HISABATI: Crochet Bodycon Dress

HISABATI
Crochet Bodycon Dress
Front View

HISABATI
Crochet Bodycon Dress
Back View

A few years ago I was feeling disillusioned about the direction my life was taking, so I decided to do something brand new. I started studying carpentry. The opportunity presented its self at a time when I was searching for anything that would renew my sense of self fulfillment. I needed to be outside of my comfort zone, networks, and base of knowledge to challenge myself and explore new possibilities. Among many things that come with starting something brand new, lurking in background was mounting apprehension about entering a male dominated field of artistry I had never had any exposure to...but more pressingly was my terrible fright at the level of math that would be demanded of me. I have never been good at math. Maybe it is from a lack of interest or that it just is not my strong suit, but in all of my schooling years I avoided it when I could and never excelled at the subject. Mostly, I was terrified that math would be an inevitable downfall in my pursuit of self fulfillment.

The most challenging project we undertook in my carpentry class was installing trim and finish detailing in mock houses. Our task was to install crown molding and baseboard
on a series of different angled walls that would ideally fit into each other perfectly at the corners. We were all equally given the exact amount of materials needed to get the job done, and were not allowed to use any more than that. Our rule was always measure twice, and cut once. Hurriedly I rushed through my calculations, adding and subtracting fractions, and got to work. This project nearly drove me out of my mind. No matter how carefully I measured, how precise my cuts were with my mitre saw or how steadily I angled and cut with a copping saw, my angles wouldn't fit and my lengths of molding were either too short or too long. I struggled wasting my limited resources cutting and copping, until I realized my math was all wrong. After deciding to revisit my rushed calculations things just worked. Were they perfect? No, far from it, simply because it was my first time fitting molding. I did however come out with a renewed sense of process that required  patience and practice to get the work that we want to see done.

I love dresses that flatter my figure and show some shoulder in the process. They make me feel super sexy! I was inspired by 90's strappy dresses and bodycon dresses cause they do just that! I was inspired by a few different things when thinking about how to get this project started. First was a super easy to follow YoutTube DIY Crochet Halter Top tutorial by Krystal Everdeen, but to get the 90's vibe I was looking for I made a few minor tweaks to her pattern. Instead of having a tie at the back and neck, I crochet a full back and made two straps instead of a halter, similar to my DO EIT crochet tank top. Since I have juicy thighs and a thick booty I had to figure out how to make sure the skirt part hugged my curves perfectly. This is where the math came in. After doing a bit of research, I found that most crochet clothing patterns are not made for curvy or fluffy bodies. Surprising? Not really. No matter how much I looked, the patterns showed no adaptation for varying body shapes, types or sizes bigger than large until I came across these well written instructions by Jodi Hannon Madera on the perfect pencil skirt. The author gives detailed instructions and techniques on how to have perfectly tailored crochet clothes that don't end up a bulky formless mess. It required measurements, multiplication, addition and subtraction, and a calculator which was new because I have never strategically and intentionally used math while crocheting. To my surprise, math and my ability to do it was everything in facilitating this dress being a fab as is it! Fusing these two techniques came together into this final product that I am soooo proud of and excited to wear!

HISABATI means math in Kiswahili. Math like crochet, takes a lot of practice, and patience (and as I have recently learned sometimes even a calculator!). Sometimes along the journey we fail to realized just how integral each stumble and hardship is until we come out with a final product. Still to this day any time I finish a project I say "shit, I made that". It blows my mind every time because I remember how overwhelming, tiresome and hard the process was. I am still not a math expert, but I am coming to accept that its application and practicality is everywhere...even in my crafty little universe!

Hisabati ni mikakati yetu!
A song about math from Ubongo Kids, a kids show created in Tanzania!

Smiles :)
Tuly Maimouna

R&S: Curtain Hanger Earrings!

