S4E10 of Tatreez Talk: Tatreez as a Builder with Amal Ali
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If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to stitch, laugh, and wander the world with a true Builder—this episode is for you. We’re joined by Amal (@amalalii), whose joy, humor, and deep love for tatreez make her the kind of person you always want around (especially on a spontaneous adventure). From her roots in Deir Dibwan to teaching her nieces and collaborating with her mom and sisters, Amal shares what it means to build connection through thread—wherever you are in the world. Come for the storytelling, stay for the giggles, and leave feeling like you just took the best road trip of your creative life.
Episode Shownotes
AMAL IS A BUILDER, TATREEZER, AND EXPLORER (@amalalii). Amal begins by recounting her upbringing in Deir Dibwan, a village near Ramallah, where tatreez was ever-present—in homes, on clothing, and as part of daily life. Inspired at a young age by her aunt’s embroidered Qur’anic verses and wedding scenes, Amal grew up surrounded by both the aesthetic and cultural depth of tatreez.
Now living outside of Palestine, tatreez remains a grounding force for Amal—a way to resist erasure, reconnect with her roots, and pass on culture to the next generation. She’s currently working on her own thobe and collaborating with her mother and sisters on a collective tatreez project. Teaching her nieces to stitch has also become a powerful way to extend that thread across generations and borders.
At the first Tatreez Retreat, Amal found unexpected community. The space was transformative, offering a sense of shared purpose and collective care. As a builder, she now helps shape that space for others, seeing tatreez not just as art, but as a living ritual of connection, healing, and belonging.
You’ll hear about:
>> 0:52: Amal’s connection to Palestine
>> 3:14: Inspiration for her tatreez practice and thobe
>> 12:00: The community she didn’t know she needed
>> 15:50: Advice and what she wished she knew before taking on a thobe
>> 18:32: Teaching tatreez
>> 20:48: What tatreez means living in and out of Palestine
>> 23:39: What tatreez means as an engineer
>> 27:50: Other tatreez projects
>> 28:49: Major life lessons from tatreez
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Links Mentioned
>> 8 Palestinian chest Panel Mural ( Tatreez Pattern) by @TasneemTatreezTales
Transcript
Lina: Hi stitchers! Welcome to Tatreez talk, where we share conversations about Palestinian embroidery. I'm Lina here with my co-host Amanne, chatting with talented embroiders and artists sharing their stories, inspirations, and the cultural significance behind their work.
Amanne: On today's episode. We are chatting with our friend, who we actually met through the very 1st Tatreez retreat. Amal, who is a builder, Tatreezer and explorer. Welcome to Tatreez! Talk, Amal, you're our 1st builder, so I'm really excited to have you.
Amal: Really glad to be here. Thanks, guys.
Lina: I already know this is going to be a great conversation so, and then we always like to kick off our episodes by asking you our guest a little bit about you and your family's connection to Palestine. Would you mind sharing a bit.
Amal: Absolutely. Yeah. So I was born and raised in Falesteen.
Amal: In Deir Dibwan, which is like a little town or village on the outskirts of Ramallah, and growing up in Philistine. The trees was always always around me.
Amal: hanging on people's walls, hanging in our walls, or on our walls in our house, or even on our clothes right? And I was actually 1st introduced to it as a little girl my aunt used to do, and she would do like these beautiful like
Amal: hang wall hangings, and it would be like Alhamdulillah or Asura from the Quran, or something very beautiful, and she also had, like the the Palestinian wedding, embroidered and fully put on her wall.
Amal: And we would buy from the Mexico, which is the local like library. We would go, and they would sell these little kits of like pre-printed images on like Ida cloth, and you can buy it with it like thread, and you just buy, and you did it, and I I started it, and I never finished it.
Amal: And then in school we had Home, Ec. Class.
Amal: and in Home Mech, which was also known as Iqtisad. We we had a 1 of our projects was to do a Tatreez project, and, like we made. I made a pillow, and then from there I made like an apron, and then from there it was like a little pouch.
Amanne: Hey! How old are you.
Amal: I wanna say I was in like 6th grade, 7th grade when they started the home like classes for us. Yeah.
