Local woman sews 1,000 dresses for African childrenDate: 5/4/2021 GRANBY – In the basement of a house in Granby, a local woman is sending dresses and hope to children in Africa and around the world.
Little Dresses for Africa (LDFA) is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization which offers works to provide clean water and primary education to communities in 97 countries. It all begins with dresses, which the organization’s website calls “Ambassadors to encourage and honor young girls (and also boys) and to establish relationships with villages.” Their motto is “We’re not just sending dresses, we’re sending hope.”
Rita Lariviere began making dresses in 2015 after her husband died and she found she had time on her hands.
“I saw it in a Guideposts magazine and I thought, ‘I can do that,’” Lariviere said. Now, six years later, she has sewn over 1,000 dresses for children half a world away.
The patterns provided by the organization, available on its website, call for pillowcases to be cut and altered into dresses. Larriviere began buying sheets and pillowcases from Goodwill for the dresses, as well as elastic and thread.
Since Lariviere began working on the dresses, it has grown into a major one-woman operation. In her basement, she has stations set up for cutting, ironing, and sewing the fabric. She found that the double-sided bias tape called for in the pattern becomes expensive. Instead, she makes her own by cutting, folding and ironing strips of material.
People who have learned that she makes the dresses donate fabric, which she stores on wall-to-wall wooden shelves along one side of the room. The shelves hold stacks of material in every color and pattern imaginable. Lariviere said that she enjoys matching the fabric together and watching it come together as she works. One dress takes about two hours to complete after the fabric is cut to size. She turns out all sizes of dresses, from infants to teens.
Lariviere sews the clothes mostly during the cold weather months. During the pandemic, when many seniors were dealing with the mental and physical health effects of isolation, the 88-year-old said she used the sewing projects to fill her time and focus her attention. She also contributes to charities by making baked goods, jellies and jams, and pillowcases for church fairs and community bazaars.
“I’m never bored,” Lariviere told Reminder Publishing.
Lariviere ships 50 dresses at a time to the LDFA address in Michigan. From there, the dresses are shipped, mailed and brought by hand to communities in need. Outside of the program, one of her daughter’s friends is from Guatemala and brings stacks of dresses with her when she visits each year.
LDFA has sent over 8 million dresses to communities as well as shorts, called “Britches for Boys.” The organization also runs a “Dignity Program,” in which reusable, washable sanitary napkins and panties are distributed to pre-teens and teens in need so that they can manage their periods and stay in school.
For more information about LDFA, including patterns and the shipping address, visit https://littledressesforafrica.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/littledressesforafricaworldheadquarters.
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