38 Roots Sewing Series: Philippines

Heidi of Elegance and Elephants has created a new sewing series to showcase several bloggers' cultural inheritance called, Roots. 

Have you been following? 

Oh.My.Goodness.

From Finland to Japan, what a trip it has been! Now let's hop on over to a country of over 7,000 islands and over 170 dialects, the Philippines. When I initially signed up, I had wanted to include my husband's Chamorro (aka: Guamanian) culture, but as I got deeper into research, I decided to just focus on my Filipino heritage (hey man… I'm the one sewing!). 

When it comes to Filipino traditional dress, there are several depending on location, but there is one that is significant to my heritage and it's the kimona and the patadyong. This outfit originated from the Visayas (where my family is from), first worn by women during harvest season, but soon became more common in everyday wear and even in formal settings. The kimona is a sheer blouse made from pineapple fibers, to be worn over a camisole. The patadyong is very similar to a sarong in which a cotton rectangular fabric is wrapped around the waist. The outfit is often accessorized with a "scarf" which is a small rectangular piece that rests on one shoulder.

Via internet

I wanted to make the outfit modern, wearable and most importantly comfortable for Lala. In my search for fabrics, I found this gorgeous white cotton fabric with floral embroidery at JoAnn's. It has just enough sheerness to give the option of either layering with a camisole (tank top) or not.  I drafted a pattern using pattern K from Happy Homemade Sew Chic Kids as my foundation. I omitted the front and back yoke, widened the neckline wand added a light gathering, extended the sleeves and moved the opening to the back side. 

I am in love with the sleeves. So light and wispy!

For the patadyong, I needed this to be "Lala friendly", meaning that it had to be uber comfortable and easy to put on or take off (yeah… we're still in the potty training phase). My original thought was to make a wrap skirt, but my niece (who was happening to hang out with me at the time) said, "Hey Auntie… why not make a skort?". Brilliant! Using the same sewing book, I used pattern D as my base and added a flap to give it that "sarong" look. Traditionally, the patadyong is made with a floral or striped fabric, but to give it a more updated look, I used Parson Gray Vagabond for Free Spirit. It still has that ethnic vibe, with a modern appeal.

And so the journey through my heritage ends here. It was a lot of fun to reflect and learn more about my culture through this sewing adventure. I am so-so happy to have shared this with you and I hope it inspires you to create something for your little one, and if you do, Heidi has a sew along link up along with an AH-MAZING giveaway HERE.

Check it out and good luck!

***

Thank you, Heidi for having me!

3 Guimaras, Philippines pt.2

So we're on the RORO (ride-on, ride-off) boat and on our way to my parents' farm in Guimaras. It's about a 30 minute boat ride to the island.

Here are some of the things we saw on our excursion.
***Gilligan's Island theme song playing in the back...***

Once we docked in Guimaras, it's a 2 hour drive to get to our destination. Now... keep in mind there are 10 of us and 1 truck.
Yes...
10 people.
1 truck.
The girls LOVED it. They sat in the back along with MR., my nephew and niece, while the rest of us sat INSIDE. Crazy kids. I know-I know... not the safest or smartest thing, but...
ha-HA! Welcome to the Philippines!

Motorcycles and "Tri-cycads" (upper right corner pic) are the preferred method of transportation on the island. You can easily pack a family of four on one motorcycle. I wish I had a picture to show you. It's quite a sight.

Pigs on a joyride! Awww... poor guys... little do they know.

On our way, we stopped for some bananas and veggies.

Ahhh... home at last!
The architecture is a bit different here. Anything goes. No, your eyes aren't playing tricks... the columns underneath the deck are turquoise. My parents' are cool like that.
The upper right corner pic, you can see part of the their rice field (just across from their house). It's not planting season, so instead they plant corn and other various vegetables for themselves, friends and family.

