Upcycle Flower

I've been feeling inspired by the flower book that I bought but due to lack of supplies I've been frustrated as well. Being in a different country at the moment because I'm on holidays makes it difficult to find supplies - I'm not even sure where to find a craft store. But inspiration came when I was going through my old clothes.

I've left some clothes here at my in-laws because every so often we would have our holiday here. Some of the clothes have been worn out or were too small for me. I was riffling through the luggage of old clothes when I saw my old petticoat. There was a bit of lace at the bottom...

101 Creative Flowers for Accessories

I bought this book while in Indonesia. The flowers look really pretty but I don't understand what it says. Oh well, lucky there are pictures to accompany the instructions.

Muslimah Dolls

Here is the Muslimah doll (the purple one) that I started to make during the children's hand sewing lesson. It was so quick and looked so cute that I made others. I made them slightly differently for each one, giving them their own look. You could, of course, add in the facial features if you wish. It would have been better if I had brown or skin colour felt for the face. I only had black and white so I had to made do.

These make great gifts for children or I was thinking of making a few more and give them to the local Muslim Women's Association to give to hospital patients when they visit them. What I would do is make a tag then attach them with a ribbon around the doll's neck. On the tag I would quote the Qur'an or hadeeth with something like "Allah is with those who are patient" or "With every hardship there is ease". It would make a lovely reminder and gift to those who are sick.

Below are the steps to make the dolls:

Felt Toys and Decorations

The children are having their autumn break so I brought out the felt and sewing things and gave them another hand sewing lesson. This time I had them making felt toys or decorations. These are the steps that I used:

Love For Others Message Cushion

This 'Love for others what you love for yourself' cushion is a great cushion to remind ourselves to think of others every time we look at it. It is taken from the hadeeth (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (s)): "None of you believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." (Reported in al-Bukhari and Muslim.)

This took me hardly any time at all to do.

Free instructions.

Eid Mubarak Mobiles

When it was Eid I wanted to have something different to decorate the house. I was tired of the same ol' buntings that we used every year. Since I made the heart mobiles with names on them, I decided to make ones that says 'Eid Mubarak' on them.

Heart Mobiles

These heart mobiles started out as individual hearts. I wanted a simple sewing activity for students (more on this in another post). They looked so nice that I decided to string them together and as a personal touch I added letters to make names. They have made wonderful personalised gifts!