Upcycled hanger earrings

I am an avid thrifter, and in my mind there is no more of a magical place than the thrift store. It blows my mind every time to find the little jems that people decide to part with! Everything about it is wonderful, but what leaves me in absolute wonder is the smell of used things. The very distinct smell of the thrift store often leaves me wondering what stories these items have to tell, and what journeys they have been on before finding themselves here. It is a hub of thousands of stories untold; worn out shoes, brand new garments, old books, random trinkets, broken frames...where did they come from and what purpose did they serve to the people who owned them? The joy of thrifting for me comes in finding new purpose for old/used things. This process is called upcycling. The wiki definition of upcycling is: the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value. Despite the fact that going to the thrift store satisfys a unnamed itch than nothing else can, (and at such an affordable price) it also offers the option to find one of a kind materials that can be recycled into something new! 

Random curtain hangers

Recently I found a bag of these random wooden curtain hangers at the thrift store for a grand total of $3.15. I looovveee wood anything, especially jewelry, and finding nice and affordable wooden jewelry where I live isn't easy. So what did I decide to do? As always, recycle and save of course! I decided to upcycle the random wooden curtain hangers into some thrifty and crafty wooden earrings! This super easy R&S project takes about 2 minutes to finish up and requires the following materials:

Materials

1. Open the hook attachment of the hanger using the needle nose pliers, attach one of the jump rings, and close attachment of hanger (as shown above)

2. Open fishhook earring attachment with needle nose pliers, attach to jump ring and close fishhook attachment (as above)

That's it! In two easy steps you now have some brand new, fly and one of a kind wooden earrings! I'm not sure where these wooden curtain hangers came from or how they ended up in the thrift store, but for me giving used materials a new story and purpose is a part of the magical process of thrifty crafting!

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

R&S: Phunk'd Craftyhoar Fabric Scrap Placemats

Phunk'd placemats + my plant children

I am sure I have said it time and time again that I am a hoarder. The deeper I delve into the depths of crafty creativity, the more the things I hoard become endless an possibility for birthing crafty brainchildren. I have been teaching myself to sew for quite some time now and have been reusing/re-purposing many of my old clothes in an attempt to make new ones. One day while trying to sew myself a jumper following youtube seamstress Meesha TV tutorial on How To Make a Jump Suit Easy at the end of her video she reminds us to 'never throw away your scraps'. Since then I have been hoarding scraps of fabric from all of my sewing projects. 

My MeeshaTV Jumper (from old house clothes)

Now, there comes a brief fleeting moment in every hoarders life when you tell yourself 'this shit is too much'. It is accompanied by an overwhelming sensation of being consumed by things, then followed by the moment of reassurance when we become complacent in our hoarding tenancies and remind ourselves that the purpose of these things will soon be revealed. Needless to say I have a lot of crafty supplies that need storage, so I decided to look up a DIY tutorial on how to make baskets. I found this really simple how to make a fabric basket by TheCraftyGemini that uses cotton clothes line wrapped with fabric to make beautiful baskets of different sizes. With the purpose of my fabric scarps finally revealed, and being far eager to get this project popping I soon found myself annoyed and dejected. For some reason mine just didn't turn out as fly as the ones in the video. They were flat. No matter how hard I tried in all of my frustration I couldn't get them to be basket like. Crafting always has its up and downs and the first rule to remember is that no one is born a master, phunk ups will happen! And sometimes the phunk ups that can be a product of our frustrations, efforts and imagination end up manifesting into new ideas we had never envisioned. In my attempts to make fancy baskets I ended up with these beautiful placements that I so fitting like to call Phunk'd. 

Phunk'd Kanga Placemats

To get this final product I followed CraftyGeminis' tutorial minus a few tweaks; I used twine instead of cotton (because it was what i had) and just sewed in a flat circle until I got the desired size for my placemats. I didn't spend any $$$ on the supplies cause they are what I have lying around, but twine can be bought at the dollar store and you can use any old fabric you wish! Including old shirts, sheets etc.

Materials

My girlfriend reminds me all the time that stuff will happen, it is the way that we respond that shapes who we are. In the case of crafting, sometimes it can be really frustrating, time consuming or it just get all kinds of phunk'd up. But when we open our minds to the possibility of creative solutions, we become the masters in manifesting new kinds of magical creations!

