BETTENDORF, Iowa – Lillian Weber hopes to finish a pretty big project by her next birthday.
She's 99 years old, and by May 6, 2015, when she'll celebrate her 100th birthday, Weber hopes to have sewn and donated her 1,000th handmade dress for young girls in Africa.
For the past three years, she has been sewing and stitching nearly 900 dresses for the non-profit organization Little Dresses for Africa.
"It's almost unreal of what I've made at my age, but my fingers are good. I can sew, I can thread," said Weber, adding with a laugh, "I sit here once in awhile and I sing a song to myself."
Weber says she has sewn her own clothes since she was about 8 years old. And even though Weber still makes most of the clothes she wears, she's focused on sewing dresses for girls who really need them.
Dubbed a "sewing celebrity" on the Little Dresses For Africa webpage, Weber has gotten a lot of attention for her mission. She has a special place on the site for people to donate to her 1,000-dress goal.