The women have exported 2,100 dresses in 15 countries over the past two years. “Everyone likes a new dress, right?” Yahara said. Jilly loves helping to sew. “Look at this one.

She has made 100 dresses. When she originally read that people worldwide hand-sew dresses in living rooms, basements, schools, churches and civic centers, she started to sew some, too.

On a recent sunny Saturday, about 26 women gathered to sew dresses for the Dress a Girl Around the World project, which is part of Hope 4 Women International. This organization, founded in 2006 ...

Weber, of Bettendorf, has been sewing for 91 of those 99 years and sews a dress each day for the local LDA group. “It is just what I like to do,” Weber said, without missing a beat.

vlcsnap-2023-04-17-09h49m27s344 A group of Mobile Gardens women who sewed 50 dresses to send to little girls in Malawi. Courtesy of Anne Ford.

The dresses my aunt sewed for us, following in Bubbe’s footsteps Two women in Jennifer Stern’s family were garment workers, like many Jewish immigrants and immigrants’ children at that time.

Dress A Girl Around the World participants from across the world gather for a day or evening of sewing dresses out of pillowcases and fabric. Some of the girls, who are from Third World countries ...