OXNARD : Students Dress Up Toys for the Needy

Instead of the usual maps, charts and posters, the walls of Evonne Peterson’s classroom at Oxnard High School are lined with about 200 colorful, baby doll dresses.

Students in Peterson’s adult education sewing class and a few volunteers have been cutting, pinning and stitching their way to a merry Christmas for needy children. The dresses they create will clothe the 300 dolls the Salvation Army will give away this year as holiday presents.

“Some of the students spend days finishing and perfecting their dresses so they make a worthy gift,” said Peterson, who teaches sewing to about 150 women, mostly senior citizens.

“It’s important to us that everything comes out just right because this may be the only gift a child gets.”

For student Rose Guerrette, getting it just right entails putting 14 pins in each sleeve before sewing it, finishing the seams and adding accessories such as necklaces. The Oxnard resident made 50 of the dresses. And after that much practice, each dress takes an average of only four hours to sew. But some special outfits, with a lot of bows and lace, can take up to 10 hours, she said.

“I try to make every single dress different by using different materials and different trimmings like pockets and buttons and such,” Guerrette said. All the students use one basic pattern with a simple bodice, puffed sleeves and a gathered skirt.

One dress is a replica of an old-fashioned uniform once used by the Salvation Army. Another is a wedding gown with lace-trimmed veil. Some include fancy pantaloons. Others have umbrellas to match.

Joy Yates, who heads the dress-making program, makes some of the doll dresses displayed in the main branch of the Oxnard Public Library.

In addition to coordinating the sewing program and making some of the dresses, Yates will clothe the 300 dolls in petticoats and dresses. The dolls will travel to the Oxnard Corps of the Salvation Army, where they will be placed among the many other toys--games, books and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures. Then mothers from the participating families will go to the office and choose a toy for each child.

When Peterson’s class starts up again in January, students will begin making dresses for next year.

“My walls look so boring and plain once the dresses are taken down,” Peterson said. “But it’s good to know that something you spend so much time creating, something so personal, is being enjoyed by a child who truly needs it.”