Daily Inspirations: Dolls, Dolls, Dolls!!!

Photo credit: http://www.native-languages.org/dolls.htm

Lately my maternal nature has been kicking in. I don't know if it's my biological clock telling me to hurry up and procreate or just a desire to make awesome clothing and toys for the potential little one... Anywho... I've developed this recent obsession with dolls. Every little girl has their favorite toy. The cute little baby doll you would imagine was your child. Feeding it imaginary (or real) food and pretending to stop it from crying. Or your favorite plush bear/doll that you would hold tight for comfort or protection. Whatever it was, we all had that one toy that we relied on for satisfaction. Truth be told, many of us still sleep with our favorite childhood "friends." This love affair with dolls peaked my interest in the historical usages and significance of dolls in indigenous cultures. In short, dolls were made to model the human form and used for rituals and religious practices throughout the continent. Dolls were giving to ensure fertility in developing young girls and often times handed down from mother to daughter. They also functioned as tools for teaching and protective charms.

Here are some examples for dolls found around the continent of Africa:

Linga Koba dolls -

Photo credit: http://www.thefolkartgallery.com/

From the Nedebele tribe in South Africa, these dolls served several purposes. When courting a young women, the potential husband would often place a doll outside her home indicating that he wanted to propose marriage. During preparation for the marriage, woman are given Linga Koba dolls inwhich they name and care for. Her first child will then carry this name.

Akuaba Dolls -

Photo credit: http://www.skeptiseum.org/index.php?id=105&cat=superstition

Akuaba dolls originate from the Ashanti people in Ghana, West Africa. The dolls have large disc-like heads, which were traditionally carried on the backs of woman wanting to conceive or to ensure the attractiveness of the child. The Akuaba symbol is identified with good luck.

Ngambwe Doll - 

Photo credit: http://www.ezakwantu.com/Gallery African Dolls/ Fertility Dolls.htm

From Angola. Used in a similar manner to the Akuaba dolls. 

Zulu Fertility Dolls

Photo credit: http://www.ezakwantu.com/Gallery African Dolls/ Fertility Dolls.htm

These dolls are from the Msinga area. They are made by girls during their time of engagement and worn during special occasions. When married, a red cloth is place around the head of the doll, as a indicator of her marriage.

The teaching purposes of dolls still holds true in today's society. However, the spiritual and cultural connectedness is absent. What a great gift it would be to give your child a "blessed toy."  A doll that is prepared with love and good energy to help support the child in their development. I think I may make some dolls... 

Iyadoc

Creative Sistah of the Month

Hello Fellow Crafters!!!

Here at Sewing Sistah, we embrace and celebrate the divine feminine spirit of creation/fertility. In honor of that energy, once a month a Creative Sistah in the community will be spotlighted. 

This months Creative Sistah is Iya Omitola Kalahanamae (OmitolaK).

She's an amazing jewelry designer, that specializes in foot ornaments. Her custom pieces exudes Afrochic energy and are the perfect accent to a well manicured foot. You'll be amazed at how her pieces adorn your foot and add that little something "extra" to your step. Learn more about her and view examples of her FootRitual's below:

Who are you?
- An amalgamation of African, Creek, and Choctaw Rituals.
- An answer seeker.

Where are you from?
- From Pachuta, MS and New Orleans, LA...in that order.

What do you do?
- Mother and Wife
- Neuropsychology graduate student
- Craftswoman

What inspires you?
- My daughter, Mahalia
- Women (Moons) and children who survive seemingly insurmountable odds
- The human brain

Why is crafting/creating important to you?
- It's important because it allows me to create Spiritual objects for Women. It is my way of connecting and aligning with other Moons and strengthening our feminine vibration.

 

Iya Omitola K, we celebrate you and your creative spirit!

OmiD

D.I.Y. Project: Earring frame

Blessings fellow Crafters!!!
Just wanted to share a quick and simple frame I made for hanging my earrings. I grew very frustrated with digging through my jewelry box to find earrings. Once the wanted earring was found, I had to spend more time trying to untangle them or finding its match. It was just too much. So, I created a device for hanging earring using simple items found around my house.


What you will need:
- A picture frame. The size of the frame is dependent upon the amount of earrings you own. If you own a lot of earrings, then a larger frame should be used.
- A nice piece of fabric that slightly larger then the photo frame.
- Mesh, the kind that you use on screen doors. You can get this from home depot and it's really inexpensive. It comes in wire and plastic. I used plastic.  The piece you use for the device should be the same size as your fabric.
- A staple gun and short staples
- Earrings

Here's what you do.
1. Remove the glass or plastic insert from the frame. You will not need it for the device. You should have two pieces: the frame and the backing.
2. Now take your fabric and lay it right side up. Then take your mesh and lay it on top of the fabric. Finally, take the fabric mesh combo and place it on top of the backing with the mesh side on top.
3. Tightly staple the fabric/mesh to the back of the backing, Cut off any extra fabric.  
4. Place the frame onto the backing.
5. Add your earrings and hang onto the wall.

