Ugandan dresses from Teso

Description

Our sewing hub in Teso, Uganda would like to present to you four fabric designs, all in different cotton prints. Our sewing hub in Teso works in partnership with the TANU vocational skills centre, led by Joel. Joel is eager to see his local community flourish. TANU run classes in subjects like carpentry, building, computer repairs and business skills as well as sewing and tailoring. Rachael is the production manager for the tailoring department.

These four dresses are available for order over the next 6 weeks. On 8th July we will order the dresses and they will hopefully arrive late August/ early September. We would love to be able to bless this hard working and enthusiastic team of people. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them over this last year, I have been welcomed into their community, admittedly only virtually so far, but one day I would like to change that. It would be a privilege to visit in-person and hug the people and I’m getting to know so well, and respect so dearly.

We’d like to use this opportunity to experiment a little with our pricing. We’re using local Ugandan pricing given to us by the team at TANU, to set our RRP. This covers their costs for fabric, labour, postage and a little extra for their running costs and to bless the business enterprise growth at TANU, along with a 15% handling fee so we can pay staff this end to do everything they need to do to get the dress to you safely (and pay banking, website and other fees!)

This pricing offer ends on 8th July, at which point we will review how successful it has been.

You will notice the price is considerably lower than our normal RRP as we usually aim to bless in a way that reflects our UK economy. We are exploring alternative ways to do that. Please do consider adding a donation into your basket to help us grow, build more sewing hubs and support others from different places in the world. We can’t continue to train others without your support. A £3 donation will help us buy resources like thread, labels or even some hospitality at a UK community hub. A £30 donation could buy a sewing kit for one of our beneficiaries, fabric for a class or even some teaching time for one of our sewing hubs to improve their skills. We can do a lot with £300, this could buy as many as 3 sewing machines, increasing capacity at one hub or helping us start a new one, it could also enable us to provide a full term of teaching.

The choice of dresses are:

Bright Red Leaf: made from 100% cotton, is made from a ‘London wax’. The red trim really sets off the grass green and dark chocolate over lay.

Colourful butterfly: is a stunning ‘real wax’ 100% cotton print in orange, emerald green, royal blue and black. The orange trim adds boldness to the butterflies.

Jade wax and tie: is a 100% cotton Bartic tie and wax print from Ghana. The free style design celebrates the uniqueness of the fabric production.

Reflections in the water: is 100% cotton Bartic print from Tanzania. I love the depth of this print and the layers that remind me of the light shimmering off the surface of the lake as the summer breeze cools the air.

Our Dorcas dress is a dress for all seasons of life, including pregnancy and nursing. Place dress over head. Thread back ties through the loops and tie at the back. Pleat fabric flat under pocket. Wrap the front bodice around the back and draw the ties to the front, tying in a bow to sit over or under the bodice.

Our size-adjustable dress was specially designed so it could be made in remote parts of the world, just like Teso, where access to electricity is limited and sourcing trimmings difficult.

With your help and purchase we are able to support people out of situations of hardship by providing training, resources and pastoral care. We model our charity on our namesake Dorcas: a dressmaker from the early church, who welcomed others into her group, shared her sewing skills and took care of the marginalised in her community.