Kimat Tov M'od minus no longer

This morning my buddy, Eve, stopped by. We met about twenty five years ago when I was working at Ansche Chesed. Eve was pregnant with her oldest when we met. She was one of the more experience moms who guided me through early motherhood. Eve's second child is just a few weeks younger than my oldest. In order for Eve to make room for her second child, we bought her couch. It's still in my living room, but I recovered it a few years ago.We spent a fair amount of hanging out together when our kids were teeny.

Eve possessed many talents, including sewing which I envied. I had no idea how to sew when we first met.

Eve moved out of the city. For the past many years, the two of us will spend the morning together. We talk about family,about Jewish stuff, the workings of community and we talk sewing. Often I will help Eve think out a sewing problem.

Today we did a bit of actual sewing. Eve had a dress that was like the grades my 8th grade Hebrew teacher used to give me, Kimat Tov M'od minus, Almost Very Good Minus. Yes, I get that my teacher was ambivalent about me. I hated being in her class, but I love the wording on that grade. In our family it has been used to categorize anything that is " close but no cigar", something that isn't quite right.

Eve's dress was a 1940' ish red rayon print dress with short sleeves. She wanted the sleeves to go. I hacked them off, but first marked the cutting line with my nifty tailor's chalk ( Thanks Anne!). I serged the new sleeve line and eve tried on the dress. The armpits were poochy. I made darts on either side, using my first joint on my finger as the line to mark the wide part of the dart. I cut the dart open and then edged the raw edge with WWII era twill tape. Not only did it go perfectly with the print, but Eve is wearing the dress at an event in China to celebrate the exploits of her father during WWII.

The dress now looks great on Eve.

So it was a productive morning, with some catching up and some sewing with a pal.

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