Hi, I'm Zeb. 

I'm a television director by day, and an experimental crafter by night.

When I was 4, my grandma taught me how to make a basic running stitch with a hand needle and embroidery thread. My mom picked up where naano left off, and taught me the foundational skills of hand embroidery, sewing, quilting and crochet. My childhood and teenage years were full of weekend and summer craft projects, but adulthood took my attention away from these pursuits and towards building a career.

Traumatic brain injury

When a hit to the head left me with a concussion, I had to take 9 months off from work to recover. It was a slow and frustrating process. 

At my sickest, I could do nothing more than sit in a dark room and meditate. 

As I slowly began to recover, art therapy was added to my treatment program. At first all I could do was very simple colouring pages. Then as I began to heal, I started making simple jewellery. As my brain got stronger, I started crocheting too. It helped me practice my coordination and vestibular skills, and the colours and textures of the yarn made me happy. Gradually, I moved onto sewing.

Re-connecting with old hobbies

Years later, I use sewing and other craft projects to fill my time in a happy and fulfilling way. I love watching tutorials to learn and practice new skills, make gifts for friends, or create useful and functional items for my home and wardrobe.

Connecting with my heritage

The process of learning how to sew fills me with purpose and excitement. It also reminds me of my childhood spent watching my mom create beautiful things with her sewing machine.  Hearing the rumble of my sewing machine reminds me of seeing my mom content in her creative happy place.

This craft has also allowed me to reconnect with my Pakistani heritage. Although shopping for fabrics online can never compare, losing myself is a sea of patterns and textures reminds me of afternoons I spent trailing my mom through markets in Lahore as she searched for the perfect fabrics, trims, threads, beads and sequins for the garments she created. My goal is to one day learn traditional Pakistani garment making and hand embroidery techniques.