Your finish product should look similar to this:

 

You can color the frame with paint, add razzle dazzle, cowrie shells or whatever you like to create a personalized piece.

Happy Crafting 

OmiD 

Scared Space: The closet

In an effort to restore some balance and sanity to my life, I'm making organization and order a priority. It's often stated that "clutter in your space creates clutter in your mind." I totally agree with this sentiment. I think the opposite holds true as well, "a cluttered mind can create clutter in your space." Upon doing any type of school work or studying at home, I have to clean. It's like a clearing ritual. Unfortunately, I have a lot of stuff, have recently moved, and am in the process of completing my PhD studies. So, finding any spare time for intense cleaning is pretty much non existent. But in desperate need of mental decluttering, I've decided to take on the task of cleaning and organizing my closet. More like a dressing room considering it is an actual room. It's like a battle field right now. Boxes of clothes and shoes everywhere. I've been rotating the same clothes for the past 6 weeks because every time I go in there, it becomes to much. I read that the areas you collect clutter in you house is indicative of specific emotional issues. The closet is associated with hidden issues. Lord knows I have them! Now is the time to tackle them and this closet.

Here's the before: 

ahotmess.com!!!

I was clearly going to need some backup. With the help of a good friends (Dr. Brown), we gave this space a pretty intense makeover.  

The view looking into the room

Space for bags, scarfs, belts, shirts and some shoes

Racks for pants and trousers

More space for clothes and accessories 

My Babies!!! The ultimate shoe wall :)

Now I can finally utilize this room (and my clothes).  The wardrobes cost about $100 each and were not easy to assemble at all! The shelves for the shoe wall were about $12.00 each. All and all the project didn't break the bank and resulted in an organized and functional dressing room. Now I have to focus on keeping it that way....

OmiD

On the Cutting Board

Greetings fellow Crafters!
In an attempt to save money, I've decided to update my fall/winter wardrobe with garments I make. Nothing too fancy at first. Just a few basics. I've found a few patterns for this update in my pattern stash. Have a look below:

For the jacket, I want it to hit past my waist. Option B seems like it does that. I'm still looking for some dope fabric to bring this to life. Also thinking about adding some festive buttons, but that maybe to much... This would be the second jacket that I've made. I hope it turns out okay... 

I absolutely LOVE color! A nice pair of orange wide legged pants and a brightly colored top would look so funky, yet sophisticated. Looking through my stash, I came across this pattern that may work. As mentioned before, I'm going to do a muslin of the pants first to achieve the perfect fit. Hopefully, I can start on them sometime next week.

I also found these two dress patterns in my stash. Going to use some nice printed fabrics for them.  Basic dresses are essential. You can dress them up with a nice belt or some statement jewelery. Dress them down with a nice blazer or cardigan. Or throw on a simple scarf to add a touch of flare. You can never have to many.

Though this wasn't on the original list, I've decided to make a coat as well. I've never made a coat before and figure this would be a good way to save some money and get some practice in. I think the drape coat is sick and looks very comfy. 
Now that I have the patterns picked, I need to take a trip to the store for some funky fabrics.
Wish me luck!

OmiD

Afrochic home: Sacred space

So my fiance and I recently purchased a beautiful home!!! However, with very little furniture and money to spare, we're turning to my talent for all things crafting to create our sacred space. Of course I'm drawing inspiration from indigenous cultures to create an eclectic, modern, liveable space. I want to create an environment where as soon as you walk in, your filled with positive, uplifting, relaxing energy. Follow me as I document my home decoration process and some of my creations.

Image from: http://anindiansummer-design.blogspot.com/

A few months ago my BFF and I were window shopping (our favorite past-time) and stopped into one of my favorite stores: Antropolologie. Now, as a broke graduate student, I can barely afford to walk into this store. So when I do make purchases it's definitely from the sale/clearance racks. On this particular day I was perusing the furniture and home decor section and stubbed across these sick african printed chairs.

I was in love. But a glance at the price tag quickly let me know that I will not be buying those bad boys. So I decided to make my own.

I purchased this chair from Ikea for about $100.