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

Kitenge: Profit Seeking & Cultural Appropriation

Kitenge Earrings

I have been thinking a lot about cultural appropriation lately. Is it possible that even members of a given ethnic or cultural community can participate in the appropriation of their own culture? 

I was in East Africa for a while earlier this year. I went to visit family, go to my cousins wedding and just relish in the happiness of being back home. As a part of that visit I made sure to attain as many crafting supplies as possible, mostly glass beads, vitenge, and jewelry making accessories. I can never find nice and affordable vitenge here in Canada, and all the other crafting materials are so much cheaper there than here. So I merrily went around connecting with other crafters in markets, in my home area, and with Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support local crafting entrepreneurs to find wholesale prices. With every new product I came across I was ecstatic at the thought of the money I was saving for the quality I was getting. When I got back to Canada and found inspiration enough to get into the crafting groove I started making earrings. If y'all don't know by now, I love big earrings. Hate the heft though. So I thought that these super lightweight and boldy coloured kitenge earrings would be perfect. As I started making and selling them I had this growing feeling of discomfort and constantly thought to myself thought, 'am I selling my own culture for financial profit?' I started feeling like I was participating in the process of rendering cultural artifact to commercial product. I realized that I have absolutely no idea what the history of vitegne are within my countries of origin and instead of trying to learn their meaning I have rendered them nothing more than fashion accessory. For example, remember my post on kangas? Kangas often reflect current events. The sayings written on the bottom are not neutral or without meaning. They can tell stories of political or historical events, reflect religious values, offer advice and knowledge through proverbs, or have encouraging words. They are used during wedding rituals or when someone gives birth to carry babies. In short they have social value and meaning. Of course they are sold and produced for profit, but attached to them is meaning and purpose.

Beyond that I started looking at all the different ways that African cultures and artifacts have been appropriated as object for consumption or display. In museums, through micro finance projects in developing countries, curios shops, the north American/European fashion industry...and in all of this continental Africans gain little economically. In buying raw materials cheaply and selling finished products at a higher price am I contributing to sustaining poverty in my own home for personal gain? How am I any different from the multinational corporations who extract raw resources like oil, gold, tanzanite and diamonds then refine them and produce finished products for consumption? Am I excused simply because I have roots there? Oh Capitalism. What are the implications in representing my culture as fashion, is the financial or aesthetic trade off worth it? What do you think?

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

Kimya: The Power of Silence

In June of last year a friend was very ill and was taken off life support. In the midst of hurriedly attempting to navigate the Ontario medical system through hospital visits, story time, family conversations, and connecting with specialists it seemed there was so much happening around her life at such a fast pace that I was very unsure of what to say or do. Watching her quickly deteriorating health I began to feel powerless in the situation and silence suddenly became my place of refuge, partially forced and partially out of dejection.

In an attempt to remain strong I started forcing faces to cover up my choked back tears and closeted crying from the world. Silence due to stigma, silence due to fear, silence out of respect, silence out of understanding, silence out of sadness, silence out of disbelief. When she died on June 14th 2013 I felt overwhelming despair and guilt for being complacent in my silence. I then began to equate silence with weakness and cowardliness. Silence came to represent images of my failure as a friend and its consequences, the horrific images of her lifeless black female body.

For a long time after her death I shut down and remained quiet. I kept my thoughts to myself, I blocked people out, lost interest and hid my intimate self away out of shame. It was as if I was trapped internally and externally by silence. Wordless-ness came to represent the greater part of the last year for me. I was caught  in deep thought reflecting how it was possible that  a young black woman could die in Canada under such disgusting circumstances. I was disillusioned to start thinking about Ontario health institutions as sites of structural violence against black bodies, in the case of my friend not only did they contribute to limiting her access to specialized care as a living being, but they also affected whether or not she got to die with dignity. It was heavy thinking about the broader political and economic contexts that contributed to her death, and I was pissed the phuck off. Her truth was tangled up in medicalized rationalizations of her death and entirely glazed over the larger health inequities that exist in our society, especially for poor racialized womyn.