On the other side of the property, there is an old mango tree. And I mean OLD. At first first I thought it was about 200 years old, but it's actually around 130. It's massive. There is so much history with this tree. The locals believe it to be enchanted. Inhabited by the "little people", something like dwarves, only not as nice. It was struck by lightening long time back and was split in half. It thrived... 
ah-mazing.

Picking mangoes.

At one point in time the tree produced upwards of 30 bushels of mangoes in one season, providing a good source of income along with their rice production.

Here's another view of the tree. Look, all the mangoes are wrapped in newspaper. Every single one.

This is our form of pesticides. It's crazy to see the entire tree with covered mangoes, but it works! You're probably wondering, "Who the heck covered all of them?!"
An older lady who's kinda like a distant relative is the one. Yup... she's in her late sixties and does it all herself. Maybe if I was chased by hungry wolves, I'll climb a tree.
Okie-dokie my friends... I'm off to do more photo editing.
Be back soon!

4 back from the Philippines pt.1

Kamusta ka?

(How are you?)

Ahhh... back home... it feels good.

We got home late Wednesday night and we're still jet lagged. Slowly gettin' back to the groove of things. I've got a gazillion pics to sort through and share, so rather than bombarding you with oodles of pictures at once, I'm going to break it up in parts.

So here's the first set... enjoy!

LAX to Manila International Airport

This is the oldest Catholic church in my dad's hometown, Miagao (me-yag-ow).
Photo courtesy of my awesomely talented nephew, "Kiwi".

My aunt's vacation home in Lanotan (lah-noo-tahn).

After our visit to the oldest Catholic church in my dad's hometown, we went to my aunt's vacation home. The beach is literally steps from her home.

With clear warm water and black sand, the girls cooled off with a brief dip... and I mean BRIEF. Sophie saw a jellyfish float by her and swim time was quickly over.
What a bummer!


After a few days of rest in the city of IloIlo (ee-loo-ee-loo), it was time to hop on the "RORO" (Ride-on, Ride-off) ferry and head to my parents' farm in Guimaras.


We packed up the truck, rode on the ferry and it was about a 30 minute boat ride across the channel.




Okay, so I'll stop here for now.
Next stop... Guimaras (Gi-mah-rahs)!!!

4 family vacation

In a couple of weeks we're headin' out on a much needed vacation.

"Hey, but you just moved in..."

Yes, yes I know. 
Crazy hectic with the new blog, new home and now a vacation. Sheesh... tough I tell ya, but we have to go. This vacation is quite special-a MUST do if you will. Y'see it's my parents' 50th wedding anniversary, my dad's 75th birthday, my sister's 50th birthday and Mr.'s 40th birthday. Needless to say...
We have a lot of celebrating to do.

Philippines trip 2007

So we're heading out to the Philippines! Our last visit was in 2007. The girls were much younger then and it'll be Lala's first. I'm quite anxious about the flight... 16 hours... ONEWAY.

16.

Did I mention ONEWAY?

...

Pray for me.

Once we land, then we'll be on vacation.

200 year old family mango tree

My parents have a farm on Guimaras (Gim-mah-rahs) or "gimme rice" as my bro-in-law calls it. They have a small mango orchard along will a rice field. Oh man, you haven't had rice until you had this. I'm hoping to make some mango jam to bring back, but I'll be lucky if I can get it past customs. It'll be my first time making it so any suggestions would be helpful!

 tell ya what... if you can share with me any mango recipes or tips, if I can sneak some back, I'll send you some. Deal?

10 more 3' baskets full of mangoes not shown
So while I'm gone, I would love to have you over to kinda watch over things... y'know "blogsit". I will be over the moon to have you guest post. Just shoot me an email. I'll even bring you back some goodies!

gone fishin' 2007

Maybe not fish, but it'll  be good for sure! I wish I had more pictures to show you from our last visit, but Mr. found this video on YouTube.
Yyyah... welcome to the Philippines!

Before we leave, I have some stuff to show you, just come on back... I'll be here waitin' for you....