Stitch 4 Kids NZ is seeking cotton fabric donations for their current project ‘Dresses for Timor-Leste’.
Shortly after moving from Napier to South Wairarapa in 2021, Stitch 4 Kids NZ founder Annie Woodhams was diagnosed with multiple myeloma – a blood cancer. While recovering from chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, Annie was looking for an enjoyable project that was easy to do with her limited energy.
‘My first thought was that I could make little girls dresses, something creative that I’ve always enjoyed doing, and donate them to children in need’, says Annie.
‘When discussing my idea with a family member and deciding what I wanted to achieve with this project it was suggested that Timor-Leste was a potential country that would welcome the dresses.’
Thanks to a family members’ contacts this suggestion led to a meeting with the Timor-Leste Ambassador to New Zealand, Her Excellency Felicidade de Sousa Guterres, in December last year. The meeting was very successful, ending with the Ambassador giving the project her full support.
‘I’m also a member of Featherston’s WoRN Cloth Collective. We use donated fabrics and notions to sew items for charity, for example, beanies for the Cancer Society,’ says Annie. “We had a lot of donated cotton fabric perfect for making dresses for little girls that we could use.”
‘I took my idea to the members of WoRN and they jumped on board. All the dresses so far have been made by WoRN members but I also have friends around the country who are sewing to help the cause.
‘We’re aiming to have at least 100 dresses made by the end of March with the Ambassador herself taking them to communities in need in Timor-Leste in April’, Annie says.
With over 50 dresses made so far the contributors are on track to surpass the target but more cotton fabric and bias binding is urgently needed.
‘We have had donations already from fellow sewers cleaning out their ‘stash’, we’ve used up our own and WoRNs’ stashes and now we need more. I’m hoping there’s lots of people out there who will support such a worthy cause.’
If you would like to donate fabric, thread or bias binding, you can email Annie at stitch4kidsnz@gmail.com or visit www.stitch4kids.nz for patterns and more information.
