Helping Hands Ministry provides fashionable gifts of love

No matter where she may live, nothing can bring a smile to a little girl’s face easier than a new dress. With that in mind, a group of women based in Slidell have spent the past two years sewing close to 3,000 pillow case dresses for impoverished young girls across the world.

The women behind this effort, under the title of the Helping Hands Ministry, are led by Betty Thomas. Thomas was attending her church’s Holy Convocation in 2010 when the speaker asked each person in the audience, "Do you have a vision?"

“It just struck me and I said, ‘God, I don’t have a vision and I need one’,” said Thomas.

Later she was looking at sewing entrepreneur Nancy Zimmerman’s website and saw Nancy’s plan to try to give every little girl living in Africa and in need a new dress. “I knew then I could help with that,” said Thomas.

An avid quilter and seamstress, Thomas started sewing the simple sleeveless dresses at home. She then encouraged her fellow members of the Camellia Quilters Guild to add to the stack of finished outfits ready for mailing. Soon brightly colored fabrics and pretty ribbons were becoming new dresses at sewing workshops with the Picayune Piecemakers Quilt guild, and at community churches in Slidell and as far away as Varnado, La. She keeps a scrapbook of photos from each workshop.

 Thomas was hauling sewing machines and supplies to the Slidell library for the weekly quilt guild bee to increase interest in the project. Due to the great number of weekly volunteers who committed to the project, Thomas now has the ladies meet at her home. Whirling sewing machines cover her dining room table, cutting boards are used on the living room floor, and ironing boards line the kitchen counters.

The dresses, and now short sets for boys, have gone to Uganda, Honduras, Haiti, and beyond. During a recent workday, Thomas received a message from a missionary in Mali that received a shipment of dresses. “The war in Mali is impacting everything,” said Thomas.

Working together in the Thomas home on a recent Tuesday afternoon, more than a dozen women sat cutting, pinning, sewing and enjoying the camaraderie. Some had known Thomas for years through church gatherings, and some were sewing with the group for the first time.

 “We didn’t know anything about quilting when we started. But Betty was our teacher and now we’re teaching others,” said Mildred Strickland, while tying a brightly colored quilt destined for a local homeless shelter. She and fellow quilters Shirley Rudolph and Geneva Carter have known Thomas for decades through church.

The workday was the first for Betty Van Tuyl. She had learned of the project at the library and wanted to help. “This is my first day and it’s a lot of fun,” sayd Van Tuyl, as she put cute 101 Dalmatian fabric for a pair of little boy shorts through the machine. A good-natured vibe ran through the house, along with the chugging of sewing machines in action.

All the dresses, shorts and quilts are made from donated materials. The group welcomes donations of fabric, ribbons, clean used jeans and trim to turn into the clothes and quilts that are needed and appreciated by their recipients, said Thomas.