Giving | Cindy Rice Designs

In the last few weeks I’ve completed 5 dresses for the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes I will make this year. I am getting into a rhythm; my fourth and fifth were completed in only one day!

When I first started thinking of making dresses, I made a Pinterest board with ideas. You can check that board out here.

I’m first digging into my fabric stash and using half yard pieces of fabric that I purchased for doll dresses, but are too large in scale for the little dolls. I can piece two 1/2 yard cuts together and make a dress. Then, I can use scraps to make the pocket, shoulder strap ties, and bias armhole binding.

1st 5 dresses 910

As I write this I am inspired and thinking of Eva, the 101 year-old gorgeous lady who sews dresses for these shoeboxes; she makes 3!!! a day. I saw her video last year and her story has stuck with me all these months later. Would you believe almost 10 million people have watched her video! She must have inspired so many. Now that’s the way to do things! Way to go, Eva!

eva operation christmas child 894

I’ve included a tutorial for the dresses I’m making under the tutorial tab at the top of this page.

On a different note, I want to show you this beautiful sunrise from a couple of weeks ago! The colors in the sky took my breath away.

winter sunrise 860

Have a great week, my friends. If you make any dresses, I’d love to see them.

Yesterday evening I started putting together my Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. I managed to scrounge up 17 of them around the house. Here they are before getting filled. No big deal, right? Easy peasy!

2016-shoeboxes-740

Have you ever deboxed 50 Barbie, Skipper, Stacie, or Kelly dolls? The hair is sewn onto plastic which is sewn onto cardboard. Each doll has multiple heavy (ouch) twist ties. Oh my goodness, what a job! I’m glad I decided to do the deboxing because the poor little girls would probably have had an unhappy start with their new gifts.

I watched a live Facebook video that Operation Christmas Child did and found out that deboxing is fine. In fact, it is encouraged because then more can fit inside the boxes. If you’d like to watch this video scroll down until you see Hannah in purple at their warehouse. (There is no direct link to the video.) I found her presentation very helpful.

So this afternoon I am finally finished with the project; and a project it was. Here are the totals of some of the things I packed:

57 Mattel dolls

28 stuffed animals

17 wash cloths

20 bars of soap

17 boxes of crayons

17 + pads of paper

17 pens

18 pairs of socks

A dozen or more doll outfits

Numerous purses, shoes, accessories for the dolls

Ribbons

Here are all the boxes filled. I left them open to show you the goodies inside.

2016-all-boxes-770

2016-12-boxes-773

2016-12-boxes-771

These dolls are all from my collection. I started collecting them in the early 2000s before I discovered collector dolls. I went a little crazy as you can see. These dolls represent 1/4 to 1/3 of my collection. Yes, I still have tons of dolls left . . . for next year.

You cannot see underneath the dolls, but some of the boxes have brand new doll fashions. I was able to take the trays out of the boxes and trim them down to fit. The clothing is only sewn onto the cardboard, so the girls will be able to take care of that themselves.

I snapped a few photos of my first boxes . . . then I got tired, sorry.

2016-742

2016-743

2016-746

2016-747

2016-750

2016-752

2016-754

2016-756

I ended up adding more stuffed animals and dolls to some of these boxes to fill them up a little more.

After I finished deboxing the dolls I filled up three trash bags!

2016-777

My donation to cover shipping to the warehouse is made, the labels are printed and attached to the cartons, and the boxes are secured with ribbon. I’ll be dropping them off this week. To make things quick and easy there is a drop-off location minutes from my house. I sure hope that my boxes find their way to girls who LOVE dolls.

2016-774