more progress on Sara-Beth's tallit

I had sewn binding along the edges of Sara-Beth's tallit. I'm actully not sure o the fiber content, but it is a lovely black silky fabric. I sewed it on by serging the raw edges together and then topstitching with a three step zig zag. Unfortunately I had to undo the binding on one of the long sides. My eyes were really not up to the task. Luckily I remembered one of the members of the Creative Machine List mentioning how she used to use a single edge razor as a seam ripper when she was a young girl. I was able to undo the sewing and not cause any damage. This is a very big deal.

I finally got the binding sewn on properly. and I'm happy with it. Next, I turned to the corner pieces, or Pinot. There is a tradition to have the corner pieces totally blend in with the tallit and the tzitzit. I don't follow that tradition. I like to have the pinot be really wonderful to look at, so one's attention is brought to the tzitzit, which are of course the most important part of the tallit.

I like to employ a method of embellishement that I learned from the artist Bird Ross. I don't remember what she called it, but I call it crazy stitching. I completely cover a base fabric with zig zags of straight stitches. I usually use four or five different colors of thread, often metallic thread. The end result just glows. I used a scrap of striped silk ottoman as the base and I stiched using silver and gold metallic thread along with a turquoise blue cotton thread and a purple rayon decorative thread.

I think that the corners will look beautiful with the rest of the tallit.

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מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים

וְנֶאֱמָן אַתָּה לְהַחֲיוֹת מֵתִים: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים You are faithful to restore the dead to life. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Resurrector of the dead. That particular line is recited at every single prayer service every day three times a day, unless you use a Reform or Reconstructionist prayer book . In those liturgies instead of praising God for resurrecting the dead God is praised for giving life to all. I am enough of a modern woman, a modern thinker, to not actually believe in the actual resurrection of the dead. I don't actually expect all of the residents of the Workmen's Circle section of Mount Hebron cemetery in Queens to get up and get back to work at their sewing machines. I don't expect the young children buried here or the babies buried here to one day get up and frolic. Yet, every single time I get up to lead services I say those words about the reanimating of the dead with every fiber of my being. Yesterday, I e...

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sarah in nyc

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