Whether you thought about it before, are in the process of doing it now, or wrote it off as something only women and homemakers did because it is still considered taboo in most cultures, learning to sew for yourself has more benefits than just mending a hole or putting a button back on a shirt.
Dear Netfah,
I was interested in making a rain coat for my four year old girl, but was not sure what kind of material I should be purchasing. I would like it to be kind of see through like the rain capes from my own childhood. I saw some vinyl online, but it looked too heavy. Any suggestions?
-Rain Rain Go Away, Ellicott City MD
Madagascar, a plush and awe inspiring island located off the south east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, is home to not only the famous Lemur and Baobab Tree, but a uniquely diverse wild life as well. Home to over 250,000 species with 70% of them found only on the island, Madagascar.
Referred to as the Red Island due to its large amount of red soil, and considered the forth largest island in the world, Madagascar celebrates its 49th year anniversary of colonial freedom from France on June 26th.
Whenever it rains really hard, my auntie says its ‘raining cats and dogs’. I grew up hearing this saying from not only my family, but the elders in my community as well. I never really understood where it came from or why it was used to describe a heavy rain to I did my research and this is what I found.
Sewing Tip of the Week #1
I have been in love with clothing since I was a little girl. How colors looked on a model, how the fabric draped, and most especially, how their full ensemble looked once all the pieces were in place all appealed to my visual and creative senses. I would spend hours a day designing new looks and rumminging through JC Penny, Sears and Speigal catalogs imagining the day I would make manifest the ideas on the sketch pad in front of me
May is National Bicycle Month and J&O is celebrating by offering 10% off selected novelty cotton and tapestry bicycle themed fabrics. From choppers and dirt bikes to professional race bikes and biker symbols, J&O has them and wants to share them with all of our riders througout the month of May.
Whether you are darting through Center City traffic on your blue BMX or peddling into work on your Tonino Lamborghini Leggenda 3-speed, bicycling is not only a great way to help save the planet through the reduction of air pollution caused by excess car emission fumes, but is an enjoyable, stimulating, and healthy mode of transpo for all ages
My son read an article to me this morning regarding bananas that I found quite interesting. In the article, the author spoke about how the banana ‘fruit’ was scientifically classified as a herbaceous plant (bush) of the Musacea family. In laments terms, this commonly called fruit that we eat is actually a flowering herb and a member of the lily family. Banana’s do NOT grow on trees in the true sense, since the banana plants have no wood fiber and not only that, scientists actually classify the banana as a berry based on the fact that berries are identified as being ‘many seeded’ with a ‘fleshy inner layer’; just like bananas.
Have you ever been to a clothing swap? If you haven’t you are really missing out on not only some great fun, but some great finds.
I was invited to my first one from a girlfriend of mine who shops at a private design boutique called Simply Netfah. It is a specialty boutique that carries beautiful wholistic clothing and accessories for women and every spring they hold a gathering at their place where invited clients gather among good food and good company, to exchange old and unwanted articles of clothing from their closets for new ones. It is the boutique owner’s way of giving back to Mother Earth through the encouragement of clothing recycling and sustaining her community through barter exchange.
In these economically uncertain times, our survival skills kick in and our natural response is to cut back, cut out and hold our breath while the nightly news reports on yet another mass lay off of jobs. We join the ever growing population of stressed out worker bees and me-myself-and-I clones in the competitive rat race called ‘life’, who find truth in the encouraged notion that it is survival of the fittest, with no rest for the weary. It is a delusional and vicious spiral of continuous fear based responses that chip away at the ‘reality’ of what it means to be alive.
I remember when I gave birth to my first son over ten years ago. I was a first time mom and unexptected single parent earning a modest living as a designer with no real nest egg set up for myself or my little one. I worried whether or not I would have enough money to buy formula, pay the bills to keep the roof over our heads, or keep him clothed properly when it seemed every day he grew a little more.
