Author: Aishwarya Shreeganga
As we face an unprecedented pandemic and a scary situation around us, all we could do is stay home and keep each other safe. For me, this lock down gave me an opportunity to look at my life in a new way. I realised that we, as human beings, we do not need much to survive. We can make do without eating out and prepare healthy food at home, doing an aerobic and body weight exercise at home equates going to a fancy gym and staying in and having a good time with family is the best stress-buster.
This lock down also gave me time to pursue new hobbies and my favourite one so far is stitching. Yes, stitching! Hand stitched and not using a machine! My mom and my grandma are my biggest supporters and they encouraged me to pursue my hobby whole-heartedly. Although I did nag them to give me their old clothes to up-cycle and they finally relented.
This was like a 21-day challenge for me. Overnight the whole social media became a strong virtual spider web which became a platform for many new challenges like 21-day sari, 21 days cooking and whatnot. All credit goes to lock down.
Well, I was also among them. I decided to document what all things I did in these 21 days and little did I know that it might get extended. first few days went really well. I had a goal, I had an aim and of course no 21-day challenge ends without sharing it to your friends and families. I ventured into gardening, little cooking, and some exercise. Later I realised I have been doing the same routine and my documenting became just about my gardening. Just then I realised I am falling into a loop. I had to snap out of it!
I have always loved designing clothes and the stitching idea stemmed from this love. The first thing that came to my mind was a bathrobe. As silly as it sounds, I decided to create one for myself using the available towels I had at home. This decision unknowingly changed my track to looking out for robe tutorials and DIYs. But then, I graduated from the idea from bath robe to a night robe. I took hold of my mom’s old saree and I did it! It did resemble some thing like a robe!
My maiden attempt wasn’t what I would call a super success, but eventually, I did manage to hand stitch my own kurti, jacket, and lehenga. Taste of success is beautiful. My grandmother was my teacher during my maiden voyage into stitching as she taught me all the nitty-gritties of stitching. I feel proud that I am able to pursue this hobby and have decided to take stitching classes once the lock down is over.
Feature image courtesy: Polina Zimmerman from Pexels