Items I used to create the chair:
- Brought 6 yards of lovely african fabric from a local store for $15.
- A staple gun with upholstery staples
- Sewing needle and threading
- Sewing machine

With a little thought and a lot of time, I ended with this:

It's super cute and very comfy! I liked it so much, I made another.

These chairs add the perfect touch to my living room and are totally Afrochic! I'll post detailed instructions later.

OmiD

Balance in all things

Achieving balance is probably one of the most challenging things to accomplish. Yet it's benefits supersedes giving into the fear of not trying. In today's modern world we are constantly overrun with never ending to-do list and rely heavily on multitasking to get the jobs done. Many of us feed on this excitement and often times put ourselves in these situations. Eventually you'll end up burned out physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually and your body will force you to take that much needed time out. Your body will compensate for all those periods of extreme activity by forcing you to be still. However, this period of stillness maybe a physical illness or some other stress related illness such as an affected disorder. This lifestyle can be very detrimental to your health. Therefore, balance is required in everything you do. 

I'm consistently struggling with this and am seeking help through a daily meditation practice and yoga. Finding time for these self healing techniques takes some dedication but I owe it to myself and to my loved ones. To achieve this, I've created a special meditation area in front of my shrines. It consists of a few comfy throw pillows, some candles, incenses, and my journal to note anything that may come to mind. I usually meditate to music. I have a nice collection of new agey chakra balancing and singing bowl tunes that I downloaded from itunes. To begin, I take a few cleansing breathes then just be for about 10 minutes. Nothing fancy. 

For my yoga practice, I currently go to two different studios. I'm a hot yoga fanatic, so I generally do Bikiram or some other variation. But I find it lacks the spiritual aspect of the yogic tradition that I love. So sometime I attend classes at Kashi here in Atlanta. The classes offered there are very holistic in that they provide a good balance between physical and spiritual fitness. In general yoga classes can be pricey and as a graduate student, I live on a tight budget. So both studios offer free or $5 classes multiple times per week. Yoga on a budget. I loves it!  

I'm still growing in my practices, so any tips you guys can offer would be great! Namaste

OmiD

Daily inspiration

While surfing the net, I stubble across an inspiring interview with the lovely Fatima Robinson. If you don't know about her, please do your research. Sistah is the truth in the dance world, having worked with countless artist including Michael Jackson and Aaliyah. And not to mention her style is so sick!!! I love how she mixes high end with vintage to create an eclectic look. I would love to spend some time in her closet. Link is below.

http://stylelikeu.com/closets/fatima-robinson/  



StyleLikeU Closet Interview With Fatima Robinson from StyleLikeU on Vimeo.


OmiD

Current Projects: On the cutting board

I would describe my esthetic as a mixture of cultural and modern fashions. I have a great love for indigenous cultures and enjoy mixing and matching with vintage and/or classic pieces. Bright colors, tacky prints and lush fabrics bring a big smile to my face :)

It's getting cold out and a sistah is on a major budget, so I need to dust off the machine and get to work on creating some fab looks for the fall/winter. There are 3 items on the cutting board for this season:

1. Tailored slacks in a bright colors. A few weeks ago I ventured to find a nice pair of orange wide legged slacks and had no success. So why not take the challenge and make them myself. I can make a mean pair of draw string pants. However, making tailored pants always frightened me. I definitely think I should start with a muslin first!

2. African printed blazer. ASOS had a sick african printed blazer last summer, but the price tag was a bit steep. This piece will also be a challenge due to the amount of tailoring required and I'm really trying to work at perfecting fit.

3. Fall/winter african inspired dress. I love dresses! It's my go to piece of clothing. At close examination of my closet, I realized that I don't have any winter dresses. Most of my dresses are for the spring/summer and living in GA covering it with a denim jacket or cardigan does a good job of keeping you warm. I'm in search of the perfect winter dress pattern. I'll keep you guys posted. 


Please stay tuned as I document my progress on these items.

OmiD

release

Everyone needs a release, right?

Mine is clothing. Since a child, I've had a passion for fashion. I would wrap my little brother in random fabric scrapes collected from my grandmother (an avid sewer) in attempts to bring my creative ideas to life. Sewing with Nancy was my favorite TV show and I had a mean cut out doll collection. The first career I learned about was fashion designing (thanks to the TV show Designing Woman) and I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life creating clothing. As I grew older, I developed a deep love for science and nature and made the decision to peruse neuroscience as a career. However, that has left very little time for my creative pursuits and laboratory work lacks the creative energy that I love.

So here I am trying to find my way back to creating. Not only creating clothing, but creating the life I want to live. Join me as I document my journey :)

OmiD