Just Following Along

Recently a facebook friend posted a link for making little dresses to send to orphaned children in Africa. I thought it was a wonderful idea and was excited about getting started. I still had a small amount of fabric on hand that would do nicely. Most of my craft items I had previously given away because I didn't think I would need them anymore.

I had the fabric, but to complete the dresses I also needed double faced bias tape to finish the armholes and trims such as rick rack. No such items appeared at my fingertips in the containers they should have been in. Great! I began to search our wonderful little town for the missing items. Our Wal-Mart store got rid of the fabric department because the powers that be decided they weren't selling enough product. Do you idiots realize that there are a ton of crafters in our town?

Frustrated, I checked everywhere, even the dollar stores, of which we have an abundance, and the thrift shops, just in case. No luck! I asked people I knew if they had anything they didn't need. Most were in the same boat that I was in, they had already given their stash away.

Disgruntled, I was afraid I would have to put this super idea on hold until I could go to Gallup or Albuquerque, 60 and 73 miles away. A friend said she was going to be going out of town later in the month and invited me to tag along. It wasn't ideal, but I decided to take her up on her offer, besides we were planning to have lunch at a restaurant that had more to offer than Mexican food. Yea!

Saturday, an idea popped into my head that was so strong I followed up on it. I had previously checked our only craft store and found nothing I needed. My idea was to ask the owner if she could order the bias tape I was unsuccessfully trying to obtain. Sometimes living in a small town is great because I have known people for years.

Guess what? When I told Shirley what I needed she pointed to a display she had just put out of some leftover notions. I immediately picked up the three packages of bias tape on the shelf, exactly what I needed to make six of the little dresses. She said she was wiling to order anything as long as she was reasonably certain she could sell it. I promised I would pass the word along to people that I am sure will be very grateful.

Because I just followed along I found what I needed, acquired information that will help other customers and the owner of the store and created enough dresses to make six little girls in a far off country happy. Below is one of the little dresses I just put in the mail. Notice the chili peppers, a definite sign of the southwest.