November 11, 2014 and fund automatically go to our team.
• Online through Paypal (click on that red "Donate" circle). Indicate that the funds are for the Eugene, Oregon team.  
• By check made out to Days for Girls International (give to us or mail to headquarters: Days for Girls, 1610 Grover Street, Suite B22, Lynden, WA 98264)   Indicate that the funds are for the Eugene, Oregon team.  

STAY INFORMED:

            Read the blog for our local team:  dfgeugene.blogspot.com

            Check out the DFGI website:  daysforgirls.org

            Email: eugeneor@daysforgirls.org

            Get on our email mailing list (send us an email)

Kits distributed at Kokwa Primary School

Our dedicated volunteers, new and returning,  braved pretty steady rains to work at Our Sewing Room on October 26th, preparing and sewing flannel liners.  We ended up with a few dozen totally completed, and a few hundred more in various stages of construction.  With eight liners included in each kit, these are the items we need to build our inventory of.

In my book, the highlight of the day was when Gwen Meyer of Friends of Kenya Schools and Wildlife told us about the distribution of our kits at the Kokwa Primary School in Kenya.  We are delighted to have played a part in helping the girls access and benefit from their education.

Gwen said that "they were ecstatic, not just with the kits, but from the knowledge that you are aware of the challenges they face and that you did something to support their own efforts to learn."

Please enjoy the beautiful photos, generously shared with us by Gwen and her granddaughter Sienna:

Adults explaining the kits to the girls

Showing individual items from the kit

How the shield snaps into the panties

Attentive students, grades 4 to 8

A student volunteer shows what she's learned

Classmates enjoying her demo.

The kits are distributed.  Girls chose by underwear size and bag fabric.
We try to use our prettiest fabrics for the bags.

Girls showing the kits they selected

We are currently working on a request for 200 more kits Gwen will take to other schools in Kenya in January.  We have a long ways to go, so any and all help is much appreciated.  

Our next work day is Sunday, November 16th, 10 to 4 at Our Sewing Room.

Our First Sew-a-thon: fait accompli!

About a dozen of us gathered on Saturday to celebrate the International Day of the Girl by sewing for Days for Girls.We had some new folks and some regulars, some all day, some for a few hours.  We had flannel, washcloth, underpants, thread and soap donations too!

What a great group of dedicated volunteers!  Thanks to all who contributed yesterday:  Jenny, 2 Pats, Virginia, Carolyn, Kathy, Nicki, Michelle, Sue, Susan, Sheila, Michelle, Lela, and Donna from afar.  As usual, it was a very interesting group of women, and we had a good time.  I got so into it, that I didn't document it with all the photos as I would have liked to.  We need a few more folks to bring cameras or smart phones (and remember to use them!) and send me their photos. 

We concentrated on T&T liners, ending up with 40 completed, 41 sewn and ready for turning, and hundreds more ready to sew.  Some   of those went home with volunteers.

Our other focus was serging the sides of probably over 200 bags, now ready for labels, pressing and sewing.  All of these went home with volunteers!

The end of the day rolled around too fast--I wasn't ready to quit.  I packed up my car,  and in the evening, popped a DVD in and worked on  T&T liners for 3+ more hours.

The nice thing about October is that it has TWO Days for Girls workdays at Our Sewing Room.  Our next gathering is Sunday, October 26, 10am-4pm.  Our Sewing Room has sewing machines and sergers available for us to use, but several of us prefer the familiarity of our own machines, if they're not too heavy to tote.  Bringing your own sharp scissors and maybe pin container is a good idea.

If you plan to join us for the first time in two weeks, I strongly recommend that you go to the DFGI website to watch the videos and read the instructions of how to make the different kit components.  If you've come before, but you're wanting to learn how to make one of the components that you haven't tried yet, please watch the video first.  I'm always there to help, but seeing the video before I show you the steps is strongly encouraged.

If you haven't already signed up for our local Days for Girls email list and would like to, please send me an email at dfgeugene@gmail.com.

Global Sew-A-Thon October 11

Two years ago, the United Nations declared October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child to raise awareness about all issues concerning gender inequality around the world.  It’s a day when activist groups come together under the same goal to highlight, discuss, and take action to advance rights and opportunities for girls everywhere.

This day is about celebrating girls, and advocating for gender equality. It is about prompting people to think and talk about issues that affect girls and women everywhere. Events around the country and world will bring people together to both recognize the role of oppression and take a stand against its influence on their own lives and communities.

Days for Girls International will celebrate this date with our 2nd annual Global Sew-A-Thon.  Individuals and groups around the world will be empowering girls by sewing, raising awareness and funds and assembling kits with Days for Girls. 

Join us at Our Sewing Room on Saturday, October 11, 10 am to 5 pm.  Sew for an hour, sew all day.  Spread the word.  Bring your friends.  Change lives.

In connection with the Global Sew-A-Thon, Days for Girls has set up an online fundraiser to help with teams’ kit expenses.  If you or someone you know would like to donate to our team, just click here!  Your donation will be charged to your credit card, and you'll receive a receipt immediately.  This is available through November 11.

The Global Sew-A-Thon is an extra get-together for our Eugene/Springfield group, so we will have two work days in October.  

Other upcoming dates, all on Sundays, 10am to 4pm, are:

October 25                              November 16                                    December 14

Mark your calendars and join us as often as you can.  The more hands, the more girls we can serve (and the merrier).  We do have a good time!

Donations! Donations! Donations!

Wow!  We have received so many fantastic donations of supplies this month!  Five big boxes/tubs of great cottons for shields and bags, and flannels for liners have been delivered in the past 2-3 weeks to Our Sewing Room.  Nice busy, darker, pretty prints--perfect for our needs!  And last night at the EVQ guild meeting, two people sought me out and gave me big bags of fabric--also carefully selected and ideal for our kits!  

When I was first in contact with the Days for Girls headquarters, and the woman I spoke with learned that I was a quilter, she was delighted, saying that quilters had the best fabric.  These pictures of just some of the recent fabric donations from quilters sure prove that point!

 These cottons will work very well for bags and shields.  Busy, medium to dark, and pretty!

Great flannels!

Aren't they all wonderful?

In addition to these delightful fabrics, we've also recently had much appreciated gifts of polyester thread, drawstrings for the bags and snaps for the shields.  Amazing!

Thank you so much to our donors!  We have Days for Girls in-kind donation receipts available--just ask.  We get so excited about the fabric that sometimes we forget to mention it.  The receipts are also available for other donations--underwear, Ziplocs, PUL, polyester thread, washcloths, etc.  If you purchase items for DFG, save your store receipts and staple them to our form.  If you made a donation and didn't get your DFG receipt, I'll have some at the EVQ show (we'll have an information table) October 4th and 5th, and they are also available at Our Sewing Room.  

And if you are one of the mystery donors who contributed without leaving your name, we'd love to know who you are!

There are also receipts for monetary donations, although the best way to contribute money for the next few weeks is online through Crowdrise in connection with the DFG Global Sew-a-thon--you'll need your credit card number and will get a receipt to print off immediately.  Our Eugene/Springfield team will receive a check for 100% of the donations.

Thank you, thank you thank you!!

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.