sarah in nyc

Just over a year ago ,our dear friends, Alfie and Judy, were in town from Minneapolis. We invited them and their son David, and his sweetie Arielle for dinner. David is working for a left wing intellectual journal. He has been writing for them and has also been developing their web presence. As we were cleaning up from dinner, David cornered me in the kitchen and asked me why I didn't have a blog.  He explained how incredibly easy it is to start a blog and shamed me into starting this blog. So here it is, just over a year, and more than 14,000 hits later.  I love that some of the folks that read this blog are people I know well in real life, family, friends, sewing buddies. Other readers are people I know well, but only virtually, buddies from the Creative Machine list or from Pattern Review. Some of you are folks who I don't know at all, and I'm delighted to have you visit here. I was wondering if I could ask folks who stop by here how they got to this bl...

Tomorrow is my husband's birthday. He is dreading this birthday ( actually,  he dreads all of them). We are going to a fund raising event tomorrow night at our synagogue so I suggested that tonight's dinner be part of his birthday celebration. As per my husband's wishes, no guests. He  chose the menu. We have having beef, cooked into what we call "Stewart". He also requested potatoes roasted  in olive oil and spices. My older son usually makes this, but since he is in Jerusalem, I will make it instead. The first time he made it was for a Fathers' Day. I had to be away, so together, the kids and I planned a dinner for my husband. I bought the food, and my kids cooked. They made a massive steak, salad and these potatoes. For tonight we  are also serving broccoli, a salad and olives. My husband isn't much of a dessert person, so I will serve his favorite, blood oranges. Luckily, blood oranges are always in season at his birthday. Yes there are gifts ...

"And I will carry you on Eagle's wings", was the verse that really  struck home for Natalee from her Bat- Mitzvah torah reading. So we decided to make that the focal point of her tallit. Lately I have begun the work of designing a tallit/prayer shawl by having my clients try on lengths of raw fabric. My clients seem to divide themselves into two camps, there are the folks who want silky and those who want texture. Natalee was a silky girl. The base of her tallit is ivory colored silk charmeuse. I made the wings out of four layers of metallic/silk organza. I sketched an abstracted eagle wing onto tracing paper, flipped it and traced it's partner from the first sketch. Then, I went over the sketch using my sewing machine threaded with black thread. One normally doesn't think of a sewing machine as a drawing tool, but that's exactly how I used it. After establishing the design, I cut away different layers of the organza, some from the front and some from...

So, here it is, my second try at getting Deborah's kippah right. You can see the obsessive quilting.The decorative trim was fun to do. I chalked a line on the quilted fabric, measuring from the fold. Then, I lay a length of maroon velvet ribbon on the chalked line.  I embroidered the line of diamonds using the adorable stitch on my machine. Yes, the embroidery is both functional and decorative. My history of architecture professor would be proud. Not only does the embropidery echo that Bauhaus credo of "form follows function", it also echoes the OCD quilting.The two rows of copper colored soutache were couched using a three stepped zig zag stitch. Many thanks to my model, who was not a pill.

Today ( and yesterday) I pretended that I was drawing with my sewing machine and made feathers for Natalee's, Wings tallit. I really enjoyed how easy it was to adjust the width of my stitches, making it easy to taper the tips of the feathers down to nothing, giving the whole thing a more naturalistic feel. Natalee was adopted from China. When kids come from a mixed background, as Natalee does I like to try to aknowledge their place of orgin in the tallit.  I don't want the tallit to look costume-ey. But being able to nod to the birth family at this important milestone is probably a good thing. Natalee liked the idea but didn't want the tallit too look too Chinese. We found the prefect solution in my fabric stash.  This Chinese brocade silk  fabric has large flowers as part of the brocade design. Some are blue, and the others are green. We thought that having the blue flowers in the center of each corner piece--with just a hint of the red background would be pe...

So Deborah did love the black kippah I had made her. Unfortunately, it was a bit too small. I had no more of the wonderful black textured fabric. I did have a plain black silk. I thought that the silk satin would be improved with more texture. So I began quilting diagonal lines a presser-foot's width apart creating a gid of squished diamonds along the entire strip of 45" x7 " inch piece of fabric. I kept thinking as I worked on thins that my daughter would take one look at this and say,  "Having an OCD day, Mama? ". Not exactly. I find doing this sort of work alternatively irritatingly boring and oddly soothing. You may think to ask why I chose such a labor intensive way of adding texture. I wonder myself. Actually, I think that this Chanel-bag like quilting will suit Deborah well. Deborah is one of those women, who even if she wore a tie dye t-shirt and a tiered peasant skirt would look like she stepped out of a Brooks Brother's ad. This quilting will sui...