Amanne: Okay, I feel like that's young. That's like, very important.
Amal: Yes, they. They were teaching us a lot of stuff.
Amanne: Yeah.
Amal: Yeah, we started with a cooking class, which was fun.
Amanne: Yeah. So you kind of like started this journey like your own personal journey of stitching through school right? But it was always something that was around you, and I know, like you're I know Tiffany's is is heavy in your heart, in your home, in your closet.
Amal: Yeah.
Amanne: Which I love, but I guess what inspired you beyond class, like what inspired you to continue to stitch and continue to like. Continue your own journey, I should say.
Amal: So, to be honest, I kind of left it for a while. So after those projects, I kind of like, you know, got distracted, moved on.
Amal: It wasn't until
Amal: I want to say, like 2020 19 I saw a post of a girl. She was doing a Onesie for her niece or nephew, and she was doing on it. I'm like, that's so cute, man. I haven't like done threes in so long. And then I just like literally put my phone down, went to Joanne's fabric, picked up some Ida cloth and some floss, and just
Amal: Googled some motifs and made a sampler, and then I just got addicted right like that became my new favorite hobby.
Amanne: Understand.
Amal: Yeah.
Amal: But yeah, that's pretty much how it kicked off.
Amanne: Wow. Okay.
Amal: Oh! More oh!
Amanne: I thought leader was gonna talk.
Amanne: Okay? So you picked it back up in like 2019 2020. Do you know who whose Onesie. It was that inspired you, because now you're like in the Tatreez community, like do you remember who it was?
Amal: It was actually my sister in Law's sister in law.
Amanne: It was like a per like, someone in your personal life.
Amanne: Yeah, okay, she like just.
Amal: On her Instagram, and I'm like, Oh, my God! The threes! And it just like all came back. But yeah.
Amanne: Yeah, and and so.
Lina: And this was this was when you were in the States. So you when did you move to the States?
Amal: So
Amal: I moved to the States when I was 5, and then back to Philistine when I was 10, moved back to the us at 15, so it was like a back and forth.
Lina: Okay.
Amal: Transition Yeah.
Lina: Got it. Okay, okay, okay. Got it. So you practice when you went back to Philistine in
Lina: early teens and then came back to the Us. Paused and then picked this up. Okay. So then, after the sampler, what did you did you get inspired to do a onesie as well? Or were you doing other projects?
Lina: No, I I was doing like one sample. I literally went from a sampler to thinking I can make my own thumb
Lina: so familiar.
Amal: And had my mom like when she went to Philistine that following year. I think it was 2020. She went, and I was like, Mama, can you get me Qammash like? Can you get them to cut Qammash for me? Have it, I mean, put on it. I want to make my own thobe, and I think I spent
Amal: a year after I got my fabric just literally practicing different motifs next to each other, so I can figure out which ones I want on my on my thumb. So I technically like spent like a year just building samplers, just trying to see what it would look like what color.
Lina: I mean, yeah, I mean, if you're gonna invest in making a thobe, you should become like at least excited about what the.
Amal: Right bizarre. It's a long project.
Amal: very indecisive, and I couldn't make up my mind.
Lina: It's a hard one, it's a hard one. So what did you end up settling on.
Amal: As as far as design.
Lina: Yeah, yeah, like, what motifs were the ones that kind of drew your attention. And and way.
Amal: You know. Honestly, I don't know their names, but they were more. I picked them out, based off of like different thobes we had in our closets. Some are floral, some are leafy.
Amal: And I wanted something that was like different geometrical
Amal: designs put together and kind of rounded, so
Amal: square and boxy. So that's kind of what I went with different colors. I really like the earthy colors. So I have the greens and maroons and
Amal: the the burnt orange, the yellows.
Amanne: Yeah, yeah, that sounds gorgeous. I'm curious. Okay? So you said, you're you kind of pulled design inspiration from Athwab that your family already has. So what is kind of like?
Amanne: What's the what's the story that you want to tell with your thobe like? What's that inspiration that you have as you've kind of been designing and stitching your thobe.
Amal: It would be that like.