It wasn't until March of this year when I was at two day retreat that things started to change. I remember being hyper aware of not wanting to say a word to anyone and feeling intensely awkward inside of myself. Whenever we were asked to speak or even just in causal conversation my heart would race. I would feel my heart pumping in my chest, my eyes would fill with tears and I'd develop this hard dry lump in my throat. On the second day of the retreat we were asked to participate in an activity. We were asked to write a word on a piece of paper based on how we felt and move around the room and explain to others why we had chosen that word. I had chosen silence, but I couldn't speak, I just cried. Openly in the arms of a gentle stranger I finally felt peaceful, like I was able to mourn the loss of my friend and the sadness+anger I felt around the circumstance in which she died. It was like coming out of the closet. I realized that my silence was a way of being compassionate with myself, to slowly try and understand and reflect on everything that happened at my own pace. Silence is the opportunity to be with my thoughts, and be within myself in a way that does not involve verbal communication. In that moment silence and compassion gently became intertwined and I was finally able to step outside of myself and gain a different perspective of death, mourning and loss and the realities of structural violence. The initial fear of exploring death and lifting the veil to reality is something that without silence I would not have been able to experience and learn from. The process of turning death to memory through reflection and crochet opened up a space to think critically about inequity and the intersections of class, race and gender. So to my friend gone too soon in life and death you have given me strength to be courageous and act with compassion. You have helped to redefine what community is and how to keep people in our community especially those whose voices are not prioritized. You have taught me the difference between passive and active silence and have opened up a space within me to be able to reflect on how to work advocate for change critically and with love.

So remember Polar Vortex? I dunno about y'all, but last winter was something fierce and I learned a harsh (and freezing) lesson. So I felt compelled to be thoroughly prepared in case we get glazed over with ice again! I made this fall inspired ruffled green, brown and yellow cowel with different kinds of acrylic blended yarn from this pattern on Crochet N' Crafts. I love it! I used about 5 skeins of yarn for this and it took roughly a day to finish making. The shell stitch is really great cause it gives a bobble/ribbed kind of look when complete and it adds for extra warmth! I love making things that reflect the turn of seasons, to me they are metaphors for the different kinds of transitions we make in life and the preparations we make for coming change; whether they be crocheting a cowel to keep warm or making mental and emotional preparations in silence to inform how we support each other, I am in the process of learning to move forward in ways that make sense to me and speak to my lived experiences as well as the lessons learned alongside the people I have grown with.

Kimya
Ruffle Infinity Cowel
%100 Acrylic Blend

Kimya Cowel

Kimya Cowel

Many smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

Fab-you-lize: Kanga Nostalgia Blues

Kanga (kah-ng-ah)

A kanga is a brightly printed rectangle of pure cotton cloth with a boarder around it that has bold and elaborate designs. They originated along the east African coast in about the 19th century by swag savvy womyn who would buy different printed kerchiefs and sew them together to get individual designs. By the early 20th century swahili sayings began to be added to kangas. The ever elusive 'they' speculate that this was started by a famous trader in Mombasa, Kenya who would often print proverbs on kangas, others may tell you that this originated in Zanzibar (off the coast of Tanzania) where aphorisms were first printed on kangas in Arabic and later in the roman alphabet. The different kanga prints and sayings have come to reflect social meanings, changes and political events. A fanciful and creative way of advertising and expression! The great thing about them is they are also multi-purpose! I bought this charming book while visiting in Tanzania called Kangas: 101 Uses. The title is pretty self explanatory, it shows you how to tie a kanga into a head-wrap, skirt, different style dresses, bikini top, bathing suit, underwear, how to use it as a towel, baby carrier, scarf, shawl, rug, hang it on your wall...you get my point. But one thing it doesn't cover is how to sew kangas!

Example: Kanga Head Wrap!
&
Tusker Bottle Cap Earings!

Example: Kanga Tube Top!

