new dresses from old fabric

One of the ideas that I have been playing around with for the past many months is the idea of layering sheer fabrics to create something new. ( The wings tallit is one example of that sort of layering of sheers.) The spotty dress is made out of a semi - sheer mesh. it is meant to be worn with a black slip that I have already made. I can see in the photo that it looks like a ditsy floral print. The print is really made up of superimposed rectangles.

The fabric came my way in a www.fabricmartfabrics.com mystery fabric bundle from a couple of years ago. I don't think I ever would have chosen this fabric on my own, but I liked it as soon as I saw it. I edged the dress with adorable scalloped edged black elastic.

As soon as I finished the dress, I realized that it would be a perfect match with my new sweater. The two prints compliment one another.

The fabric for this blue and black dress was purchase in the mad shopping for fabric I was doing during the time my father was dying. It had such a retro 1970's Diane VonFurstenberg feel I just had to have it. I think it came from www.fabrics.com. I thought that I would do a classic wrap dress. I made the body of the dress and then had a mental block about how to do the ties properly. I let the dress hang out in my work closet until I realized that I didn't have to engineer the wraps. Instead, I just sewed the bodice into place. I made the under-flap really full so I don't have to worry about the skirt opening up and unexpectedly showing more leg than I had planned to. This is one of the true advantages of making my own clothes. In a ready -to-wear dress, that underlap is always too skimpy making normal movement difficult to do. That fear of wardrobe malfunction, makes you uncomfortable all day long. it is just easier to wear a garment that is comfortable to wear.

The neckline and armholes are trimmed with black mesh folded in half.A wrap front top is always flattering on me. I don't know if this is strictly a wrap dress or a mock wrap dress, either way, it is comfy and looks nice on.

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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...

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A Passover loss

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sarah in nyc

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