Amal: So my thought was just kind of an idea on a whim, a project that I was like. Oh, I could do this, too. But
Amal: the more I've spent time putting together those designs, and the more that I've spent time working on it, the more I've learned about the trees, the more doing that project has taught me about my own culture, my own tradition and subhanallah like when I was looking at different web. It
Amal: unlocked memories, and I was like, Oh, my God, mama, I remember you stitched a thobe at some point with khalto Amira like, where are these thwab. And then like that, I ended up having them get shipped over to us so that I could see them. And like my mom's like, here's a box of like 4 hands
Amal: made the thwab for you to.
Amanne: Just.
Amal: And do whatever you want with. It's like it's really unlocked, some core memories and just some knowledge about my own traditions and my own culture that I didn't know.
Amanne: And it unlocked me. Meeting. You guys like I.
Amal: Yes, literally didn't know there was a whole Tatreez community online until after our 1st Tatreez retreat.
Amal: So that it's it's definitely been eye opening for me, for sure.
Amanne: Yeah, I could see that I'm okay. So
Amanne: I feel like you have this kind of cool story in a way of like the past. Because you're saying you're replicating a lot of these designs from these family thwab and stuff. But you're kind of bringing it into today's world and kind of to your style. So I'm really excited to see the the finished process. And where are you in the process of your.
Amal: Oh!
Amanne: It's okay. There's no shame in it, babes.
Amanne: No. Where is it?
Amanne: Shame? We're here to encourage.
Amal: I literally finished the sleeves.
Amanne: Okay.
Amal: I got through most of the Qabbeh.
Amal: and I'm I'm taking a pause because there's like a section of the Qabbeh I really don't know what I want to do with yet.
Amanne: And.
Amal: And I'm gonna just start with the Ibadan then
Amal: so that's where I'm at with the thumb. I have paused from my Thobe to do other projects because I got bored of the patterns, and I'm like I need a
Amal: do something different, and then I'll get back to my thobe. So I'm taking it really slow.
Lina: Your time. That's the best. That's the best way to do it. That's so beautiful. I'm obsessed that it not only unlocked kind of your connection to Palestine and family. But kind of these relationships, as well.
Amal: It's.
Lina: It's so crazy. How like they just ship you, these beautiful handmade thwab?
Lina: Yeah, without like a
Lina: second thought, I wouldn't. I don't know if I would put it in the mail. Let's carry.
Amal: Yeah, no, it was actually really funny, because it's like they were literally sitting in a box in our in our house that's locked up in Philistine, and like that alone tells you a story right like there's so much of our culture that's
Amal: taken away from us because of what's going on in Palestine, and because of the oppression, and then
Amal: just to be able to have someone be able to ship that to me that was a blessing in and of its own, and the fact that it was just so easily brought to me and to others who don't have that connection don't have who yearn for that kind of a hand down. It's so easy, for it's so easy for me to get my hands on a handmade while someone else who's Palestinian? It's so difficult, and they have to make it on their own or
Amal: buy one, you know, and that's hell expensive. But
Amal: where where are these athwab. Now
Amal: they're in the room next to me.
Amanne: Just like they are very close by.
Amal: Very close by.
Amanne: Them under lock and key.
Amal: Yeah, yeah. The goal is to kind of either resize them, or some of them like they have beautiful motifs, beautiful colors, but, like the qammash itself, either got stained from storage or whatnot, so, hoping to take the embroidered parts that are on there and make new thobes or new garments with them. So
Amal: that's the goal with those.
Amanne: Yeah, it's always fun to reinvent old pieces, too, like I've been shout out to Bisan from Thobna, but she does a lot of that stuff, and I've gotten a few pieces. It's fresh in my mind, too, because I just
Amanne: yeah, I'll
Amanne: place but it's it'll be fun to be able to repurpose those swab and kind of make them their your own, if you will.
Amanne: Yeah. So you mentioned, too, that you know the whole kind of journey into Tatreez also unlocked this community for you that you weren't aware of. Obviously we kind of hinted at the beginning that we met you at the 1st Tatreez retreat. You also came to the second Tatreez retreat. But can you talk a little bit about the community that you've been able to connect with through Tatreez, and what that's
Amanne: to you.
