Random

In couple of months, wouldn't I write in this space it just meant ONE year of shear neglect. Hmmm…. I blame Mr FB for that. It has taken all the glory on updates about Nada’s antiques, my past time favorites, our family stories bla-bla-bla. Hehehehe… what a lame excuse. But today, I feel like blabbering.. on random things.

• Alhamdulillah, I’d don the headscarf on Harris’s 43^rd’s birthday last year December,27. O Allah, please guide me.
  Hi-Tea at Hyatt in celebration of our little family only boy's birthday.

• My beloved grandmother, Mok had a mild stroke early this year. She fell in the bathroom. I was devastated. 

           -         Once got the news, I can say.. almost ALL, ALL of the family members from near                       and far drove, flew, swam (err…) back home to see her. We gathered around her,                       we talked to her, we cried near her.... together. I’m proud of my big family. 

-          She eventually ‘recovered’ but not fully. She now has short term memory which is so not her just a year ago. Sometimes, she remembers my name. Many times she forgets. It breaks my heart every time, for I’m a self proclaimed her favorite grand daughter!

-          Recently, she gave me 16 sets of her baju kurung all nicely paired and folded in plastic wraps. Reason – those kurongs are now too big for her that she has lost weight and in a way shrunk due to ageing. Those kurongs suit me well.. I know, I'm always her favorite grand daughter.

-        Now, at any possible opportunity we have - we will go back home to visit Mok. We here means, my whole big family.

I love these colorful photos of may be just 1/8 of my cousins taken during 2013 Raya at Mami's house. Many times, people tell stories of how close they are with their brothers and sisters. Not many however, can describe their cousins like my family do. 

• We threw Nada the first birthday party (which actually deserve an entry on it's own) she ever had at Jungle Gym Bangsar. My favourite girl is 6!

 She was excited about the party, she didn't mind at all to make her own invitation card,

helped with the making of goody bags.

• ·         Nada is soon to start ‘real’ school in 2015. Yikes! Really? She’s gonna be 7? S.e.v.e.n? 

•         My cousin Ika married in March.

and I was entrusted to make the flower girls dresses. 

•   Then another cousin, Shasha got married in May. They are same age and both are now preggars. 

 Shasha - didn't I tell you she has the most beautiful eyes. Those are real lashes..

I made Nada a special dress to wear for Shasha’s wedding.

• Ika’s two younger sisters, Nina and Mira got engaged. Both in August. It will be a busy year again next year for us.
• Mira’s engagement was held in my cousin, Feby whom is Mira’s other sister living near us in Ampang. Since my family somehow, is fond of cooking for our own family affairs, it was decided cooking to be done at our home. Hence, we were the co-host for Mira’s engagement dos.

• We went for a holiday trip in Krabi last April.

• I so love travelling and totally agree with Diyanazman, that travelling is the only thing that you buy and makes you richer. Even if one invest on a property, one remains 'poor' until one sell the property off.
• For the love of travelling – we’re planning for another family trip upcoming October. Oh – I’m so excited
• Speaking about travelling, my most-trusted-sought-after aunt, Busu and her husband are now in their most sacred travel, being one of the selected ones to perform Hajj this year. I pray for their health and may they be rewarded with Jannah.  
• Harris and I celebrated our 10^th year wedding Anniversary last August, 20^th.  It’s been fancy years living with this man so far. I love him.

• I sure made few handmade dresses for Ms Dew in the last 8 months or so, which I'll put up photos later if I have the time.

Interpreting a 5 year old design

I once read an entry by the preacher’s wife on how she managed to interpret her daughter’s design into a dress. I thought it’s so cool, but never it cross my mind that I would be doing the same until one day Nada came to me with an "awesome" sketch : 

 

Nada  : “ I want a dress like this. Can you jahit (sew) for me, Mom?”

Mommy : “Huh? What’s this? Can you explain how you want the dress to be?”

Nada : “Owh.. I want many colours. Have red, purple, blue, orange…. Pink!. See, like I draw.”

Mommy : “Hmmm.. that’s good choice of colours. What about the bottom? You want frills?”

Nada : “Ya, just little bit. I don’t want so much. Later, I lemas! (uncomfortable).

 

And so, this Mommy put on her thinking cap and cracked her head. I think I got it.

We then on one Saturday head to Jalan TAR and I purchased plain cottons mostly only 1 meter each. Slightly frustrated that after I purchased the red, purple blue, pink and green plain cottons at Nagoya with price tag RM 5.50 per meter.. only to find out I could have at Kamdar for RM 2.50 per meter. Chech! Talk about quality, I don’t see much difference. I only bought orange colour cotton at Kamdar! Just hate being in the sort of ‘regret’.