I was strolling around my favorite undisclosed location and came across a store filled with kangas! I have never seen them for sale here in Canada so I got excited, plus they were only $5.99 each! I instantly fell into deep nostalgia, day dreaming of east Africa caressing the kangas with with a huge smile on my face. Right there and then I decided that I needed this little slice of my paradise to feel a little more at home. I bought four double kangas with a spontaneous project in mind. I have been looking for a fly duvet cover for a while, but I never find anything exceptional or tantalizing. I'm sure impatience drives my creativity, cause I can't wait around for someone else to please me, ain't nobody got time for that! So I decided to fab-you-lize and make it myself! In order to get this project popping here is what you will need;
 

Materials

1. Measure your duvet/bed cover (length & width)

MEASURE TWICE CUT ONCE! That is the number one rule. I made my duvet cover for a queen sized bed so the measurements were roughly 76"x 98" I had to use a hand tool tape measure cause the sewing measuring tape was far too short. You will use these measurements to cut your fabric.

Measuring Tape

2. Iron all of your kangas
If you are going to sew, you need to know how to iron! If you don't, you gon learn from this video. This step is critical! Because you will be cutting the fabric you need to make sure that all the wrinkles are gone so the final product doesn't turn out oblong. I like to use starch when ironing kangas because they are pure cotton it helps to keep it from wrinkling longer. 

Iron & Speed Starch

3. Cut your kangas to the required measurements 

I bought four different kangas because my bed is queen sized, so I had to sew all the pieces together. Depending on the size of your bed you might use less.

- Lay the first two kangas over top of your blanket/duvet and make sure that the black lines are matched up evenly. (This is the way you will sew them together & make sure it is the right length and width that you measured!) 

- Cut little notches where you want to make my final cuts. 

- Cut across each piece...with scissors.

By the way: having sharp fabric scissors will make your cuts a lot less jagged.

How to match the lines 

4. Pin & sew your project together, piece by piece

Make sure that you are pinning it with the inside out! That way all of the sewing you do wont be seen. I pinned from the black lines first. They act as a reference point to insure your project doesn't turn out lopsided.

- Pin two kangas together lengthwise & sew 

- Repeat for the remaining two

- You should end up with two huge kangas sewn together at their longest sides

- Match up the black lines again and pin the two huge kangas together lengthwise & sew

- Repeat for the other side

- Pin & sew the top (width wise) side of the kanga together

- You should now have 3 sides sewn together

- For the final side, from each end sew in 1/3 of the way leaving a gap in the middle (this is where you will insert your duvet from)

By the way: When sewing, sewing needles will save you from a mess of confusion and will help your project move a long faster. They help to secure pieces of fabric together, they help you to imagine how your project will look before you actually sew it. I like use them as markers of where I need to sew and to use them to make sure I sew in a straight line.

Sewing Pins

Kanga Throw Pillow & Reversible Duvet Cover!

My bestie gave me some trim she didn't want and I wasn't sure what to do with it, but you know how we crafts hoars do and I took it anyway. Look at me now! I used the scrap pieces from the kangas to make this really cute throw pillow! 

My kanga bed!

This took me quite a while, and a few funk ups to make, so take a break walk away but make sure to come back to it! This is probably one of the most exciting projects I have done yet, I am so pleased with the way it turned out! It makes me so happy I even feel more inclined to make my bed in the morning! Now there are 2 more uses for kangas! The colours are so bright and warm I see no better way to beat the nostalgia and winter blues than to cuddle up to a little piece of east African paradise by fab-you-lizing.

Update 2014: I made a basic 40" x 40" pillow that is great for lying in bed and reading...or doing anything else! It is filled with a 20" x 20" foam square enveloped with cotton stuffing.

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

Any questions, something not clear? Just ask!

R&S: Small waist, Big booty, Thick thighs

Thick Thigh Problems

I just learned that there is this thing, that's become a thing. Leg gap? Whats that all about? My thighs rub together. In fact, in the summer it creates so much friction that I sweat. I have to make sure to put baby power between my thighs as a precautionary measure. HAHA! No joke...They rub together so much that when I wear pants they turn into a ripped up disaster!