Amal: Yeah. Honestly, it's kind of a community I didn't know I needed somehow, like before.
Amal: before the Tatreez retreat. Right? It also, I hate to say this happened
Amal: at a time when we needed it the most cause. It was just like the 1st retreat was only a month after you know.
Amal: it looks like we.
Amanne: Oh, 2 weeks weeks after ya.
Amal: It's so short. Yeah.
Amanne: Yeah.
Amal: And I was away from home working in a completely different state. And
Amal: I needed to be around Falestiniya and like when we got together. It literally was like immediately connecting with people that are
Amal: so much like you, but so different at the same time. And it was just so beautiful and it was it also like really helped me see honestly meeting all these different people with different backgrounds.
Amal: see the different like colors of Palestine
Amal: in all these different people, and like seeing how every single person, even though they're Falasteeniya, they have such a unique way of representing Falesteen. And it it was just such a beautiful time. So I think, yeah, honestly, the Tatreez retreat did bring more awareness of how other Falasteeniya are impacted by the oppression happening in Falasteen, and how
Amal: how that oppression led to where they are now, and it also brought in the community that I needed, that I
Amal: I didn't know that I needed other Tatreezers in my life right and.
Amanne: Was just.
Amal: So beautiful to connect with with people who can do the same things.
Lina: So if you didn't know that there was a Tatreez community before the Tatreez retreat, how did you find out about the Tatreez retreat?
Amal: Diane actually texted me, and she goes like, Hey, me and a group of friends are doing retreat, and I thought it was kind of silly at first, st I'm like, oh, the retreat.
Amanne: We do?
Amal: It is.
Lina: Hi.
Amanne: Didn't?
Amanne: Haneen's dad also think the same thing.
Amal: I'm like, you know what? I'm not too far. I was living in Utah was happening in New Mexico. I'm like, why not give it like I got on better to do but I actually had such a blast, and it was so fun, and I'm so grateful that I went honestly, and I was so excited to come to the next one, so.
Amanne: That was good times. I remember you actually distinctly remember you also saying because it was pretty
Amanne: fresh after you moving and you saying like, this is the 1st time I've been around like Falastiniya, like since the start of the genocide, and that was like so shocking to me. But also in like this way, like, Oh, my God, that's like.
Amanne: that's right, like there are. There is this like desire, and so like this strong need for community always, but especially at that moment. So I'm glad we were all able to come together and meet you and continue the relationship.
Amanne: Okay, so I have a question also just going sorry to skip around, but just going back to your thobe journey. I know you're still in the process of your thobe journey, and so I'm sure there's still a lot for you to learn as you continue. But
Amanne: what would you say for someone who has not started their thought, but like wants to start their thought. What would you like? What is your advice? What did you wish you knew before you started? What words of encouragement might you have for people.
Amal: Oh,
Amal: okay, what I wish I knew. So it was after meeting you all and seeing all the nice tools and gadgets you guys had. I was like, Wow, I wish I knew there was an app where I can design things putting it on fabric. That would have saved me a lot of time, I think.
Amal: so that's 1 thing is like for somebody who kind of was just doing as a hobby in a silo
Amal: Just do some research.
Amal: Nothing. I did but do some research and reach out to like
Amal: different Instagram pages. There's so many resources out there these days. And you know, find the good resources that there are resources out there. Find them, use them. That's 1. And then the 2. The second one was
Amal: What was the second question.
Amanne: What were like? What kind of motivation would you have for people like? Where is the motivation? Would you have.
Amal: Oh!
Amanne: Want to start, but are kind of scared to start.
Amal: Yeah,
Amal: don't get overwhelmed, and don't let it get. Don't let the overwhelming feeling like make you pause, because for me, that was I was too scared to start that I would mess it up. So that's why I didn't start right away, and I spent a year trying to figure it out first.st but like, it's okay. If you do mess up, you know, there's always more fabric.
Amal: Always cut more extra just to be safe. But just start and start somewhere. You can start small with the sleeves. That's what I did, just to kind of see how the patterns go together.
Amal: but don't be afraid to start. That's the hardest part is getting started.
Lina: And what's your favorite gadget? I like the word.
