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