Writing on the theme of Cut ~ by Sue Akande

credit Sue Akande

It had seemed like a good idea at the time but now …

Every time she walked into the dining room it was there, in the corner, winking and twinkling at her, reminding her that time was running out! She had to take action; it had been there for far too long. Why hadn’t she started on it straight away, as soon as it had arrived? What was she afraid of? What was stopping her from making that first cut?

The highly coloured, heavily sequinned lace had arrived in plenty of time for her to make her wedding outfit - so what was it? Would her sewing machine be up to stitching all those sequins? Was it that she had no pattern for her wedding attire? She had sketched out her idea based on the traditional Yoruba buba (blouse) and iro (wrapper skirt). Other wedding guests were having their clothes made up in Lagos, had she taken on too much by saying she would make her own outfit? Maybe she had watched too many episodes of ‘Sewing Bee’!

She had made outfits like it before, many years ago though and never from such elaborate cloth. The material had been chosen by the bride’s family and following the Yoruba custom of Aso-Ebi or ‘family clothes’ the family and friends of the bride would all be wearing ensembles made from the same material.

She looked at the lace again – there was plenty of it so if she made a mistake, it surely wouldn’t be so disastrous, would it? She would start with the skirt – probably the most straight forward part of the outfit. Spreading the material out on the floor of the dining room she began to cut.