Amal: The needle minder honestly.
Amanne: Right? Yeah, I know.
Amal: I didn't. I didn't know that was the thing. And then Bayan introduced me to me. I'm like this is so helpful I lose so many needles.
Amanne: Right? And like that's also dangerous.
Amal: It's yeah.
Amal: it's actually so funny. Because, like, I started teaching tatreez to my nieces, and that, I think, is also their favorite little gadget because they can just
Amal: stick their needle there and.
Amanne: Totally.
Amal: It's really nice. Yeah.
Amanne: And they could find cute little needle minders.
Amal: Just do it.
Amanne: Okay, wait. You're teaching them to your you're teaching tatreez to your nieces. Tell us more. Tell.
Amal: A little more.
Amanne: How old are they? How has the process been? Did they want to learn, tatreez? like, tell us everything.
Amal: Yeah. I pride myself as the coolest aunt ever.
Amanne: Yes, we love that.
Amal: Totally I see it.
Amal: But I actually so I do the threes a lot at home and around them. And they they were always so curious. And they're like, Can I do sewing? They call it sewing
Amal: And I was like, Yeah, of course. And so we I bought them little kits where I, you know went to. Joanne's got little. They look like toolboxes, but they're like
Amal: they're girly, and we put in them, you know, different colors of floss hide the cloth and little needles and scissors and needle minders, and I got them set up with a little tatreez kit. And now I taught the oldest. She's turning 9 in a month, and she's the one who 1st started and she started with her name. So she started with just a
Amal: just finished it actually. And I.
Amanne: Thank you.
Amal: I have it. I'm gonna frame it for her and then.
Lina: And that's a long name! Tasneem is many letters.
Amal: Yeah.
Amal: And you know she picked it up so quickly like I I put her name. I designed it on a stitch fiddle really quickly, and then printed it out and gave her the template to use, and went through teaching her how to make an X, and she picked it up really quickly, and and was able to do it. And then Jenna's the second one. She's her younger sister. She's 7, and she's also doing her name. She's almost done. She's got the a going.
Amal: Yeah. And and I have my cousin she
Amal: Subhanallah like we weren't really close. She's my cousin's daughter. So me and my cousin weren't too close, but her daughter would come over and she'd see me doing, and she was so curious, and she's a young girl, she's 16
Amal: younger. It'll be. She's 14, and
Amal: she grew up most of her life here. So she doesn't know the culture as much. So for her it was a good way for for me to kind of introduce her to tatreez and to.
Amal: you know, Palestinian culture and
Amal: She just moved. But we stay in touch over Tatreez like sharing her progress, and how far she's gotten on her bookmark. And it's it's actually so cute.
Lina: Oh, I love that. I love that. Okay, you're making me think of 2 questions, apologies. The 1st one is
Lina: like kind of off of this part of your story, you know. How does what does it mean to you? Having lived in Falasteen? And now, being in the Us. Like, I'm curious if there's
Lina: a shift, because, you know, like your cousin's daughter, like I can resonate with that experience as someone who's lived or brought up outside of Falasteen like for me, is like my main connection to Falasteen. And then my second question, because you you gave your nieces toolboxes, and you're a builder, which I'm obsessed with. I saw that I love that. I'm curious about whether or not like that side of your brain
Lina: influences, how you practice Tatreez as well as a civil engineer.
Amal: Absolutely so it, yeah, I guess with the 1st question.
Lina: Sorry. Yes, yes, completely different questions. Too.
Amal: That's okay. With the 1st question.
Amal: I don't know if being in the Us. Has influenced my Tatreez
Amal: per se, like, I don't know that for sure, I would say, had to to some degree right. It does make me feel connected, especially at the times where I did feel isolated. You know, when I was living away from family.
Amal: That was kind of my only connection to my roots was that and you know, that's when I started learning how to cook Falasteeni. Food, too, is just trying to bring the culture back into the space that I'm living in.
Amal: And that's when I really focused more on my thobe, too, I would say, is just I. Tatreez was kind of grounding me into who I am.
Amal: right as a Palestinian, and as a as an Arab so I would say.