When I was I young and naive I was all about Apple Bottom jeans. They hugged my body in all the right spots! They came at a serious cost to my wallet and ripped at the crotch anyway, but at least they fit. Now I am not even about that life anymore, buying grossly over priced clothing no longer makes sense in my mind or cents to my wallet. So when I started buying cheaper jeans not only did they rip in the crotch, but I had to start buying pants a size bigger because what fits my thighs and booty definitely can not fit my waist. Nothing fit right and I started to think 'Ughh if only my booty wasn't so phat and I lost a little more weight this would look really cute!' Instead of asking 'who were they making this for and who actually fits into this?' I started blaming my own body for something I had no hand in designing. It never crossed my mind that manufactures have a hand at deciding who can wear what and who should fit into what. Looking good started to feel like a luxury, available to me only when I could afford it.

But this is not something that I face everyday, and I would like to acknowledge that. Being able to go into a store and at least find something that fits at a reasonable price is a privilege I had never considered before. This is an issue that is not just particular to body shape, but anyone who's body doesn't fit a standardized norm. Whether it is someone who is fluffy, voluptuous, tall, short, differently shaped, has fewer or more limbs or whatever. We all deserve to look as fabulous as we choose to or choose not to. Choice being the key word here. It is interesting to me how isms have mutated. They have managed to weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life masking them selves as a standardized norm to the point where they are nearly invisible! Just because they no longer exist in their original form, does not at all suggest that they no longer exist! So what did I decide to do? Recycle and save of course! I am soooo over always throwing away my jeans cause the inner thigh ripped, or always having to wear a belt so my booty crack doesn't show then getting that awkward bunched up material at the front. Or looking dumpy and wearing clothes I don't want to wear simply cause I can't afford the ones I actually want. I think learning to sew is an excellent way to resisting the limited bullshit presented to us as consumers, it is also a simple way of challenging industry norms that exclude certain people from wearing certain clothes.

Materials

How to take in jeans at the waist, really helped me in figuring out how to make darts. It is super easy and you can take in as much or as little as you want when trying to get perfectly hip hugging pants! 

Pulling in the Waist of Pants

Making A Dart

I decided to use scrap fabric and sew two patches on the inside of my jeans to cover up the hole created by my rubbing thighs. I like the rips, they tell a reoccurring life story (the first picture at the very top shows how they look flipped right-side out).

Ripped Crotch 'Band-Aid'

Sure clothing designers can make looking good inaccessible for a number of reasons, but that doesn't mean that we can't and shouldn't look good. Why should we rely on them anyway? And why should we try to change our bodies to fit an industry standard? So let your jelly roll, thighs rub, clap your three hands, strut your long ass legs, move your body how ever you can! As people who live outside the box, lets keep up the creativity, keep surviving, and keep resisting all while looking absolutely fabulous doing so!

To quote Jason a character from one of my favorite shows Home Movies 'Am I regular? Because my pants say irregular...' 

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

R&S: The Sexy Shero!

Before...

I hate short dresses. To each our own, but I just don't get it y'all! Whenever I walk the dress rides up so high my booty is all kinds of out. Even when my legs are closed there is this insistent gap between the dress and my legs, where no matter how hard I try my underwear (or crotch) always manages to show. And since I don't shave I am greeted by turned up noses and frowning faces at my hairy parts. In my experience, mini dresses have shown me no love. I just don't feel sexy in them despite how hard I have tried to convince myself in the past. I could just shake a rage fist and curse the mini dresses' ambivalence towards my feelings, or go Shero!

I bought this red mini dress about four years ago and took it around the track twice. Both times I wore it I was absolutely mortified! I felt so self conscious and hideous that I had a hard time actually enjoying myself. Why did I buy it? Well, because I thought that this is what I had to do to be 'sexy', but why did being 'sexy' feel so bad? And despite my distaste towards this dress I just couldn't bring myself throw it away, why? Because I am a crafty hoar[der] that's why. So this hate-hate relationship carried on for years where this dress that I swore to never wear again sat in my closet waiting, inevitably, in vain. Until the other day! After a contemplative face off with this dress, I decided that I really wanted to make it into something that I would actually wear! So after bit of altering and some shoddy work on the sewing machine this is what I came up with! A jumper fit for a Shero!

