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December 2, 2010

Crafty mama

A'salaamu alaikum ya'll. Pre-Aaminah I used to do alot of little crafts; nothing too involved but fun for me and my friends or family. Since her birth I've not done so much for obvious reasons.

I've been wanting to be more creative again for a while but I have this rule: No "fun stuff" til the chores are done. So I told myself, ok you can do a project once the house is EXACTLY the way I like it. Which, my dear readers, hasn't happened since I've been married. :-)) Before A, I lived alone for many years and even after Aaminah, it was just she and I for almost her entire first 18 mo. Not too difficult to keep my house just how I like it. Neat, everything in its place, clean, sweet-smelling, etc. etc.

Now well let's just say there is always a pile to be sorted, laundry to be done, papers to go through... it's never ending. :-) So last Saturday while the big kids were in Bukhari school I said (to myself) "Know what? I think you can just ignore all that other stuff. Cause even if you clean it, it'll just be dirty again tomorrow!". Masha'Allah, how liberating it felt to give myself that permission!

Anyway here is what I chose to do: make a long denim skirt for Aaminah. The older girls had outgrown a super-cute (and not yet worn-out) pair of pants, below. Sorry for the cut-off legs; I realized afterwards that I wanted to take pics so I just laid them back in place.


OK great. So I cut the legs off and opened them up on the seam. I used the hemmed botton of the legs to make the hem of the skirt so it has that nice finished look.  Now I would like to say that I did a perfect job but I had 2 factors working against me: 1. I didn't plan it out, just kinda cut and threw it together and 2. I couldn't find my pins to secure the pieces so I just held them as I sewed them. Hmmm yes.

I learned with cross-stitching that the backside should be as neat as the front but this ain't happening with these! See I just kinda took off, spur-of-the-moment, and whipped it up. So the inside seams aren't finished. :-( Really that's a shame for me but I'm just being honest here. I wasn't sure how it would turn out so I was a little lazy with those details. Double shame. :-)

Anyway it turned out super cute and I would love to say that Aaminah adores it but I had to bribe her with a Hershey's white chocolate and peppermint kiss to get her to model it. No joke. And this girl is a clothes hound, she loves pretty things. I said, "Mama made this just for you. Don't you like it?" 

Never ask a toddler for an honest opinion. You get it. ;-)) Anyway I love it and when I marketed it as being supremely modest and therefore pleasing to Allah swt she was happier. Alhamdulillah. lol

Well here are the pics of little miss reluctant model and the (in my opinion, not humble at all) cute skirt:

Here she is, eating her ill-gotten gains. :-)
Close up of the skirt itself

Please tell me you love this little pocket as much as I did. I needed this extra panel to make the skirt A-line and I had the idea to use the back pocket area. I think it's super cute. :-)
What a cute fake-attitude face. Funny girl. :-)
I wanted to show the back of the skirt, and the little opening I left for ease of movement. Then she just struck a pose. I'm not very diva-licious so I don't know where THAT move came from. lol Beautiful hair though masha'Allah!
I wanted to show the side of the skirt with all of the embroidery. She asked to take it off and I told her, no just a few more pictures. LOL She was game but put on a nice pretend pout.
Well at least she did like the pocket, as I predicted. :-)

This just looks so quintessentially India I had to include it. I asked her to put her hands on her knees and she oh-so-gracefully sank down, like a good bhabhi serving chai. lol

Ma salaama ya'll!

9 comments:

HijabiMommy said...

Masha'Allah, how creative!! Love the skirt! And love the little diva...especially the pouty-face picture!

Angelle said...

I love hand sewing, especially embroidery and appliqué. Don't sweat the way it looks on the back; how it looks on the front is the main thing. Adorable! That's how it looks to me. Best of all, it's something from her big sisters so that makes it extra cool.

Stephanie said...

Good for you for letting go and doing something YOU enjoy. It'd be a shame to waste life away doing laundry and cleaning toilets without ever having some of the small and simple enjoyments that make it bearable, you know?

And I am SO not crafty, so I'm always amazed what other people can do. Aminah's skirt is so cute! And so is the model. I just love her. I wish I could just squeeze her cheeks and hug her in real life;)

Umm Aaminah said...

Salaam my sisters! Hijabimommy, thanks for the compliment. It's really easy to do; I am by no means a seamstress. I felt kinda bad using these pants bec they were in excellent shape but I loved the embroidery so much I just had to!

Angelle, I stopped by your blog (you probably saw my comments) and I am in awe of your creativity masha'Allah. I didn't do this stitching, it was on the jeans already, but I am itching to try my hand at some. Insha'Allah one day I'll remember that. lol

Steph, you know my life is like a pendulum. When I was younger, ALL I did was what I wanted with my boys and housework be damned. That didn't work out too well as you can imagine. :-) Then I went to almost the other extreme (after my divorce and the boys were with their dad alot). I discovered my household diva side and became a little too caught up. I am trying to regain my balance again but the GUILT of it. lol From myself.

You know one picture of Somaya really stays in my mind; I think it was from Eid last year; pudgy hands sticky with sugar and a mouthful of candy. It was too sweet in BOTH ways. :-) Masha'Allah we are blessed with beautiful children!

Amnah said...

Mashallah, you're little girl is adorable in her new cute skirt.

Sometimes I'll feel guilty about leaving a mess and sitting down to sew or craft. But I figure as long as my kids are fed than I'm good for at least another 2 hours.

Mona Zenhom said...

That's adorable! I can't sew very well, I should learn. It looks great!

Chloe said...

This is absolutely adorable.. both the skirt and little Aminah :)

Making older clothes into something totally different is one of my favorite passtimes. Hand sewing is so relaxing to me, that most times tailor my husbands clothes before he can run off to some shop (the way they do hems makes me shudder). As for my own, they change function and personality often, lol.

I am so happy to you gave yourself time to do this. It feels so rewarding.

Umm Aaminah said...

Amnah, you are right; as long as the important things are done, I'm trying to learn to let go of the little stuff. Don't sweat it, right? ;-)

Mona, its really fun to make things especially for girls. :-) I just feel like there is alot more room for creativity; you aren't stuck with blue, red or orange and dinosaurs and trucks! lol

Khadra, you are too crafty! I hope you put some of your projects on your blog. I just recently took a mandarin-style collar off a brand-new ($$$) thobe of my husbands because it really annoyed him. I am now trying to figure out how to make it look presentable. If only he wore hijab... LOL

UmmAbdulAziz said...

Oh my, MashaAllaah! What a pretty sweet girl you have! MashaAllaah. And skirt is beautiful, that pocket is adding cuteness to it as well as embroidery :) Good work!