Dresses for needy girls
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on November 30, 2015 1:46 PM
News-Argus staff photo
Mary Casey of Goldsboro has sewn 670 dresses for little girls in recent years, as part of an effort called "Dress a Girl Around the World," with handmade clothes delivered to schools and orphanages.
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News-Argus staff photo
Sewn into each piece of clothing is the tag "Dress a Girl Around the World," for the organization that started the initiative.
Just call Mary Rose Casey a material girl.
Give her a yard of fabric and a sewing machine and in less than two hours she can whip up a dress.
She has been providing frocks for girls ages 6-10 as part of the effort, "Dress a Girl Around the World," for nearly three and one-half years.
It has been a "labor of love," she says.
"I lost my husband in March 2011 and started doing this in April 2012," she said. "This has given me something to do, to keep from being lonely."
She devoted the last years of Martin Casey's life to being his caregiver. Then in 2012, she had her own health battle with breast cancer. Having a diversion proved to be therapeutic, she said.
"I had done sewing all my life. I made a lot of my daughter's clothes," she said. "All my sisters do quilting and I have done some of that but I don't care for the precision stuff."
And then she learned about an organization called Hope for Women International, which sponsored the effort to provide dresses for little girls in other countries.
"They're hand-delivered," she said. "They're taken by doctors who go to these places. They visit schools and orphanages. They go anywhere they're needed but the ones that I have made have been taken by people that go on mission trips.
"We have sent dresses to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Uganda, Mexico and to a Navajo reservation in Arizona."
She has three sisters, all of whom have worked on the sewing project, adopted by a home extension clubs in the state in 2012, Mrs. Casey said.
"They had workshops to teach us how to make them," she said. "My sister in Winston-Salem is a home extension member. She thought it was a fascinating project. When I visited her, we would work on them."
Mrs. Casey usually works in the sewing room of her home and periodically one of her sisters, responsible for collecting the homemade dresses and shipping them off, will pay a visit to Goldsboro to pick up the items.
"These are simple. It's just fun," she said of the project. "They come in different sizes. Most of the ones that I have made have been medium size."
It takes about a yard of fabric to make a medium dress, she explained. She provides all the materials and notions, with friends who quilt or craft passing along remnants to use for the trim.
Originally, the project called for the dresses to be made from pillowcases, she said.
"But you can't get pillowcases that are pretty," she said. "And they're expensive."
Plus, she likes to create her own unique design.
"It's basically the same pattern," she said. "It takes anywhere from one and one-half to two hours to make a dress and it's fun to select the materials, decide how to trim it and I think about the girl that's going to wear it. I say a little prayer for them."
The sundresses are relatively easy to make, the seamstress says.
"It's all sewing machine work. It's simple. No handwork," she said. "They have a pocket for their treasures and they have elastic (at the top) so it's one size fits all.
"You can trim them however you want. I try to make one that I would want my granddaughter to wear."
The mother of four actually has five grandchildren and is expecting her first great-grandchild, she says proudly.
The project "suits me to a T," she said with a smile.
"I do one dress at a time," she said. "I complete one, think about it and I think about the little girl that's going to wear it. I feel like I have accomplished something when I finish it."
And while she may not have boarded a plane and delivered any of the 670 dresses she said she has made, a part of her goes into each one.
"See this little tag," she says, pointing to the label attached to each dress, bearing the words, "Dress a Girl Around the World."
"I've heard that in some of these countries they are very superstitious and there's human trafficking," she said. "They might see that label and think, 'This child is blessed' and leave them alone. I don't know if that's true or not but it's a good thought."
Mrs. Casey recently sent off her latest batch of dresses. And every now and again, she gets a glimpse of where they end up.
"I have had some pictures of girls and I recognize some of our dresses," she said. "It's great.
"It's just been a great experience and I don't have any plans to stop."