Just a little bit too much of too much

This has been something of an extra crazy week. There was a whole lot of cooking going on.In addition to our usual Shabbat dinner I also made a fancy dinner for Sunday evening.

I also finally figured out the secret to making really good bagels. A fairly long boil, 
 say, 5-7 minutes in water with a few table spoons of brown sugar
 creates a really crispy  outer crust.


I went to Costco this morning and also did some shopping for a friend there. Bringing home my friend's meat order I was really aware of how limited our fridge and freezer space is.  With only a limited amount of cursing I was able to fit everything into our fridge.

My older son made the carb and roasted some vegetables for tonight. I made these two chickens.  Actually they are still cooking as I type this. They look cute but those chicken legs are still not cooked to the wobble stage.
 I also made a non dairy ice cream for tonight. It is a ginger and orange ice cream made with the candied ginger and orange peel I had made earlier in the week.  before it went into a containter to "ripen" in the freezer I swirled in some Israeli chocolate spread.
So I think that is the end of the food portion of this blog post.

I am also working on two tallitot both due next week.  Here is a preview of Hannah's.
I will write more about her tallit next week.


I have been working on Gavi's tallit for several months now. For her tallit I removed lace from her beautiful wedding gown, and have been applying it to double silk georgette.

When you sew on a delicate fabric, the fabric can be so light that it is pulled into the guts of the sewing machine. In order to prevent that from happening you need to back the silk with paper. It supports the delicate fabric especially when you have to do a whole lot of dense stitching.

Here you see one of the pinot, the corners. It has been constructed out of both lace from Gavi's wedding dress and heavier lace from her aunt's wedding dress.
 One of the things that I learned from taking apart Gavi's wedding dress (and some other fine lace as well) is that a lot of lace is essentially collaged to create a composition.  Lace motifs are cut up and combined into new compositions.

Below you see the corner with it's paper backing.
The paper backing is really helpful while you are sewing but after you are done sewing, you need to pick it all off of the piece.

This is my lap last night.
I spent about three hours last night picking away paper. My work room looks like  a blizzard hit. After I got back from Costco I put in more time on Gavi's tallit. There will be much sweeping before Shabbat.

Whenever I do a project like this that requires a certain amount of arcane knowledge of obscure sewing techniques I am grateful for all of the vintage needlework books that I keep buying. I can't tell you which book contained the instructions about how to applique lace, but at some point that information got into my head and was available for retrieval.

If that wasn't enough for one day, a friend came by so I could help him replace the tzitzit on his tallit.

I am looking forward to it being Shabbat.

Shabbat Shalom!

Comments

  1. I use tissue paper for some lightweight fabrics, but have also tried water-soluble stabilizer. For fabrics that can get wet that is easier to remove than picking out paper fragments with tweezers. I am a bit of a bull in a China shop so look for ways to protect my project. I really appreciate the time and information you share, that peek into your week.

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  2. And I was going to add that there is a heat away stabiliser which when you run an iron over, you can then brush it away. It does mean anything synthetic is out. But silk does hold up to it, I find.
    Sandy

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  3. CanI, I was a little nervous about using wash-away stabilizer, I was nervous about using water on the silk.

    Sandy I had forgotten about using the stuff that turns brown with heat. If I were smarter, i would have used it. If I were smarter i would have used tissue paper all along instead of tracing paper.The tissue paper is a much better choice. i feel especially stupid because I figured THAT out close to the end of the process. at least i have a vacuum cleaner to pick up all of the confetti.

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