Busy Hands Make Dresses for Girls in Need

SHAWNEE, OKLA. – If you happen to meet Linda White, retired home health aide and speech pathologist, she might just have a thimble on her finger and a sewing needle in her hand.

White started sewing at the age of 6 or 7, following in her mother’s footsteps. “I just developed a passion for sewing by watching my mom,” White said. “She was always sewing.”

A resident of Shawnee and a member of the Shawnee Seventh-day Adventist Church, White recently completed 80 girls’ sundresses to place in shoeboxes that the church packaged for Operation Christmas Child to distribute to children around the world.

“Each dress was different and unique,” White shared. “Some had different colored straps. Others had lace, rick rack or pockets. There may have been two cut out of the same fabric if it was a large bolt, but they were still different.”

Norma Adams, a fellow church member and seamstress, donated three-fourths of the fabric White used to make the dresses.

White made her own patterns for the dresses. “I tried to be intentional for the 2-to-4-year-olds, and the 5-to-9-year-olds, and then the 10-to-14-year-olds. I’d find a look on Pinterest that I liked and then I’d make my own.”

White said she used her Baby Lock Rachel sewing machine to make the dresses. It took her several months to complete 80 dresses.

“My mom had a treadmill sewing machine that I learned on,” White said. “It would have taken forever for me to make the dresses on it, but I still have mom’s machine to this day.”

White perfected her sewing skills in home economics classes in junior high. Now she makes quilt tops, embroideries, knits and crochets.

“I just love to keep my hands busy,” she said, “and it’s nice when I’m doing something for others.” 

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By Keith Dobbs

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