My youngest, like his father, and unlike his siblings isn't much of an eater. So when he makes a request for a patricular food, particularly when it is home made rather than the packaged garbage that he usually loves, I will nearly always try to honor that request. Most weeks we eat chicken or meat for Shabbat. My two big kids adore meat, and for my culinarily traditional husband too, Shabbat means meat. This week though, our dinner guests are vegetarians. Last night I was looking through cookbooks for ideas  for what to serve tonight. My youngest suggested home made noodles. I had made them for the first time several months ago. When I had made them , we had a quart of sour milk hanging around so I also made a soft riccota like cheese. So my son requested that I also make the cheese. I agreed to make the noodles, but left the cheese question open. After I put up the challa, I got to work making the noodle dough. It's just three eggs and two cups of flou...

I did end up making beaded tassels for the corners of the challa cover. The bling in the corners made the whole thing look truly finished. The piece got picked up today. I packaged it up in kraft paper on a board so it looked all professional. I also included a translation and transliteration of the text so the presenter could look smart. it's always good to make your clients look good. My client was very, very happy. When I brought the challa cover down to the doorman to be picked up, the latest installation in my being Keeper of the Textiles was being delivered. The photo above is just a detail of the border. This rug was in the dining room of the house I grew up in.  Each room and hallway had it's Oriental rug. This rug was my favorite. I loved the wonderfully ornate border and the really beautiful center medallion. Because my job was to sweep under the table after meals, I had an intimate relationship with this rug. The pile on this rug was so thic...

I'm not quite sure if I am actually done or need to add a bit more to this piece.  There is a layer of fuseable interfacing inside giving the piece a bit of heft.  I had made several attempts to do the dedication, ( which is on the back ) printing the text on to treated fabric which one runs through the computer printer. I wasted two days on that. The lay out was lovely, but my printer has decided to take a vacation. Instead, I calligraphed the dedication onto pink shantung. The honoree loves pink. It looks good. The striped border is made out of silk from a fancy tie manufacturer. The color reads as a stronger lavendar than the photo shows, trust me. My camera has trouble understanding what to do with shine. Unfortunately, shine and sheen are a constant element in my work. Trust me, this looks prettier in real life. I may get a bit obsessive and re -do the binding to get the piece to lie a bit flatter. Re-reading one of my 1940's sewing books a few days ago, he...

whose daughter is having a Bat-Mitzvah in a couple of weeks. Deborah's daughter was part of last year's tallit making workshop . We tied the tzitzit this afternoon. It was lovely and sweet. Deborah wanted her daughter to have a kippah that went with her tallit. I made one that worked, and even fit nicely. It looked beautiful with her long wavy light brown hair. When Deborah's daughter was little, she had blond ringlets. I remember my youngest son dancing next to her at children's services when he was about four, while trying desperately to get one of those beautiful curls into his mouth. He failed. Today Deborah realized that she wanted a kippah as well. She wanted it to coordinate with what she would be wearing, a black skirt and an "elderberry" jacket. I'm not exactly sure what that color is, but assume that it is somewhere in the red to purple spectrum. This kippah can work with colors ranging from brown into purple or red. The base of the kippah is th...

Chicken bottoms with Chinese five spice powder, orange juice squeezed from the oranges I had de-nuded of peel for a Genoise for tomorrow's lunch and cranberries, because they were in the fridge. Roasted sweet potatoes, because my internet grocer sent me massive mutant sweets, white potatoes, carrots, onions and corn roasted in a vinegarette. Not yet made, Romaine salad with sectioned grapefruit. Dessert is pareve ice cream from last week. Shabbat Shalom!

I have two friends who don't know each other. However, they are both present in the same dress. My friend Mori works for Victoria's Secret. Just before Christmas, Victoria's Secret had a sample sale for employees. In addition to samples of undergarments and other clothing, they also had samples of fabrics and trims. Mori sent me a box of treasures from that sale. I met my friend Elizabeth through http://www.patternreview.com/ . We both live in the neighborhood. We know so many people in common, it is something of a surprise that we hadn't met many years ago. Last week, when we went out to play in fabricland she brought me some fabrics that she wasn't going to be using. One, was a white cotton, machine embroidered with black flowers. Elizabeth suggested that i could make it into a peasant blouse. I poo-pooed the idea, and wasn't sure if I loved the fabric or not. ( One shouldn't poo-poo too quickly, I soon learned.) Today my daughter and I went to Book-Off, ...

This piece is now complete, even though the photo shows this wall hanging before it was backed. Yes, this is the chartreuse silk from yesterday, backed with two layers of soft interfacing. I calligraphed the letters using fabric dyes mixed with acrylic paints and powdered artists gold. the little designs are stamped on. The border is a pieced silk shantung. Inside the piece ia some wool to give the piece a little loft. I added a little sleeve of purple shantung to the top so a dowl can be slipped through anf the piece can be easily hung on a wall. The text reads " Justice, justice shall you pursue." This wall hanging is a birthday gift for my client's father. He loves purple and green. Yes, the challa cover has the same border as the wall hanging. The recipient loves purple and reds and pink. I may add pink beads to the corners when I'm done. I'm waiting for the Dedication text for the back before I continue with backing the piece.

