A whole lot of a whole lot of stuff

 I have been working on more wedding related stuff.

The kippot are all completed.


I think I finished the shawls. Yes, they need a better pressing but don't worry, the attendants won't look like they slept in their finery.

This is the stencil that I used for the scarves.
No, I didn't use the elephant. The stencil itself isn't perfect (I would have preferred a more complex design) but it does well enough.

Surprisingly the hardest bit of all of this turquoise and gold fabulousness has been creating the pocket squares.  I have experienced several failures along the way. One layer of this silk is NOT fun to work with. The pocket squares are all going to be self-lined. For some reason I don't quite understand, precutting the pocket squares and stenciling them works less well than stenciling a long length of fabric and then cutting it up.


So after much too much time, I have three pocket squares completed and I think seven left to go. 

But there is life beyond this wedding. A sweet young man is having his bar mitzvah at the end of April and I am making his tallit.

He was adopted from Ethiopia. His mom was sent to me because I have some experience creating tallitot made with fabrics that come from a variety of cultures. She had some Ethiopian fabrics that she hoped could be incorporated sensitively into the tallit. The tallit needed to show the deep connection to Ethiopia but not look like a costume.

We met a couple of weeks ago. When it was time, the Ethiopian fabrics were pulled out. One of the fabrics looked very much like these fabrics.

It was exactly the right size for the bar mitzvah boy to use as a tallit. All I needed to do was add pinot/corner pieces and a neckband and we could be done. This multicolored woven fabric did not make the heart of this bar -mitzvah boy sing.
 The second fabric pulled out of the bag did.

This scarf with the fabulous woven stripe in a rich coppery brown is gorgeous. The color is spectacular with the bar-mitzvah boy's skin. This would work by itself as a tallit if this 12-year-old had his bar mitzvah this week. But this is the age when 12-year-old boys grow like weeds. I would bet a large amount of money that by the time this bar-mitzvah boy is fourteen it will be too small for him.

So we had to come up with an alternative plan. Two fabrics from my stash will make up the main body of the tallit.  One is a natural colored raw silk woven with threads of silver and gold Lur-ex. atara will be made out of the plain woven fabric.
The other fabric is a black and taupe striped silk, the black stripes are shantung and the taupe is a heavy corded raw silk.
The beautiful Ethiopian weaving will serve as the pinot and the
Today I cut the silk to size and edged it with my serger.

The striped silk is doubled for stability and longer wear.

We have PLANS for the atara.  They are not yet finalized but I am excited about our initial ideas.

Comments

  1. Oh I love the Ethiopian ideas. I have some fabrics like those from my friend who works there. I have a blue/pink shawl and a green/gold one with similar complex weaving.
    The embroidered white ones are also lovely in their own way. They wear white long tunic like garments with some embroidery for special occasions. The heavier ones are good for cooler days.
    The wedding things look like they are coming well. What a sad thing about Liz's wedding dress! As you say it looks like you could just care for it yourself and have a better result. I hope it can be sorted.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Liz will absolutely get this sorted. she is a tough cookie. I finally got the pocket squares done. Sandy -it is always good knowing you have my back.

      Delete
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