Hope Cycle Refashions

Sex Trafficking.

What does that term make you think of?
Prostitution?
Something that happens in another country?

http://www.georgiafamily.com/articles.aspx?articleID=387

Do you think of a twelve year old girl who is raped and then blackmailed into a lifestyle of fear and pain?
Do you think of a sixteen year old who meets a boyfriend online, goes to meet him, and is kidnapped and shipped from motel to motel and sold every night to countless men?
Do you think of twenty year olds who have tried to run away, and are beaten, raped, tortured, or forced to watch the other girl get tortured?

This is happening in our towns, in our downtowns, on our docks, within our borders. According to the FBI, Human Trafficking "is the fastest-growing business of organized crime and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world." The majority of youth who become victims of sex trafficking either live on the street or come from homes where they were abused or abandoned. The average age females are first victimized is 12-14, and for boys and 'transgendered' youths it is 11-13. (source)

It is a dark world, full of evil, evil people.

But we have a very good God! Even though sin reigns in the hearts of men, God is in control. He hates wickedness. He has the power to stop all evil at once, but God is incredibly patient and loving and not willing that any should perish - and He is also a just God who says that there are consequences for sin (ie, there are victims - both the sinner and others around them). I think it is also true that God will not generally do by miracle what we are to do by obedience.

Who was it who once said that evil will reign when good men sit by and do nothing?

LET'S DO SOMETHING.

I'm poor and busy. You might be, too. But I want to do something to make an impact and fight against Sex Trafficking in America.

Enter Hope Cycle Refashions.

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Hope Cycle is an online store I created where donated or thrifted clothes (mainly dresses) are refashioned into more wearable items. All profit from the sales will be donated to The Polaris Project and an as-yet-undecided Christian group or safe house.

What can you do?
Hope Cycle isn't just my project - I need your help!

*Donate clothes
   As previously stated, I'm poor. Without donations, Hope Cycle will cease to exist.

*Volunteer as a model
   It's hard to find people who are willing to let me take their picture! I need YOU!

*Volunteer as a co-creator
   Hope Cycle isn't taking off as fast as I'd wish, since I'm working full-time. If you'd like to help me refashion dresses, I'd love the help!

*Pray
  Pray for the victims. Pray for the abusers. Pray for the policemen/authorities who are hunting them down. Pray for the counselors and safe-house workers who will try to rehabilitate the victims. Pray that YOU will have the boldness to give the love of Jesus to whomever you meet!
  Pray for Hope Cycle. I want this to be used of God, and not just another charity knock-off. I want souls to be saved, as well as lifestyles changed. Pray that God will give me wisdom as I look for a Christian organization or safe-house to donate to, and possibly work with.

Our God is good and powerful; let's see what He will do! Let's give hope to the hopeless!

The Purple Roses Dress - (mostly) no-sew dress refashion!

Inspired by the fabulous Refashionista, I got excited to try turning some old clothes of mine that I don't wear much into things that will fit better and be something I might wear on a daily basis. (This, combined with a few other events, is also the building block for HopeCycle Refashions, which I'll be presenting in another post soon!)

So here is my very first dress refashion!

It started out as a Bridesmaids dress in my lovely friend Rachel's wedding. I wore it to an Artist Series or two at school, but once I graduated, there wasn't much opportunity to wear it again.

And so the refashioning began!

I removed the bow from the front, held it up to me to approximate a knee-length skirt, and chopped it!

It looks lopsided here, but it really wasn't. At least . . . it isn't anymore.

I then looked up some rose-stencil ideas online, and got to work with my wood burning tool. Since the material is synthetic (probably some kind of polyester-satin-look-a-like), it melts incredibly easily. I just used the pointed tips of my wood burner to cut right through the fabric.

sizzle!

I placed a board nobody cared about underneath. That wood burner will burn straight through the carpet, so BE CAREFUL if you want to experiment with this! (I may or may not know this from personal experience . . .)

I did the same thing with the hem. My sewing machine wasn't in working order, and I didn't feel like hemming it by hand, so I cut a leaf/petal pattern around the bottom (through the outer material first, and then the lining).
  You'll also notice the black belt is gone. I was unsure about taking it off at first, since it was sewed into the zipper seam, but I decided to just rip the seams out and hand-sew up that little bit. Worked out just fine. :)

I also decided that the beading around the neckline and sleeves was too bridesmaid-ish, and had to go. THAT took a while . . .

Pluck . . . pluck . . . pluck . . . saving those beads for another project!

I continued the rose stencil pattern up around the skirt (which you'll see in the final picture), and did the same pattern along the sleeve hems as I did the skirt hem.

   There was puckering left along the neckline from where I'd seam-ripped out those beads, so I covered it over (or distracted from it) with a rose-vine pattern, my wood burner set on a slightly lower setting so as not to burn all the way through the material.

If you aren't used to doing this, I recommend practicing on scrap material first. I'm a reckless fool, so I just went for it.

And voila! Dress brought back to life in a cute new way, and will look good at both formal and more casual events - which was my hope.

This dress is going to be for sale on HopeCycle Refashions on Etsy- which I'll be talking about in my  next post! :D

Much love!
~Holly

The Back Porch (#24)

Wow - it's been WAY too long since I've written anything! My apologies! And I'm so close to the end of this exercise, too. XD (As always, this exercise is inspired by N.D. Wilson via www.ndwilson.com)
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   It was a quiet afternoon, the sun streaming across the roughly mottled cement of the back porch, shadows from the railings stretching long and thin and pouring over the other side. The sky was a bright, clear blue, the clouds gloriously blinding in their whiteness. A small bird-house sat empty on a wire plant-stand. Small white flowers had hazarded the still-chilly nights and bloomed along the vines that draped over the bushes.
   The light faded, brightened, and then faded again as a particularly thick cloud drifted lazily over the sun, the shadows on the back porch shifting to a pale blue and then to a starker contrast, like a camera trying to find its focus.
   The skin of the back porch was rough, slightly sandy to the touch, with hordes of gravel pieces poking through where the smooth surface had eroded away with the rain. Just a taste of green was along the edges of the cement square, moss or algae that could only dream of growing into full form.
   The sun, beaming out once again, bathes the back porch in a golden glow. If one could drink that light, it would rush down your throat in a warm tingle that would fill your entire being with a sleepy, glowing kind of light. It would taste of honey, and you would dream sweet, golden dreams.