When I was a little girl, many many years ago, I remember my mom used to make beautiful dresses for me. Short dresses, gowns, blouses, skirts, pants, pajamas, nightgowns, baju kurung, costumes you name it. Always felt like a princess, after all I was the only girl in the family. Eid was always the best time of the year when you were young and there would always be something new for me. I remember when I was 8 years old, the first day of Eid, I put on this beautiful pink dress. It would be my favorite of all the dresses. So many people complemented on how pretty I looked in that dress. Wore it for the whole day and refused to take it off. At nite several of my cousins and brothers were playing with sparklers outside. I was so careful not to get too close to them as I was concerned for my dress. Then tragedy strike, one of my cousins chased me with the sparklers and believe it or not the sparklers scorched the front of my dress. My cries brought all the adults out. I was uncontrollable. My beautiful dress can’t be repaired. My mom promised to make a new one for me and that temporarily stop the cries. The tragedy of my beautiful pink dress. Unfortunately, my mom couldn’t make the same one as she couldn’t find the same fabric design. I didn’t forgive my cousin for a very long time. These are the memories that I cherish until now. I never grab the opportunity of learning how to sew from my mom, which is very unfortunate for me.
As I grow older, and have children of my own, I also want my only girl to have these memories. The memories of her mom making her beautiful dresses. I took some sewing classes. Then I discovered the art of making smocking dresses. Mainly, I discovered and fell in love with Australian Smocking and Embroidery. Bought myself Amanda Jane Pleater and self taught myself how to smock. I made her so many smocking dresses, smocking blouses until she was at that age whereby she didn’t want to look girly anymore. By then, my friends found out about my hobby and requested for me to make smocking dresses for their daughters. As their daughters grew older, my handmade smocking dresses were not needed. At that time, I didn’t think of turning this passion into a business. After many years gone by, one of friends’ daughters tracked me down requesting for smocking dresses for her daughter. I was touched that my handmade smocking dresses still imprinted in her mind after all these years. It is an art that doesn’t diminish in value even after many years passed by. It is then that I decided to turn this passion into a business. A business of creating beautiful smocking blouses, smocking dresses, christening baby gown, baju aqiqah, and many more. These creations can be passed down generation after generation, linking past baby to future baby, past daughter to future daughter. After all it is a timeless design.