Skip to main content

Aiding and Abetting

My sewing student often uses fabric that I have on hand, in my stash for the garments that she makes for herself. I have also introduced her to the wonders of Internet fabric shopping.
I thought that it was time that she was introduced to the wonders of the fabric district. We went to both stores managed by Kabbala Man. My student loved hearing the lecture on the Torah portion of the week that was being broadcast  on the store's PA system.
My student found a black sheer knit with a solid stripe. Budding designer that she is, she knew exactly what that fabric needed to be as soon as she set eyes on it ( a sheer over dress to wear over a black slip dress). She wanted two yards but there were three left on the bolt, so my student was introduced to the wonders of bolt end pricing and got three yards for $5.
In the end she spent every penny she brought with her. Her other purchases were a turquoise rayon jersey, a black rayon/poly jersey  for the under-slip for the dress she has designed in her head as well as lots of other garments. My student commented as she decided how much fabric to buy that the black knit was a basic that she could make most of her clothes out of. She also bought  a black striped rayon/poly jersey and a striped rayon in two shades of pink. It has a lovely soft feel. It is the sort of soft fabric you want on your body when you are feeling under the weather. She had already made some garments out of the same fabric in black and grey.
I don't know if I was being mean, but I discouraged her from buying jersey in traffic cone orange. After thinking it over, she came to the conclusion that she really wouldn't get that much use out of the fabric despite the fact that she loved the color. A few spools of thread, some two inch elastic, and some zippers later she was done.
I got some bobbins for my Janome. I'm due back in fabric-land on Monday with my Pattern Review pals, so I didn't buy any fabric, not even the fabric that was calling my name. I actually am a girl who can say no.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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...

Connecting with the past

A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee.  If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it.    My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid.  I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed.   A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee  and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...

Revisiting a beloved piece

About thirty years ago I was asked to make an atara to be a gift  for Jerry.  Jerry was one of the founders of an alternative Hebrew school in our neighborhood. Jerry was also one of the people who forged an alliance between the older mostly German members of our synagogue and the young counter culture former ( and still hippies) that were the new lifeblood of our congregation nearly fifty years ago. At that point, it wasn't the easiest marriage between the old guard and the new guard but Jerry helped to break down the barriers between the suit wearing older folks and the ripped up jeans wearing younger folks. Jerry has prepared thousands of kids for their B'nai Mitzvah. He is a frequent and excellent Torah reader and for many years he organized Morning Minyan. Jerry had often said that his favorite biblical text is the following: (יא) כִּ֚י הַמִּצְוָ֣ה הַזֹּ֔את אֲשֶׁ֛ר אָנֹכִ֥י מְצַוְּךָ֖ הַיּ֑וֹם לֹֽא־נִפְלֵ֥את הִוא֙ מִמְּךָ֔ וְלֹ֥א רְחֹקָ֖ה הִֽוא׃ (יב) לֹ֥א בַשָּׁמַ֖יִם הִ֑...