Children’s prayer mats

 

In Ramadan I always enjoy the more of time for really important things (reading Qu’ran, praying, being with the kids and in garden, and working on personal projects) and I enjoy even the time for the lesser important things (household, working down my to-do-list, etc), because until late afternoon there is no distraction by meal-making or eating during the day. The day feels much longer in a very positive way, subhanallah.
Surely, the children get their food, but I keep it simple and mostly it contains leftovers from the iftar (breaking-the-fast-meal) of the other day or eggs, pasta or salad.
So, beside organizing the new school year, this means that I sometimes do have time now to sit in front of my sewing machine again, alhamdulillah.
I love sewing! Although I am not at all proficient, I like the quick results that can be made by sewing and I enjoy teaching myself new skills. I am really thankful for the www, where great tutorials and step-by-step-guides can be found that make it even easier. 

For the Ramadan calendar of this year I’ve sewn some prayer mats for the children.
Do you remember the praying mat I once did for myself? It’s the same kind of how-to-do-it: easy done of two layers with a Ka’aba-appliqué and a string. The children ones simply are much smaller and the outer-side is even made out of a dish-towel.

Our children do not already seriously pray at the moment, but they like to join me sometimes, to imitate the movements and to play as if it were serious, even the little one; she puts then her own hijab (head cover) on and rises her hands high to do the initial “Allahu akbar” movement – I love to see it, it’s heart-melting!
I think it is important for Muslim children to have their own mat, to feel invited, to feel confident, and to learn doing accurately their prayers and most importantly: to enjoy them. And with these light and personal mats they definitely do, Alhamdulillah.

Happy Sunday and a blessed week to you!

  
 

new Bags

  
  

While making up my wardrobe, I also did some springtime sewing. Here are the results from the last week:
 

a new bag made of repurposed jeans and realized with the help of Melissa’s great tutorial ;
and a little handbag for my girl, just as those I did for the boys before (made of old trousers).

Happy Spring and blessed week to you !

 

Spring Make Up

  
  

The air is getting warmer, the trees are blossoming and it feels like new life is growing everywhere. Slowly we put off the second pair of socks and woolen trousers and the fire in the chimney doesn’t burn that often any more…

…Time for a make up of my wardrobe:

I am still in the green-living and repurposing mood and anyway, as I’ve told you a year ago, buying new things is nearly impossible over here, even if I would have the wish and the money.
My style and taste changed over the years and the older I grow the more I like long and wide, feminine dresses. More and more I approach the Islamic manner of making myself beautiful at home and to wear lovely clothes when with family but to cover myself in modesty when going out – its’ quiet the contrary of what I was brought up with.

 
So when I recently opened my closet, I found a lot of things which I liked either in color or shape but nothing seemed to fit “perfect” with my actual feeling of style.
The easiest way of renewing my wardrobe seemed to put together some pieces and to make something new out of them.

So I took several tunics, skirts and dresses; I cut off the worn-out parts or those which didn’t fit, and I pinned together matching pieces in a new way: a top part of a tunic sewn together with the lower part of a wide t-shirt made a totally new long dress; the lower part of an old skirt sewn together with a piece of a blouse made another lovely new piece; a beautiful appliqué here, a new shawl combined with it there…
Subhanallah, totally fresh home dresses without spending any money only by repurposing old things.

And those clothes which I really do not wear any longer, those which kept untouched since more than a year, I’ll give away as charity, inchaallah….

I think the spring-cleaning season has begun just as every year, friends! Let’s see what’s about next to make up – any new ideas for home and self?

Green Pee(s)

  

Living a greener life means also to reduce trash. And this in itself is a very specific problem in Morocco and especially out here in the mountains. We neither have refuse collection service, garbage trucks, nor any common refuse tips. Trash either goes behind the next hill or is burnt with a little fire by the producer himself. Hmm, not a very healthy thing to do…
The arrival of modern life products such as plastic bags (black Moroccan mikkas), wrapped sweets and drinks leads to an increasing number of garbage. Whereas before people grew all their food locally or made it at home, they buy now biscuits, yoghurt and other plastic stuff and produce a lot more trash than ever before, mashaallah. The lack of consciousness and education makes it worse: people throw plastic papers just right away wherever they are and no one cares. Little by little the beautiful green nature fills up with black mikkas and colourful trash.