 

The next day on Sunday, I sew the dress and it turned out to be :

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A Colour block dress, Not bad, huh? I was contemplating either to use or not the much love white linen that I bought in Japan for this dress. But then again, would I not use it for my favorite girl ... who else ?

 

 

I now can strike out play dress from my list.

New (old) project

just completed.

 

I’d started the smocking many-many months ago, not only until few days back that it turned into a garment. Hmmm, speaking of procrastinating….  

The smocking for the front skirt was completed for quite a while, then I stopped. For the sleeves, it’s just 4 rows of smock, I believe I could finish them in 2 hours should I have that solid uninterrupted time.

Somehow the time I could afford to have is somewhere 10~15mins window between errands or before my daily slumber (of which it didn’t take long to shut down my conscious mind) or while waiting for the car engine to heat up in the mornings.  

Ya… times like that, hence the supposed to be 2 hours task has prolong for days….

Anyhow, it doesn’t really matter to me when should I complete a dress or any project as I am doing it for my own leisure. A stress relief and I do not enforce datelines.

Buuuuttttt….. B.U.T - BUT! this girl is growing up ever so quickly.

 

 

That means, my slow motion may gets into me that my girl could not fit into dresses that I intended for her once it’s finish !.. Ahhhh.. STRESS!

 

Dew in the long-awaited promised handmade bathrobe. It took me a year to seal it off !
She was so happy with the robe she’s been trying it on whole Saturday night it was finished.

On Sunday morning when we were about to go out for breakfast, she asked my permission : “Mommy can I wear this….”
How can I resist her.

Happened to be we planned for breakfast + grocery shopping, so off we went to AEON BIG. She walked AEON BIG like that.

 

She’s also been whispering to her dad : “Daddy, lets go to hotel – PENANG”… She really wanted to make use of her bathrobe by the pool, huh?

 

Our one and only, Mek Robey @ Cikgu Bedah.

Figuring Japanese pattern

As I’ve earlier mentioned, I kinda made myself promise to make for Nada dresses for her very year birthday as tradition of our own. A tradition I wish to keep for as long as she’s willing to wear Mommy’s silly creation. Oh.. y’know I reckon there will be the stage that she’s no longer fond of putting on fluttery stuff. Sob-sob. Sad, isn’t it?

This year, though it’s tat bit out of her birth date which was on January 30th, I managed to sew a tiered pink dress for her. She wore it to school today!

Isn’t she’s the coolest stuff on earth? I just love my daughter’s eccentric character.

Construction site helmet-pink dress-pink slippers and peace sign is quite a combo, don’t you think so? 

 

The dress is of a pattern from Japanese pattern book, I bought during our trip there last year. I would say, the difference of sewing from Japanese pattern and Western pattern is – I just don’t understand what’s written in Japanese pattern.
It is a shame thing to admit that I learnt Japanese language for 3 years during my secondary school years!

Hence, the sewing this time around is just referring to diagram and very much guessing work. For as long as it looks and wearable as a dress, heck! Who cares if I’d sewn it correctly vice-versa.

One thing for certain, over the years that I've made dresses for my girl... the fabric being used definitely had doubled or may be tripled. That's how much she has grown!

I'm gonna miss these years.....

Liberty Rose

Finally, finally.. it's completed.! after so much of procrastinating.

 Pattern is from issue 65, Australian Smocking & Embroidery

 I love those roses... they're of bullion knots

Back of the dress. Who would be the lucky one to wear?

p/s : sayu hati tengok Ekslusif WalimatulurusYusry dan Lisa Surihani. ...... Semoga jodoh mereka kekal ke akhir hayat. 

A dress and A game

Another dress in the making. Almost... almost..

My big family made a trip to Skudai for an engagement do recently. And I selected this photo shot by Harris as my favorite photo taken during the trip we made.

* Family

*Cousin nephew - Skinny-dark eldest of siblings, Aqil

*Cousin - Chubby-fair youngest of siblings, Zarif

*Kids = play is their job

*Love

*Happiness

*Game Fight

*Traditional Game - I used to play too

* OOOOO-Som! or Jusss!

*Bird, Stone, Plank, Water & Scissors. 

(Both Zarif & Aqil showing birds signs in this photo, so they are tied...)

Tie the Knots Dress

I made this dress for Nada Aidilfitri wear last year. It was a simple construction which of course the pattern I just "belasah" myself. Named after the knots on the shoulder, I call it Tie the Knots Dress.

For the love of it's easy tailoring, I whipped up not one but three more pieces Tie the Knots Dress for my cousin nieces, all sharing name of Damia.

This is the youngest Damia by far in the dress and I tell you, if you want to find a pretty clan, the three of them are the perfect score. 

Still, I went crazy and amused by the time taken for each dress and results of each. I made one more dress for Mentibang Family's only princess, Izz.

I love all of them five. The dresses and the dresses' owners.