What I've been Up To

A selection of some of the headbands I have been making.

Things may have been a bit quiet on the Hijab Sparkle blog lately, however that doesn't mean that I haven't been busy! I have been up to many different things, so I thought I would post a few pikkies and show you.  

My daughter has lots of curly hair that doesn't stay neat and tidy for more than 3 minutes.  I usually put it in a pony tail or a plait, but sometimes she wants to wear it down.  This can be a bit of a problem in Windy Wellington.  Headbands seem to control the situation, and I have seen so many cute ones in the shop.  But I like to try and make as many things as possible myself (and I have to justify the purchase of my sewing machine) so I have been experimenting at making headbands.  At first I began by wrapping ribbon around the headband and then adding embellishments.  These are sweet, but my daughter's hair needed a wider headband.  So I turned the thin headband blanks into wider ones.  Then I began looking for ways to use fabric to decorate them, and you can see some of the ideas I came up with below.  These can all be made in any colour, and can also be made as a thinner headband.  These will be available for purchase soon, I just haven't thought about the price yet, I have to sit down and think about the materials and how much time they took me to make.

I think this one might be my favourite.  It has a hand sewn Kanzashi flower on it,
and the material I used is so beautiful and silky with chinese patterns.

This headband is a bit different in that the fabric on the band is ruffled, which would make it  very
soft and comfortable to wear.

My daughter loved this one the best, because it has strawberries on it.
Her daddy is growing strawberries in our garden, so she has a bit of a soft spot for them.
Sometimes we get to eat them before the birds do!  The bow on this headband  is also hand made, and has a sort of puffy feel to it.  It is actually quite sturdy because of the way it has been constructed.

The Muslim Women's conference here in Wellington last month was something I was very keen to attend. I had the chance to go there for a few hours on the Saturday, where I gave a small talk with some other sisters about being 'Mumtrapaneurs' (Mums who make things themselves and have small home businesses). It was inspiring listening to the other speakers, and I hope my talk was inspiring too (I can't even remember what I said, I was a bit nervous!) After the talk, we had a lovely dinner and then everyone went downstairs to have a look at the stalls set up in the basement 'souq'.  I had a stall there too, and it was so nice to meet all the sisters from around New Zealand.  Some I already knew and it was nice to see them again, and I also had the chance to meet many new ladies.

A box of handmade Muslim dolls, all finished, packaged up and ready to  travel to the Muslim Women's conference in Wellington.

I made heaps of new Muslim dolls for the occasion, and was up until 3am the morning before making sure they were all finished.  I will photograph them all soon and post them individually.

What else?  Well I have been busy working on packaging for different items.  I made a little card to go with the dolls which has a bit of information about why I started making the dolls, how to use them, and how to take care of them. (see photo above).

Last but not least (and probably the thing which has been keeping me the busiest) is the big move from my 'crafty corner' (a couple of desks in the corner of the lounge room...in everyone's way and quite dangerous when you have three little kids, a sewing machine, pins, needles, hot glue gun, many electrical plugs etc) to a room which was previously the baby's room.  Now I have a bit more space to store all my bits and pieces, and it has been a lot of work, although also a lot of fun, to move everything in and organise it.  I will post some photos of my new space soon as well. I call it my 'nest', as it is quite cosy...mainly because I have too much stuff!!

This is my work space before  I moved into a  dedicated room.  It's not looking quite so neat and tidy at the moment, but I will post some photos of the new space when I have things a bit more sorted.

Well that's all for now, folks, the power in the whole house just turned off and on again for some strange reason...I think that's a hint that it's time to go to bed.  Night night!

Salam from