The Fashion Club hosted a charity sewing event on March 13 to transform pillowcases into dresses for young children in need in Africa.

Susan Lazaer, advisor of the Fashion Club, orchestrated the sewing event not only to help children in Africa, but to help the students of Mesa College as well. The event was open to anyone on campus, including graduates, faculty and even those not enrolled in the college. Lazear said, “We like to make sure we offer something to our students that is community service oriented”. This is the second time the Fashion Club has hosted this event, and plans to do the same type of sewing event later in the semester.

Many of Mesa’s faculty also joined the cause and assisted in making the dresses. Advanced Composition professor Sandia Tuttle is close to the founder of the elementary school where the dresses will be sent to in Rwanda. An email was sent out recently explaining the event, inspring Tuttle to help. “It sounded like something I would like to be involved in because I like to sew”, Tuttle said.

Sewing skills were not necessary for the event, as many fashion students and faculty lent a hand to those who had little to no experience.

The room was set up with rows of tables, chairs, and sewing machines for everyone to use, as well as separate station for ironing, threading and cutting. Fashion design major Justin K, helped iron the pillowcases needed to be cut. “Even if I’m not designing the clothes, I’m still a part of the process”, K said, “When it comes down to it, I like helping”.

The Fashion Club has hosted other charity events, such as decorating homes for young mothers, and making tote bags for soldiers. These events help provide extracurricular activities for fashion students. Since there was a heavy surplus of donations from the event, Lazear will host another sewing event later in the semester on April 10 from 4 to 6 pm in room B104. This event mainly focused on creating pillowcase dresses for young girls in Africa, but boys clothes are in the works, Lazear stated that the template is, “To be in the future!”

The dresses made from pillowcases will be sent to the local elementary school in Rwanda, but similar organizations, such as Little Dresses for Africa, accept handmade clothing for children in need as well.