Amal: that's how I think being in the Us. Has influenced me is just holding on to it a little bit more tight because
Amal: it could easily. Our culture is easily stolen from us right? And it was also a tool to educate my coworkers and my peers around me about what is and who we are as Palestinians, and what our culture is all about. Aside from all the violence and the scary things that they hear.
Amal: so that was, I think that's how it's influenced me.
Amal: But the toolboxes was more like I as an engineer. I think I am a lot more detail oriented. So when I make a mistake, I can't just like move past it. I have to undo everything, and redo that one x
Amal: But the toolboxes, the toolboxes was more like I. I build things in like toolkits. It's like this is your toolkit to do the task at hand. And yeah, it definitely did influence it, because I always wanted to influence them to be a lot more handy and hands on, and that they can do more than what
Amal: you know society tells them to do is they can do. They, too, can be builders, and it really came from a comment that one of my nieces made once is she had asked me, what do you do? And I'm like, oh, I work in construction. I build buildings, and she goes.
Amal: Isn't that a boy's job? And I'm like, no, honey.
Amal: No, it's a girls can do it, too. And I think that's that was like subconsciously in my mind when I was building that for her. Yeah.
Amanne: I hear that I love that you're giving these little lessons to them, and
Amanne: for those of you who do not know Amal, she is a tiny yet fierce and like just you don't want to mess with Amal like she is tiny and fierce, like she could do whatever she wants to do trust.
Amanne: That's a great example for your nieces.
Amal: Thank you.
Lina: You know, Amal. Also you're super chill, like. I always remember that from the retreats like, you're always like the most chill. Something bad happens like no big deal. We'll figure it out like, no need to like, get super like I'm not like that. I'm like, Oh, my God, what's gonna happen?
Lina: Oh.
Amanne: How do you.
Lina: Don't freak out, and I think that probably helps you a lot as well. I feel like I would take things really personally in a super male dominated, although I don't know. I mean, I'm an engineer, but I feel like
Lina: I feel like the teams I've been on have been quite 50 50, you know. I never felt I was never the only woman in the room.
Amal: Yeah.
Lina: So I think that that probably must help you.
Amal: It definitely does. I? I mean, there are moments that I think
Amal: I think the people in the teams you work with also impact that right like, if you're with people that are
Amal: just as chill as you are, or at least at the same level of understanding, then things go a lot smoother, right? But when you're around like super, high, intense people
Amal: that has definitely you know, through thrown me off my own balance and in construction around anxious
Amal: men. It does happen a lot. So I will say, Yeah.
Lina: Totally.
Amal: Yeah.
Amanne: Okay. So rounding out on your thobe, I do want to ask, even though you're not finished with this one yet. Do you feel like after this one you're ready to make another one.
Amal: Absolutely.
Amanne: Oh, I love that.
Amal: I haven't even come close to finishing this one. I'm already planning my next one of like what material I want to use.
Amanne: And.
Amal: Changing up the colors a little bit, because, like my whole life has become these earthy colors. And I'm like, Okay, I need something more colorful.
Amanne: So that, yeah.
Amal: For sure. I think like that's gonna be something I'm going to try to carry on throughout my life and teach Inshallah to my future kids, or, you know, to my nieces as well, you know, building a thobe isn't just
Amal: to have a thobe to wear. It's like the experience of building. It is also part of what makes us Falasteeni right that they didn't make thobes.
Amal: you know, as a piece of art it was some. It was a necessity right? They made the thobes, and they added the Falasteeni touch to it. You know it's what they wore for everything that they did. So it's just kind of carrying that culture on through
Amal: through our lives. But yeah.
Amanne: I love that you said building.
Lina: Yeah, yeah, I got it.
Amanne: I know Lina and I both got that.
Amal: Oh, my God!
Lina: I love that I love that so much. Okay, so then, if you're if you're the thought is like always in progress, what are the other projects that you've been exploring in between, as you know, color palette cleansers because we get that too.
Amal: Yeah, so actually, there's 1 that I was talking about with my sisters and my mom. It's a project we're gonna do together. They. We want to do a mural. So I don't know if you guys know. But this name.
