Our Eid This Year

Now here's an update on our Aidilfitri this year. HB, Alhamdulillah was on leave for 4 days despite his decision not to apply for raya leaves. His reason was merely to make it fair to the other colleagues. You see ever since I'm married to him, he has always been around with us on the first day of raya. There was once though when he had to operate the 4am flight to Kota Kinabalu on the 1st of Syawal. His duty ended before 8am hence decided to fly back to KL to be with us on raya morning. Sent him off to the airport later that evening to continue his duty.

Aidilfitri this year was not tiring for him. He started his leave 2 days before Syawal. Unlike the years before which ends on the eve. He had his ample rest.

As usual we were in Klang. I managed to arrange the girls' Saturday schedule so that we were free a day before Syawal. The plan was to shoot early to Klang & help my MIL with things. Instead we reached Klang around 2pm.

I felt bad but my PILs were cool about it. In fact this year I hardly gave a helping hand. I was busy finishing up my last minute beadings. But Sri was around to help her.

Did I tell you that I slept at 2am to complete sewing those beads? I chose to retire & continue to sew in the morning.

The first thing HB asked when he woke up was about the beading. His concern over my unfinished attire surprised me. You see he is not a man with sweet words. Ever since I started sewing, his best comment was merely, "OKlah...". That goes the same to my cooking so I am kind ofused to his limited praising vocabs.

I was not sure whether he was aware of what he was saying. It was something like " I'd help if I can but I really don't know how to sew those beads. Kalau siap cantik ni...". Trust me those encouraging words made me going until
2am.

In my previous post I shared how the baju turned out. And here are some pictures of us on Aidilfitri this year.

Raya banner this year made by Yasmin, Wardah & their little uncle Ajib

The girls one by one on raya morning with HB in the spirit of Syawal.

Balqis

Wardah

Yasmin

Nadeen

Nadeen with her sisters seeking for forgiveness from atuk Klang, the beauty of Aidilfitri

She appreciates duit raya this year. But only the various colours of packets not the cash though ;-)

Nadeen with Kakak Balqis. Balqis is thrilled getting the chance to be on the chair & someone younger below.

Wardah & her way asking for forgiveness from sis Yasmin.

With their mom

The girls with bibik Sri

A family pic

In our boria attire ;-)

After visited HB's eldest aunt, we made a move to my grandmother's place in Rembau. Chengkau to be exact.

In front of my grandmother's house

A solo pose by Nadeen

The 5 of us again

This is my dad's kampung somewhere after Kota or Koto as how the Negeris address it.

Nadeen was really enjoying her kampung getaway :-)

DIY Raya Prep

I have been away for a while. My apologies.... Busy is such an ancient excuse ;-) Ramadhan has passed. Both Yasmin & Wardah Alhamdulillah, managed to carry out this third tenet of Islam with ease.

Now Syawal is here. It is already the 4th of Syawal & things have started to get less hectic for me. The preparation for Syawal this year was rather a DIY. Tiring which I cannot lie but the satisfaction overcomes all.

Some are aware that I made the baju kurung boria for the girls plus their mom this year. Not only that... I also managed to make at least one more baju raya for each girl. It all started with Wardah's dress. I was merely trying out to make a proper smocking. Without a pleating machine it was quite a challenge but it turned out not bad at all.

My pioneer hand sewn smocking pattern. You can see that it is far from neat. The DIY uneven pleats made it quite tough for me to smock. However I managed to make the focus away from my amateur smocking. Those flowers which I made from ribbons did the trick ;-)

The dress

The moment Balqis saw the dress, she requested one for herself. Material wise was not really a problem (I now make a collection of fabrics ;-D) but time was a major hindrance. Anyhow I was able to make one even though the smocking took almost like forever.

This time around the smocking was neater & I like what I did with the ribbon as well.

Balqis's dress

Once the dress was ready, Nadeen declared it hers. Balqis with a very heavy heart had to give in to her baby sister. I should have taken a video of Nadeen twirling & twirling in the obvious over sized dress ;-)

Nadeen in Balqis's dress.

I really love the colour of the material. The plan when I bought this Japanese cotton was to make 2 dresses. Each for my younger 2. The smocking however used up a lot of cloth & Nadeen was left for only less than half a metre. I then remembered a matching polka dots pattern I bought. It was no cotton but polyester. Planned to use it as piping but I had no other choices. Used the fabric as part of Nadeen;s dress but it turned out great.

Nadeen's dress.

Yasmin at first didn't want me to make her a smocking dress. At the last minute however, she changed her mind. This was the last week of Ramadhan. I found out of a place that offered pleating service & decided to make my life easier. Unfortunately, the shop needed 3 days to complete the pleating. Hence, I opted for plan B. Managed to find some materials I bought long ago underneath my rattan chest box. Turned them into a long skirt & a blouse.

Yasmin's blouse & long skirt.

Towards the end of the final week of Ramadhan I ventured into another field in sewing. Beading! Normally a dear friend will do it for me. This time around she was not only occupied with her 6-months-old baby but also her other multiple customers. My mistake as well for giving her the baju during raya season. She didn't manage to complete the beadings as requested before raya. Managed to sew on both the sleeves but not at the collar. Since the colour of my baju is kind of dull. I decided to sew my own. It looked pretty simple yes but I was really running out of time.

This was how the beading looked like at 830pm on raya eve. I was not panic at all though but surprisingly HB was so concerned about my unfinished baju. So cute of him! :-D

Slept at 2am but it was still incomplete. Since I would cover the colar with my tudung I gave in & stopped. This was how my baju raya was when I put it on that raya morning...

Seriously, I surprised myself... In my teenage years I used to have a few drawings to sort of contribute to the fashion industry. Hehehe... Now I am practically doing it! So watch out!! Project Runaway here I come....! Hahaha!

Oh ya! I tried something else too. Flower arrangement... Not my cup of tea at all! Next year, I will leave that one to the florist :-)

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

&

Maaf Zahir Batin