Dress for Success

Valley seamstresses are changing little girls' lives, one dress at a time

By Brettan Bablove

Christmas has come early for the girls of one South Scottsdale neighborhood, and even though Santa Claus is the guest of honor at their holiday block party, thrown by the City of Scottsdale, it is the stacks of handmade dresses from the One Dress at a Time organization that put the biggest grins on their faces.

The dresses are the hit of the party. Swaying on a clothing rack and spread out to cover an entire table are nearly 50 beautiful, lovingly crafted pieces—bright holiday prints, plush velvet, cheery cotton, soft corduroy. Many dresses even come with tiny surprises—matching purses, hair barrettes, stuffed toys—for the girls of all ages and sizes who crowd the One Dress table, pressing several outfits to their chests, hardly able to choose just one.

For many of these girls, and hundreds of other Valley children whose families struggle with poverty, the homemade dresses will be the only brand-new pieces of clothing they have ever owned.

One Dress at a Time was born from founder Toni Pugliano’s love for sewing, and, aptly, began with just one woman and one batch of clothes. “I have two daughters, but they grew up, and I didn’t have anymore little girls to sew for,” Pugliano explains, “so, in summer when I wasn’t working, I decided to make dresses with extra fabric I had. I found I was too late for the back-to-school program, so I connected with the Volunteer Center [in Phoenix], and they were very, very receptive.”

And so the organization started small, with the Volunteer Center acting as a distributor for a handful of Pugliano’s sewing creations, until she began getting more urgent calls. “They said, ‘We were hoping you’d come by, because we’ve had a couple of calls from schools who need clothing,” Pugliano explains.

Soon after, teachers and principals from low-income school districts began contacting Pugliano. “Teachers wrote and told me that dresses were the things that were most loved, because many little girls had never had a dress, especially a new dress,” she says. Next, Pugliano created the One Dress at a Time moniker, and the word spread quickly, initially through a newspaper article that ran during the holiday season, when much new clothing are needed. “I got so many responses; people were so interested,” says Pugliano. “I thought, ‘Wow, there are a lot people out there who’d like to do this.’”

Pugliano discovered that One Dress provided many women (especially retired women) an outlet for their creativity, as well as a way to give back. “People say, ‘I have been looking for something to do and [One Dress] is perfect. I can do it in my home, there are no meetings, no dues, and I can do it at my leisure.’” These days, Pugliano has women from as far as Alaska and Illinois that send boxes of dresses and fabric to be shared through schools, giveaways and neighborhood parties like the South Scottsdale holiday celebration.

The feedback Pugliano has received has been tremendous, very moving and inspiring—“I have a huge scrapbook of letters, pictures and photos from people who have gotten dresses,” she says. She shares a few: A photo of two sisters who fell so in love with one blue dress that they agreed to share it, switching off days of the week to wear it. A letter with a child’s handwriting, calling Pugliano the “dress fairy.” A librarian who notes, “Anna will be modeling her dress in our school fashion show … I’m sure it was the first new, beautiful dress that some of these girls have ever had.” A book of thank you’s and crayon drawings and proof of life-changing moments.

“About a year ago, I got a letter from a lady who had seen [One Dress] on the Sewing with Nancy show. She wrote me quite a long letter, this amazing letter about when she was a young person in very dire circumstance, and a neighbor lady made a dress for her and the meaning that it had for her … what it meant that someone cared about her,” Pugliano relates. “These are the things that make you think, this is really worth it. You never know how you’re going to touch somebody, even if they’re just 6 or 7 years old.”

Visit www.onedress.org or call 602.840.1447 to get involved. Don’t sew? One Dress at a Time also welcomes monetary and fabric donations.