One of two wings for a tallit, made of 4 layers of metallic/ silk organza. Colors are created by cutting away layers of fabric. I know, it still looks wonky but it will look beautiful on the cream colored charmeuse that it is destined for. Due by the end of January. This will be a base for a wall hanging. I know, a really bright, acidic green. This piece needs to be done by Friday. Why is no work done yet? Because I just got the job yesterday evening. Why am I using the scarf that my sister in law just gave me? Because my client told me that the recipient loves "Van Gogh colors", the piece needs to be bright green and bright purple, "iris colors". This is the only bit of bright green in the house. Why did I accept the job? Because the person who asked is a good friend, even though she isn't so good at planning ahead.What we do for love. This will be a challa cover. It is a presentation piece for someone who is being honored for running a nursery school for man...

This summer I purchased the thrift store score of the century. I had been lusting after those lovely light weight shearling jackets for years. I had tried a few on a few years ago. They felt heavenly on, and weren't heavy. My local thrift store periodically marks down entire categories of clothing to make space for more stuff on the selling floor. This summer, all leather garments were 1/2 off. I fell in love with a sage colored shearling jacket. I loved how it was all soft and broken in. It also cost all of $22. How could I not take it home? After it came back from the cleaner's I noticed that the sizing of the jacket was in Japanese. My jacket was made in Spain for the Japanese market. Most Japanese women are built small. I am not built small. The sleeves on my jacket were too short. When it isn't that cold out, that's fine. I can wear the sleeves cuffed as they were designed to be with a pair of my mother's elbow length thin leather gloves. As the weather has got...

My grandmother bought my mother this wooden bowl and a chopping knife, known in Yiddish as a hock-messer, soon after my parents got married. Yes, she also got them a dairy set as well. these wooden bowls and chopping knives were a big part of food prep when I was growing up. meatloaf and meat balls were mixed in this bowl. Chopped liver was made in this bowl as well. Sundays we often made chicken salad for lunch made out of chicken left over from Shabbat chopped with vegetables and mayo. That too, was made in this bowl. When I was in college my parents got their first food processor and the chopping bowls were not used as much. Several years ago, my father asked if i would like the bowls and the hock-messers. I was happy to have them. I like the sheer physicality of chopping up a big bowl of stuff into teeny pieces. While the wooden bowls have stood up well to the years of use, the hock-messers had not. The bladed which were bolted into their handles, wobbled. The blades wouldn't ...

Elizabeth and I have been promising to do a play day in garment land. Today was the day. We met in the subway and then continued onto Metro. Kashi greeted us warmly. I had fallen in love with his remnant bin by the door during my last visit. I had made two of the remnants into pretty terrific dresses . I know some know exactly what they are going to make when they go into a fabric store. I love the sense of adventure and possibility that a remnant bin gives me. making something wonderful from what others have rejected ...what could be better??? so from left to right: About a yard of blue brown jersey 2/3 yard of red silk jersey, what beautiful synthetic jersey dreams of being when it grows up green/s turquoise jersey border print - if I place the black part at my waistline, it will give me a pretend waist brown heathered cotton blend jersey 7/7 yard double faced black/blue wool jersey about 1/1/2 yards...this fabric is so cool it's making my brain spin with the possibilities.. a...

It has been pretty frigid here in New York. I was wearing my black flannel circle skirt today. That skirt was so quick to make, and just looks good on. Another wool skirt to wear every day, seemed like just the thing. I started poking around in my stash and found a length of chocolate brown herring bone wool from a http://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/ fabric bundle from a couple of years back. Directions for a Circle skirt I formed the yardage into a right triangle, cut off the rest and ended up with a perfect square, a trick I learned when making fortune tellers in third grade. Then I folded the square in 1/2, and in 1/2 again ending up with a smaller square. Then I placed one the two "closed sides" of the square on the other, ending up with an oddly shaped triangle. I then pretended to be a compass, and drew an arc along the open end of the triangle with the tailor's chalk my friend Ann gave me as a house gift ( Thanks Ann! ). I cut along that line. There are formulas fo...

Saturday evening, I got a call from my aunt. She was in town with her daughter and wanted to take us out for brunch Sunday morning. I am well enough brought up that it isn't nice to show up empty handed. So I looked around to see what I could make for my aunt and my cousin. My cousin has a wardrobe that I seriously envy. This is not something that I say lightly, either. My cousin has a wonderful wardrobe of craft show jackets and scarves. Her prefered colors are black and grey with the occasional touch of red. She chooses garments are are tasteful and quiet, but as you take a good look, just how wonderful and deeply interesting they truly are, begin to reveal themselves. ( Actually, this is probably a pretty accurate description of my cousin's personality as well.) Most of what she chooses is distinguished by it's fabulous texture. I haven't posted in about a week because my house has been full to the rafters with guests. It was hard to sew with my dining room tabl...