Homemade Scalp and Beard Oil

Skin Scalp and Beard Oil Recipe

Today I prepared a lovely natural organic oil for the family – for skin, scalp and beard.  It was expensive to get everything but at least I know we will get a few uses or bottles out of them – they should last a while. Rastafari and Muslims here in Trinidad go to a store in Port of Spain called Mustafa’s. But they sell all kinds of essential oils, the raw black soap, shea and cocoa butters from Afrika. You can even get incense and musks, all types of shampoos and baby items – literally everything. You can buy in bulk or in small quantity which is great too. But its better to buy in bulk and store.
If you live in a cold place, this oil may become more of a butter that will soften when it makes contact with the skin, so you cannot use a container like what i did, but something with a wide mouth.

Also pictured below is Miswak flouride free all natural toothpaste. Lots of great tooth pastes and powders come to Trinidad out of India.

1.5 -2  cups cold-pressed coconut oil

1 cup a mixture of cocoa and shea butter (4 big pieces of cocoa butter and 2 spoons of shea butter)

1 tbsp jojoba oil

½ tsp of rosemary oil

½ tsp bergamot oil

½ tsp tea tree oil

5 drops of patchouli oil

1 tsp sweet almond

1 Container with a fine spout ( a plastic condiment container from a variety store or dollar store)

Metal container and pot it can fit into

Metal teaspoon

Now this is a thick mixture so if you know you hate a lot of oil, lessen the Shea and cocoa butter to quarter cup. Shea and cocoa butter can also cause build up on the locks but I find them to be such good moisturizers still.  Good thing about this recipe is that you can tweak it to suit your tastes. 
You can use a combination of two or more oils or just one oil even, like olive oil or the coconut or sweet almond or jojoba, they are all good hair oils on their own. 


NOTE: I have found that shea butter causes me to get a serious acne break out - so I remade this oil eliminating both butters  - instead To make a light and simple oil that won't cause breakouts I use the coldpressed coconut oil, rosemary oil, jojoba oil, sweet almond oil and bergamot oil. i use this on my entire body and scalp while the rest of the family uses the recipe with the butters for their scalp and beard only not body. Again you can tweak as you wish!

So to start:

Put some water in the pot, bring to boil.

Set the metal bowl into the pot and in it, melt cocoa and shea butter. Use a metal spoon. Turn off the stove when the pieces are tiny they will melt on their own. Remove the bowl and swizzle the melted butters in the breeze to cool it instantly.

Pour into the container it will be kept it. Add in the other oils and cover. missing is the tea tree oil from the picture. in the line you can see how much from each bottle I used.

Apply this oil directly to the scalp and ends of natty after a hair wash. Massage the oil into the scalp and locks. Apply directly to the skin under the beard and massage well. I don't usually reapply to scalp unless I have an itchy area. I use shea butter to make the front hairs and my ends moist. Keeping the ends moist reduce split ends and breakage or shedding of the locks.

These particular oils chosen are good for skin and blemishes. They also nourish the skin/scalp improving wool and skin quality. The natty crown will have more lustre and be stronger, grow abundantly.  I recommend using this mixture should along with pure water and pure Afrikan black soap, to clear up acne and dandruff issues – and for the general maintenance of all nattys in the family! I will also be using it for underarms, and for blemishes on my face in hopes of reducing breakouts.

Here are some pictures of what I did for my princess today. I washed, dried for a bit then I separated her locks because our hair tends to matt up very badly. I then applied the oil all over her scalp directly and rubbed it in and palm rolled each after. I didn’t need to reapply oil very often the oil spread well.

Stay blessed and in good health!

Ila

Refashion a Dress or Skirt into an Elastic Belted Maxi Skirt

Blessed Love,

I found out yesterday that I am having a son and we are so excited! All this time not knowing it seems so strange to finally know it is a prince inside there. But this pregnancy has been sooooo different from the first it is suiting that it is another gender. Now it is time to really find a name!

This is a refashion DIY that I have had for months and months that I finally remembered to post up.
Make a dress, halter or skirt into a high-waisted maxi skirt that has an elastic belt. I love this style as you can see I made about 4 different skirts.

I turned this dress

 into this skirt

and this maxiskirt

  into this one

these i made from scratch, using one seam.

Here's the video:

All the best with your sewing projects!!
SIs. Ila

Refashion a Maxi Skirt into a Dress DIY

Blessed Love!

This is a simple beginner tutorial that is fast and allows you to get creative with your wardrobe. It is a dress refashion. You can make almost any type of dress with a plain ole maxi skirt.
I need some more house dresses that fit a pregnant belly and saw the perfect opportunity with this skirt that I rarely wear.
Hope you like this DIY project!

