Mama’s Brand New Bag (insha’allah)

This is the fabric for my new bag.

My Old Bag

My old bag has served me faithfully for four years now. It’s just now starting to show signs of wear & tear.
Surprised me.
Yet I must exercise my sewing skills and thrive for more awesome-ness.
Now I just make my own bag just because I have a choice in the color, construction and fabric. So I’m now planning out a new, improved one. The pattern of choice is Make Baby Stuff.com’s free baby bag pattern. The pattern is very useful and you can customize your baby bag to your heart’s content.
My old bag had

• one strap (eats into my shoulder sometimes)
• inside pockets that are useless (too small)

The new bag’s plans are

• wider shoulder strap plus tote straps.
• Improved pockets
• Re-enforced bottom (I have grown to dislike the saggy bottom)
• More colors

I will keep you posted on this project. Insha’allah.

D&J Curtain Project

Next sewing project is Dick & Jane Curtains.

Old school back again. Sew the next curtain. Now let's begin.
Say: Dick & Janeeeeeee!!!

That's right.
Dick & Jane curtains.
I grew up on Dick & Jane, my mom read it to me and they are great reader books. Teacher Cindy at my daughter's school commissioned me to sew her some new curtains for her classroom. She is a Dick & Jane fan and she loves to use Dick & Jane books in her class. I'm looking forward to seeing how the curtains will look in the classroom, insha'allah.

See Gail match up cloth.

See Gail sew.

See Zaynab read curtains.

"Go and tell Daddy, Zaynab," says Mommy.

It took me about 45 minutes to match up the prints. I want to conserve as much fabric as possible while showing off the lovely prints on the fabric. I got five windows to do, two plain pair of panels, two pairs with a little design, and one showcase piece, insha'allah.

Sally: "I can have a Decaf Viente Latte with Toffenut Flavor, please?"

Well back to work.

Recent Projects

I love working late night into early morning, hubby hates it but I love it.
The world is much quieter, my Zaynab would be asleep and I tend to notice things a whole lot better.
I just can't put my finger on why I love working at night.
This time I was preparing my muslin fabric early in the morning when I noticed that I used canned food to weight down my patterns while cutting. In the past, I used my roommate's canned cat food and it worked very well. I wanted some nice weights and I did some research.
I found:
DIY Pattern Weights
Great tutorial on pattern weights. Here mine at the moment.

Update: stuffed them with scraps and pennies.

I made Zaynab a very nice dress for a picnic at the local masjid however my grandmother passed away so she wore it to the funeral. Everyone thought she was adorable. I made a matching pair of bloomers for the dress too.

A beautiful built-in lining/petticoat. 

I ventured out to the local thrift to buy bedspreads for my Eid 2011 muslin and I found a super bad grab-bag of mostly sewing stuff. Can't argue with $1.40. 

I got these cool sewing accessories along with Singer needles and other sewing nick-knacks. 

A cool 1/4 seam foot.

And a hemming guide

Tune in for more projects.

Hubby's New DIY Izar

Today I started a DIY Tailored Izar for my husband. I got the inspiration from the utilikilt. The utilikilt/kilt was great for design but too short for my husband's Islamic dress code needs.

Yes, Muslim men do have a dress code in Islam, they have to cover themselves from their navel to their ankles. One of the dress codes for Muslim men is that their garments must not drag the ground or end above the knee. Also they cannot wear silk or gold.

I wanted an izar that looked tailored yet simple make & could be made with old garments. An izar, from my understanding, is basically a simple length of cloth that is pleated and tied around the midsection. Islamically, the izar was worn by men and women however today it's more of a men's garment. The izar can be a simple tube skirt with elastic or drawstring waistband to a tailored garment with pockets and studs. The skies's the limit on this garment.

Im still working on the izar and will be more than happy to update this as soon as Im finished, insha'allah

****Islamic correction as of October 30, 2013: The original ruling on the Muslim men's dress code is from their navels to their knees. ****

My First Entry

Assalaam waliekum and hello, everyone. My name is Gail.

And this is my first blog.

I wanted to do a blog on sewing Islamic clothing and exchange ideas on sewing and possibly other cool things I come across.

I dont have much to say now b/c Im not use to blogging on a regular basis.