About 30 dresses hang for advent in the Little Flower Catholic Church sanctuary. The dresses, sewn by area ladies, will soon be going to needy children in Africa. Bryce Berginski/PCT

Some little girls in Africa will receive a new dress this year, thanks to a group of ladies from the Rugby area.

Led by Vernice Brossart, 30 ladies sewed 193 dresses for “Little Dresses for Africa”, putting in a combined total of 193 hours – or 45 minutes to one hour per dress.

Regina Eisenzimmer, who was one of the top sewers for the project, found out about the project through the church bulletin and made 39 dresses.

“I do a lot of sewing and I thought that would be a good project,” Eisenzimmer said. “I sewed some (dresses), took ’em back, got some more and kept going like that.”

Originally the goal was to have 100 dresses, sizes 3-12 done by Christmas. The dresses would be sent to a Wisconsin-based sewing store, which would in turn send them to parts of Africa where dresses are needed most.

Brossart found out about the project in February through her sister, Sheila Ingram, of Kentucky.