     

Senbet Selam!
Ila Addis

How to Sew a Kaftan Maxi Dress with Sleeves - T-shirt Style

Blessed Love

I think I am pretty much the maxi-dress queen at this point! What else do I make but maxi dresses? And I have more styles that I want to try as soon as I get the fabric too! But I don't mind, an Empress is royal and free in her style and I love that a maxi dress can give you that flowing goddess feel no matter how you style it.
So don't be surprised that I've been making so many because they are also fabulous for pregnancy! I made two new ones recently out of jersey fabric. I redid my kaftan dress in a new fabric (my most popular post to date is that kaftan tutorial) and I know that you can also call it a Tshirt dress if you use the small little sleeve or simply trace a tshirt. IT has a T shirt style to it, but it really is just a kaftan maxi dress.

I decided to just make a simple video tutorial with not too much detail but I outline the basic way to make a kaftan as a T shirt dress which is ideal for summer spring or pregnancy! you can use the post for the kaftan dress if you need more help. the good thing about this tutorial is that you can either use a t shirt or use your measurements!

 You can purchase my hemp braided belt at www.etsy.com/shop/iladesigns!

without the belt

How to Sew a Tube Dress - the ILA Roots Dawta Dress

Blessed Love every I!

I finally made something that you can wear out  for a date night with your KingMan or to a special occasion, the first dress I ever made for myself was in this style, especially because I hate sleeves - in the tropics you need to be cool! But because I personally don't really wear tubes anymore without a jacket or scarf as I matured in the livity, I stopped making them, so this is the first Roots Dawta Dress Ive made in a lonnngg time. Im pretty pleased with how it came out. I styled it without a shoulder covering so you could see it properly, but do check the tutorials on how to make the Ises wrap and the Shrug so that you can be appropriately covered if going to a formal Rastafari gathering.

This dress can also double as a skirt, but because of the inside zigzag stitching, doing that is up to you since it will show through - your thread would have to be an exact match and the top part probably in black for you to pull it off properly.  or I can recommend making two side seams for the jersey top instead of one seam at the back, and then sewing the elastic into the seams one time at the halfway mark. that way you wont have any zigzag stitches to hide.

Happy sewing Sistren!

Sis Ila

How to Sew or Refashion a RasTa Panel Jean Skirt

Blessed Love Sistren,

Ises for life, health and strength and another Sabbath.

I saw a sis was searching for this kind of tutorial, and I had this one here for the longest time, but never posted it. 
materials

red, yellow, green cotton fabric, 1 yard each to be safe.
lining fabric, 1 yard
thread to match your jeans, and another thread if you want, to sew up the banner
scissors,
chalk
yard rule
sewing machine
heavy duty sewing machine needle
pins
newspaper or any other large paper roll
tape
marker

With this tutorial, you are basically making a Banner first, and then cuttin it into a triangle to insert into the jeans skirt. I am not really providing measurements because every jeanskirt will be different in length and size.
Note that with this tutorial I made the mistake of not making the red panel longer in length, so it came out a very small triangle at the top. So it's important that the panel at the top be at least 2" longer than the other two panels I think. the top panel can be either red or green it's up to you.

1. First open up your jeans pant with scissors. use the rule and chalk to mark out a triangle and cut off that excess fabric both front to back.

It's good to cut away some of the bulky part of the jeans in the crotch area because you could break the needle, and the onle crotch seans aren't needed.

Zig zag these edges so the fabric won't fray. I do this because you don't want to have holes in the skirt after you wash and wash.

2. Place about two sheets of newspaper together long sides together and tape them together.

Place that under the front of the skirt or in between the skirt layers. Use a marker and your rule to trace out that triangle.

Cut out the triangle.This is your template for the fabric.

3. On the jeans like in the picture, mark out the three panels, making sure you don't make the bottom panel too long as I did my green.

measure each length from your markings for the three panels. add 2.5" to the length of the top panel, 1" to the length of the middle panel and 1.5" to the length of the bottom panel.

the width you will cut each panel at is the width of the bottom of the triangle plus some extra inches
- make sure you have at least 4 inches extra to be safe because you need seam allowance.

4. cut out your panels two in each colour for front and back of the skirt. I cut them all at the same width making a banner, which i then cut into a triangle.

To make the banner join the panels together in this order:
     
 Yellow panel over red panel and pin On the other side of the yellow, pin it over the Green panel, making sure that your seam will be the same.

       
 Sew the 3 pieces together at these two points, using a ½ seam for both lines. Zigzag ends together. Repeat for other panel.

5. Make the hem of the bottom panel using two 1/2" folds, press and sew in place.
               
6. Place newspaper over the two banners and cut out the triangles.you should definitely not cut it out at the exact size of the triangle, but put a 2"seam allowance all around first.

Also cut out the lining pieces too the same size as the panels.
Join the lining and RGG panel by zigzagging the edges altogether.

7. Line up the ready panels inside of the skirt doing one side at a time.pin in place.
Draw two lines on the front of the skirt where you will sew, if you want to.

Sew in the first panel. I usually pin up the bottom of the panel at the jeans so it wont stick out.

Do the same thing for the back, finished!

     I hope it works for you!

Ila