Once again, I sewed dresses for the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. My husband, daughter, and I dropped the finished shoeboxes off yesterday afternoon. Phew, that’s done until January, when I’ll start again for the 2023 season. Now to focus on gifts closer to home. Btw, through the years I think practically all of my boxes have gone to a country on the African continent.

My goal was to make two dresses every month, January through October, which was easy enough to do. Towards the end of the year I also made some little stuffies to put in the dress pockets. I think I will do that for each dress next year. And, maybe make scrunchies, too. I have sooo much fabric and hand made items are special. At least, I think so. If you have any other ideas I’d love to hear them.

I didn’t change the dress pattern at all. I used different fabrics from those used in 2021so that made it fun. I am a fabric junkie–I love it! Also, each dress uses four different fabrics: main dress fabric, pocket, ties, and bias binding. Back when (not sure how many years ago that was) I started sewing these dresses I wrote a tutorial in case anyone was interested. It’s on my website here. Ha ha! I even used my own tutorial in January of this year after taking a couple of months off of sewing.

Here are the little bunny treasures to be found in the pockets. Except for the lemon bear; she was a bit too tall for the pocket.

I love lemon bear, but she was so fiddly to make. I don’t think I could get enough of them made without going batty. She looks innocent enough, but nope, she’s a bit fussy. I had to rip out the stitching where her legs attach to her body three times before they looked nice. At the last minute I found a pair of Kish Chrysalis shorts that fit her and sent those along. She has a polymer clay cupcake in her purse.😋 She is sweet though, isn’t she?

As we put the shoeboxes together we made a mess of the dining room. The fuzzy plush bears were added to the boxes that didn’t have one of the hand made bunnies.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my shoeboxes for 2022. I pray that they find their way into the little arms of a little girl that they would be perfect for.

Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate. If not, wishing you a beautiful week!

Thank you for visiting with me today. I appreciate you so much! Sending hugs🤗op