Amal: I think, is the name. She has a pattern out there for 8 Mini Qabbehs and the goal is that each of us we're gonna we're each gonna make a mural, and it's gonna hang in each of our houses. So, my sister, each.
Lina: One of us is gonna have that same mural hanging in the house. So it's gonna be a group project for ourselves. It's just something.
Amanne: Very cute.
Amal: To do but that's the next like, big project. Yeah.
Amanne: Very cute. I love that. I love that. Okay, you're gonna have to share pictures. So we can see the progress and then see the finished product.
Amal: Absolutely yeah, amazing.
Amanne: Okay. So before we fully wrap up our conversation, we always like to ask.
Amanne: what are any major life lessons that you have gained from Tariz?
Amal: That's a really good one. I would say that.
Amal: So for me it's hard to say, because as a builder I plan. I plan a lot.
Amal: But the one thing with the tatreez is like.
Amal: you don't have to plan every little bit of it. Sometimes you can just go with the flow, and make it up as you go. And I think that's the one thing I learned more from is that even like halfway through the design, you can change the plan up. You can change the design. And it's okay.
Amal: And to just kind of yeah, go with the flow a little bit, and and trust the process.
Amanne: That's that's the biggest thing. Yeah.
Amanne: hey? Wait my follow up question. I have a follow up question, though.
Amal: Yeah.
Amanne: How did you get to that place as a perfectionist builder?
Amal: Well, it was after a lot of redoing work. I'm like, Okay, this isn't. I can't keep doing this. So I have to just trust that it's gonna work out. And it's okay to change things up as you go. And that's that I just had to trust it.
Amanne: There you go! There you go! I like that.
Amal: I love it.
Lina: Yeah, it's actually interesting, I think, with the thobe as well. It's so large, like, I actually, I take the same approach you do. I do, I'll plan. I'll plan one piece at a time, but I won't, and I'll have like a general idea of what I want for, like the full look, but I cannot do the whole like every single XI can't plan every single x at the very beginning. There's just no way
Lina: and I think for me that's part of the fun is like you, actually, what what will happen? You'll you'll feel this when you finish your thought like there's no way you could have imagined it, because it took all that time for it to kind of become
Lina: visible, fully visible to you. And I think that's part of the fun. That's like part of the journey and experience. But I know I know several people who like have to plan every single stitch.
Amal: Yeah.
Lina: I don't know pros and cons. I'm also now thinking back to my experience, like when I finish a piece I'm like, Oh, crap! I don't know. I have to go design the next piece like I wish I had it already ready, so that I could.
Amal: Yes, it.
Lina: You know, so I don't know. Well.
Amal: I will say I remember sitting. I don't. I think it was the second retreat, and we were sitting down and doing we're just noticing, and
Amal: Cady and
Amal: I forget who else was sitting next to her. But they were sitting down, and they were going. They were counting and pre planning a piece that she was putting together for her thobe. And I'm like I did not do that like. I literally just picked up my sleeve and was like, this is the pattern I'm going to do, and I'm going to start right here with it. And it gave me anxiety. I'm like, Am I doing this wrong?
Amanne: Oh no!
Lina: There is no right or wrong, there's no right.
Amanne: Yeah, to be fair to Cady. God bless, she's a gangster for this! But she did the variegated thread and lined up like all the variegated threads. So it matches on both sides. I was like, you're an insane person in the best possible way. I love the way her brain works. But yeah, yeah, no.
Amal: That's I mean, that's super impressive. Honestly.
Amanne: I couldn't do it either, girl. So you're fine, like you definitely are. You're doing nothing wrong. You're killing it.
Amal: I'm like, I literally just picked up the fabric and was like, I got my patterns. What more do I need like.
Lina: Yep. Yep.
Amanne: And like to be fair. I mean, we have the benefit of the privilege of these like fancy gadgets. No one views those
Amanne: back in the day, they probably still not using. They're not using this stuff back home. They're just doing it like I. At most. I see people sketch things out like on paper. But yeah, I mean, yeah, everything else is just us being. Fancy you're doing great.
Amal: Yeah.
Amanne: You're all doing amazing.
Amal: Love it. I love the pep, talk.