But subhanallah, there are some movements and few people begin to think and to change. Little environmental-care education programs are held in schools and villages and in smalls steps a change towards the better can be recognized.

My family strongly supports such programmes. And I am always on the try to recycle, repurpose and reduce our personal garbage.
One great thing I recently found on the internet is cloth toilet paper.
We are already using cloth diapers, but I never thought about cloth wipes… until I saw a blog post that led me there. What a simple logical great inspiration! Alhamdulillah.
 
I immediately took old out-worn towels and cut them into rectangles (approx. 15 x 8 cm). In total I made about 70 pieces; and maybe, when I find time, I will machine-trim the edges with a zigzag stitch…

But for now I put them in a nice little basket and brought them into the bathroom where they are used for one’s little businesses (the normal toilet paper is used only for bigger business)…
Alhamdulillah, it feels so much better to wipe with real cotton – there’s usually only one cloth piece needed and no torn up paper roll and sticky crumbled little paper pieces any more… We produce much less refuse now, my weekly cloth diaper washing machine is loaded fully since and it feels so good to do good, doesn’t it?
Subhanallah, I am off to make some cloth tissues (handkerchiefs) out of old sheets, inchaallah….

Happy green first summer week!

Repurposing Yarn

  
  

Do you remember my first repurposing-post? I think it is time again to see how we can live a greener life, producing more handmade love and less impact on this world, inchaallah.

Today I wanna show you what you can do with old sweaters, woollen scarves, socks and trousers you do not wear any more.

Instead of throwing them away, unpick them and re-use the yarn to knit something new or to weave a beautiful carpet – just as my neighbour MammaAli whom you see doing here a colourful knotted Berber rug.

Happy week, friends!

Old New Clothes – The Repurposing Post

  
  
  

Living in midst of the High Atlas Mountains means living far away from shopping malls and fashion boutiques. When we need new clothes, we either have to travel to the next little town which is a 2 hours drive away and has only a poor selection of china-acrylic-stuff, or we must go to Marrakech on a 5 hours drive. So most of our clothes I buy once a year when I am back in Germany or I put them on my wish-list and let them bring by friends.

But since I am really into repurposing now as well as in a real sewing-flow and also a bit short on money, I decided to hand make the clothes our baby-girl actually needed.

We already had a few shirts and trousers from the boys that were still good yet too boyish for the girl. I decided to give them a more feminine outlook by adding some appliqué in lovely heart, star, bird and flower shapes which I cut out of old shirts of mine and sewed on the clothes.

While doing so, I got the idea to turn some of my tank tops I never wore into little girl-dresses to be worn as a layer-look over trousers and shirts.
I simply laid a dress she already owns on the top of the top, in a place where I could use most of the existing seams, and then marked with a pen the shape of the dress around the edges (plus seam allowance). Then I cut around the marked line. I took the front side and added some appliqué, then pinned both right sides together and sewed along. Some hems I sewed, some I left raw. That’s all; really easy and quickly done, alhamdulillah.

Baby has now a beautiful new (old) wardrobe with a personal girly note and I have found a new hobby: Repurposing wherever possible!

So I am opening a new category here, based on a mindful, green, self-sufficient, sustainable, natural-living-choice, to make my personal statement against the consumerism in our modern world, to cherish God’s gifts and to follow our dear prophet Muhammad’s (sws) example who always mended his old clothes himself.
 
Off to more recycling… oh there are so many ideas coming to my head to repurpose old fabric, paper, food and house ware… will you join me on that journey of a gentle way of living?

Happy week, friends!

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