(Please note, this post was originally published back in 2009, all of the accompanying pictures have slowly disappeared over the years, please keep that in mind although my friend Umm Abdullah does a good job of describing what she is talking about.)
As promised, here is the update from my friend Umm Abdullah in regards to the fabric remnants she purchased for use as Hijabs. This is the post I am referencing.
All of the fabric pieces ended up being crinkle or pebble textured chiffons or georgettes; with the exception of one which is a smoother chiffon. All in all it only took one afternoon to make all six of them MashaAllaah. It was a relatively trouble free experience; one of the remnants didn’t have a straight square in the middle from selvage to selvage; so I had to make it a smaller square; Alhamdulillaah as it was the one in the smooth chiffon fabric it was easy to tear it in both directions to ensure that all the lines were straight and the fact the edges curled up slightly when the fabric was torn meant that it was very easy to do a rolled hem on the machine.
Another remnant had one corner cut away; no biggie I just carefully trimmed it, rounded it off and now I can either have it showing; it looks very nice and elegant mashaAllaah or hide it under the point at the back when worn.
The only one that gave me trouble, (and) I have no idea why it gave me problems, it was a crinkle fabric like at least two of the others but I snapped two high-quality German made needles and bent one in the process before I thought maybe I ought to try a considerably thicker needle, Alhamdulillaah that turned out to be the issue all along!
All in all I got 6 khimars (scarves) for a total of under £4 each when, on the rare occasions you can get quality square khimars, they can cost a few pounds or dollars more than that, and more often than not they tend to be made out of awful gaudy fabric. Two of them turned out around 50″ square when made, but the others turned out to be at least 60″ square. They all drape beautifully and I managed to get them a lot more ‘square’ than many commercially made scarves. I’m now on the lookout for some more remnants and roll ends to make more to add to my collection!
This reminds me of what I used to do to make scarves as well, although mine never ended up being quite so nice. I would go to the local fabric stores and rummage through their discounted fabric and choose thin polyester georgette or chiffon fabrics in prints and weights that I liked, get enough for a nice big scarf go home, cut it down and light a candle-I’m serious, I would then very very carefully run the edges through the flame so they wouldn’t fray and voila…insta-scarf!
Over the years I ended up getting rid of most of the scarves I made but there is one I still have and yes still wear and it’s something like 8 years old! It’s far from straight and perfect but I love how it looks on me. Another thing is, the less than perfect edging didn’t really phase me because decent scarves were hard to find anyway and the style I preferred when I was younger was to pin the scarf under my chin, tuck the back end under my collar and then take the 2 front pieces and criss-cross them and knot behind my head, hence no one could see that the edges were less than perfect.
Ah yes, those were the days…
JazakhAllah for reading! Feel free to leave me a comment, share your thought and experiences….Id love to read them!
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They look nice! I made a hijab a couple weeks ago out of silk georgette. I got it for 7.99 a yard at fashionfabricsclub.com it’s black, and feels sooo nice! I didn’t know then about ‘rolled hems’ so I had turned it, pressed it and turned it again and sewed. But, it’s black, so it doesn’t show too much. I still like it!