Transfer of Learning

-

My Colombo Plan's scholarship in Australia was 130 Australian dollars.  I sent 30 to my mother.  I wanted so much for my younger sisters to continue schooling.  A small student stipend became even smaller, certainly requiring a very careful and tight management of my budget.  Anyhow, I thought buying a Bernina sewing machine would pay off in the long run. Saving every single cent, every week, I paid a small amount for it. 


I went hunting for materials in Salvation Army stores.  For very little money, I could buy very big pieces of clothing which were made from beautiful and expensive materials.  I then unpicked the seams and refashioned them.  Here is me in a jumpsuit made from summer wool



When my first child was born, I had to give up my scholarship. Money was very tight.  My sewing skills came in very handy.  I continued to sew for many years until my illness made it too difficult.  I kept hoping that someday I would sew again.  Although I gave away some of the materials in my collection, I still kept many pieces.


When I had some success with gardening (https://www.distilledmoment.com/2021/11/developing-my-tiny-garden.html), I began to entertain the idea: what if I transfer the learning I had gained from gardening to sewing?


https://youtu.be/60xPv4ckmU4


https://youtu.be/N8QfkT8L9lo


The biggest obstacle was my lack of patience with myself and the constant running thought that I used to sew so much better! Had to remind myself to concentrate on what I can do now and accept my current limitations.  Self soothing myself and taking tiny steps, here are three tops I managed to make in the last few months:



Websites: www.distilledmoment.com

                 www.redha.net

Email.    : distilledmoment@gmail.com

Instagram username : halijah.mohd

Twitter handle: @distilledmoment



Comments

New comments are not allowed.

Popular posts from this blog

Movement and Exercise

-
Image
1990 and 2007 were two very difficult years for me.  In 1990, I lost my body-brain coordination.  I could not accurately bring a glass of water to my mouth.  I had to hang on to walls to walk.  It took two to three years prior to 1990 before I was diagnosed with SLE (lupus).  Other than steroid shots, there were many medications I could not tolerate.  In the end, I turned to prayers and intense inner focus.  I imagined small movement sequences again and again until they became very real and clear in my mind.  I asked my five year old to teach me to play the piano.  He taught me to connect the musical notes to the piano keys and my fingers.  My twelve year old had a typing game on the computer.  I practised on it several times a day.  Jane Fonda videos were also around the house.  I bought them for my fourteen year old.  I used them a few minutes a day till my feet could step to the music.  Within six weeks, I wen...
Read more

My Sewing History

-
Image
When I was little, one of my favourite chores was keeping dry goods into bottles.  Sugar, flour, salt were packed into old newspapers.  The shopkeeper would take the amount needed from a large sack, huge tin or earthenware urn and wrap the goods with pieces of newspaper.  That gave me some reading material and a glimpse of a world outside of my village. When I was ten, I saw a picture of a "twist" dress on one of those newspaper pieces.  It was a dress cut slim to the hips and then the bottom half would be gathered full. When you dance the "twist", the bottom half would flare up, exaggerating your movement. The folly of a pre teen :-) The picture conjured up such a pretty vision in my head. I showed it to my mother and asked her to make it for me.  She was livid! Every year in the month of Ramadan, my father would buy a bolt of material for my mother to make clothes for us to celebrate Syawal.  For that year, my mother gave me whatever was left after making...
Read more

My Grieving Process

-
Image
As my grief moves from centre stage, my forlorn rebounder (tiny trampoline) and slant board gain my attention.  So too my various weights and resistance bands.  All were gathering dust in the past three or four months.  Grief took a lot out of me.  It is still there, I am allowing it to come and go as it pleases, but it no longer consumes me.  I am beginning to take tiny steps to regain some physical strength.  It is very easy to give in to pain and not move at all.   I used to read, listen or watch Peter Attia and he offered ample evidence that flexibility and mobility could be maintained if, as we age, muscle mass is not excessively lost. https://peterattiamd.com/ “Peter Attia explores strategies and tactics to increase lifespan, healthspan, and well-being, and optimize cognitive, physical, and emotional health” Time to read my unopened emails from Peter! My easiest go to movement is walking  https://youtu.be/R10u9h7j24E This video points o...
Read more