The story of how one woman, through tatreez, found deeper connection, embraced a rich tradition, and stitched together a thobe full of love, resilience, and solidarity.

A Spark of Inspiration

On September 6th, I received an email from Um Asad, a woman whose journey with tatreez was just beginning. She had just signed up for the Craft Your Dream Thobe course after careful consideration. What finally convinced her was the idea of starting with a small practice piece—a chest panel—that didn’t feel overwhelming. More than anything, she saw this as an opportunity to learn and honor a tradition that had been forcibly taken from her husband’s Palestinian family due to the 1948 Nakba and 1967 Naksa.

“I want to be able to use this privilege of the opportunity to learn from you to reconnect our extended family to the traditions that they have lost due to forcible displacement.”

Having grown up surrounded by textile and wood crafts, she had not fully appreciated their significance until she saw how her husband’s family had been stripped of their own crafting traditions. She was determined to ensure that her children, who would grow up in the West, would always feel connected to their heritage.

The First Stitches

By September 8th, Um Asad was already itching to start. Even before the course officially began, she was working on perfecting her technique with mini samplers. She was determined to understand not just how to stitch, but why the stitches followed a certain logic.

“I am a very detail-oriented person so I want to make sure to learn as much as I can about stitching technique before starting the thobe.”

She completed her first waste canvas project—a collection of Bir al-Saba’ cypress trees stitched onto black fabric. The labor-intensive process of removing the waste canvas gave her even more appreciation for the Palestinian women who embroidered hundreds of these motifs onto thobes without any guides.

Stitching as Solidarity

By October 24th, she was fully immersed in the deeper meaning of tatreez. She shared how her journey reminded her of the struggles of other indigenous peoples who had faced cultural erasure through forced assimilation. Just as their languages had been nearly lost, Palestinian identity had also been threatened. And yet, every stitch, every word spoken in Arabic, was an act of defiance.

“Every time you try to speak Arabic or even when feeling like that, you are actively defying the forces that wanted to take the language and culture away to erase your family’s history.”

She had started working on her qabbeh (chest panel) and was considering adding decorative manajel (joining stitches) to a blazer she had recently embroidered.

The Final Stitches

On January 15th, Um Asad sent me an email that I will never forget.

“I have officially completed my thobe, alhamdulillah!”

With a tight deadline for an event, she worked tirelessly to finish her sleeve and front hem, then assembled the entire thobe in just two days—with the help of her husband, Abu Asad, who discovered an unexpected passion for removing waste canvas!

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. She stitched her saya panels on incorrectly—twice. She also noticed five small holes in her qabbeh that she had to repair. Despite the mistakes and frustrations, she embraced every imperfection as part of the story.

“Mashallah, it has been a transformative experience in so many ways that I need to document it. And very healing. Making the thobe has really been crucial for my mental health during this winter.”

Her thobe wasn’t just a garment. It was a tangible manifestation of her journey—of steadfastness (sumud), of resistance, of love for her family, and of hope for a liberated Palestine.

One of the most meaningful additions to her thobe was a special motif she consulted on with her neighbor, Israa, whom she had met through the course. Inspired by The Haleemah Project, she stitched two doves holding a key and an olive branch onto the hem—symbols of return, justice, and home.

A Thobe Worn with Pride

Through this journey, Um Asad not only stitched a thobe—she stitched together her past, present, and future. She embraced a tradition that had become deeply meaningful to her and ensured that her children would grow up surrounded by the stories embedded in each stitch. She took what was once an unfamiliar craft and made it a cherished part of her family’s story.