AFTER!

If anything I have learned that while I am still a horader, recycling and saving has also provided me with the opportunity to make things that are better suited to my bootylicious body and has enabled me to take charge of my own sexiness instead of trying to fit my body into what really doesn't work for me. Like a Shero I save myself from unnecessarily feeling like a hot heap of dog mess.

Yeah, I totally transform into a bootylicious crafty hoar supershero after dark.

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

p.s. I would post the how-to for this, but I am so embarrassed of my tailoring skills that I wouldn't dare. They are far from impressive, and are just good enough to get the job done.

Mchele: Rice Bag Purse

I have come to the conclusion that yes, I am naturally a hoarder. Apparently that is a bad thing, so a means of consoling myself I simply define it as "seeing endless possibilities, where others do not"....okay yes my work space is beyond crowed, but you learn to work within organized mess! You can't force inspiration, so until it hits you you'll just have to learn to see the beauty in your pile of junk. This idea finally came to me after wondering what to do with a couple of rice bags that I could not bring myself to throw away, they just look so fly! So before this beautifully designed bag could find its way to a landfill I snatched it up and got to work. It's a good size, light weight and has just the right amount of "where'd you get that?". 

Mchele
[Mm-che-leh]
Rice Bag Purse
13.3" x 11.5"
Material:100% Hemp
Inner lining:100% Cotton

Inner lining & inside pocket

Take some time out of your day to imagine, and you'll see endless possibilities too.

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

Broke? R&S!

     I've been thinking about this idea that the way you start your year dictates the following events throughout the course of the year. Does that include being broke? Almost two months into the year, my bank account still isn't saying much, and the dent I made in my savings running all over the world is still very real. I swear every time I open or close my wallet I hear an echo...therefore, my swahili phrase of the year thus far has been 'Ah la! Mimi sina pesa!' meaning 'Oh gosh! I don`t have any money!' So I've resolved as a means of saving and decreasing debt, to not spend a single cent (Can I say that? Canada stopped producing cents Feb. 4th of this year) on buying clothes, shoes or jewelry. Now I know you're asking, 'Guuurrrrllll how you gonna do that?' Easy!

Broke+Imagination = Recycle & Save

     So here is what happened, my favourite faux gold earrings started to rust (LOL) so I had to get rid of them, right? So wrong! Coupled with being too broke to afford a new pair I decided to make entirely new ones! It is a really simple do it yourself project (DIY) or what I like to call recycle and save (R&S) project.

Materials:

1. Hoop earrings

2. Cloth of choice (I used Kente)

3. Hemp string (Optional)

4. Hot glue gun OR crazy glue

Instructions
1. Cut a length of cloth long enough to wrap around the entire hoop

2. Dab a wee bit of glue on the hoop (near the backing of the earring), press and hold the end of the cloth there and ensure it sticks!

3. Begin to wrap the length of cloth around the hoop (If you are using cloth with a pattern remember to make sure you are wrapping it in a way the the pattern is visible!)

4. Once you get to the other end of the hoop, again, dab a bit of glue on the end, press and hold the cloth and ensure it sticks!
5. Wear and look fly

END!

Optional: If you choose to use hemp as i did follow the exact same procedure

     Remember to be creative and make em as extraordinary as you like! Add beads, things that dangle...whatever! Then you can be as obnoxious as you'd like when someone asks you where you got em from! Who cares? Well think of it this way;

 1. You saved your wallet about $10,
2. You (to a very small degree) reduced your ecological footprint by recycling

3. You now have your own customized jewelry

4. You saved your wallet about $10!!!

So whether you're broke (like me) or you're simply looking for some new swag remember, anything can be an R&S project you just have to add some imaginative flavour.

My R&S Hoop Earrings

Happy crafting & saving!

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna