The women of the Coventry congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started a project last year to make dresses from pillowcases to send to Africa for underprivileged children. The original target was to sew 100 dresses, but this was soon passed and the total now exceeds 230.
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Judith Potter from Nuneaton came up with the idea after reading a book called ‘The One Hundred Dresses’, this book is about 40 years old, but teaches much about sound principles. Judith remarked, “This book was a real inspiration for me and I wanted to do something that would benefit the poor and needy.”
For many of the women involved in the project it has been a very rewarding experience. Whilst some have made the dresses in their own homes, many got together with friends and spent the time socialising and sewing. Toni Pywell, the local women's organisational leader commented, “We brought together many women of the church and have done a great service for those in need. We asked those that were willing to make a dress, hoping to achieve 100, I made 3 and I don’t sew!! They were really easy to make, with good instructions from those who can sew, who shared their talents with those that can’t. It’s amazing to think that somewhere out there we are making a difference to little girl’s lives, just by making a small sacrifice.
What started as a congregation project soon became a family project with mum teaching her children how to sew and to do something worthwhile in the process.