Amanne: Always, always
Amanne: okay. And also before we let you go, is there anywhere that people could find you and find your Tatreez work that you want to share.
Amal: Yeah, you can find me on Instagram with 2 eyes at the end. But I don't really post my Tatreez as much. It's more just like stories of what I'm working on and progress of that. But yeah.
Amanne: Her fun travels cause Amal loves to travel in addition to building, and that is.
Amal: He isn't.
Amanne: Explorer after.
Amal: I do. Yeah, I do take my with me on every trip. And it's actually really fun, like, kind of thinking back at. Oh, I did this piece in Spain. I did this piece on the way to Turkey. I did this piece on a mountain somewhere. So it's really fun. Actually.
Amanne: Yeah.
Amal: With you wherever you go.
Amanne: Amal I feel like you need to start sharing this. It's like these around the world. What are you doing so.
Amal: And.
Lina: Yeah.
Amal: I like that. Tatreez around the world.
Amanne: Yeah, okay, everyone who listens to this. Let's please. If she hasn't done it. By the time this episode comes out, please let Amal know that she needs to do this, and the world needs to see her all over the world. Boom done.
Amal: But.
Lina: And then you'll become an influencer, and people will pay you to travel.
Amal: So nice, nice.
Lina: Think about it. There is an opportunity here, Amal, don't sleep on it.
Lina: Yeah.
Amal: Oh, awesome! My mom's actually encouraging me to become an influencer.
Lina: Really.
Amal: She's like, then you don't have to work. I'm like, Yeah.
Amanne: Dead. Dead. Okay, this is where we're at in 2025. Okay?
Amal: That's so funny.
Amanne: Amazing. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Amal. It's always amazing and a laugh to talk with you. You are the best. We're sad. You won't be at the Tatreez Retreat this year, but we'll know we'll we know we will get together and laugh and stitch soon.
Amal: Inshallah! Inshallah! Thanks, guys, for having me. And thank you.
Amanne: How are you doing.
Amal: Fun.
Lina: Oh, man! Amal is so much fun! I think she probably was one of the people that made me laugh the most at the last Tatreez Retreat. I just. I don't even know how to explain it, but she's hilarious, but something that listeners probably don't know.
Lina: They definitely don't. They don't.
Lina: And I kind of wish we were like still recording at the moment. But there was kind of a hiccup between us and.
Amanne: Slight delay.
Lina: It's a slight delay. It was just so embarrassing. And then, all of a sudden, I think because we, you know, went off script big time, and like turned off the recording Amal's computer fell, or like the camera fell down. It was amazing. It was.
Amanne: It's like a perfect series of timing of like us messing up on a delay like starting to laugh, pausing the the recording, and then Amal's laptop just randomly going I don't know where.
Amanne: But yeah, I mean.
Lina: Oh!
Amanne: It was a journey.
Lina: It was funny. It was a good time. Yeah.
Amanne: It was something. It was something. But I'm glad we finally got Amal on to talk to her. It's so funny how I think we both of us. I saw both of us. We picked up on it when I know we said it, but like her literally talking about building
Amanne: which I just think is like, really cute. And very, I mean, it's true.
Amanne: Yeah, a hundred percent.
Lina: It's a great way to describe it. You are putting it together. You're building it. Yeah.
Amanne: A 100%. There's different parts of your thobe, and you're piecing it together one by one, and then you pull it together to make the full thobe. So a hundred percent an engineer's brain, an engineer's way of looking at it, which is also accurate, so
Amanne: great we love it. We love it.
Amanne: Oh, man! But yeah, it was great, and I love her encouragement to people I am definitely guilty of overthinking. And so it's always nice to have the reminder from people about not overthinking. So if you want to stitch your thobe, have that itch to stitch your thobe, just start stitching your thobe.
Lina: Just do it, just do it. Yeah.
Amanne: All right. Well, as always. Thank you so much for listening to Tatreez talk. We want to hear about your Tatreez journey. Share your stories with us at the tatreeztalk@gmail.com. And we might have you on an upcoming episode. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite listening platform, and be sure to leave a 5 star review. You can follow me @minamanne and Lina @linasthobe. Follow the pod @tatreeztalk, and we'll talk to you soon.
