sarah in nyc

Some crafts people create work in large runs.  I am a small batch creator. Challah covers might get made up in groups of three or four. They don’t come out identical but resemble one another the way children in a family do.  This challah cover comes from this family http://sewnewyork.blogspot.com/2011/07/matched-set.html . There might have been one more Challah cover in the set, but I made a dumb typo on one. ( I am so glad to be married to a man who can read Hebrew well and is good at catching typos.) So there is one less to this series than I had hoped. My client for this piece is someone I know since childhood. I have memories of her as a very chic graduate student. I was about four at that point. Oddly and delightfully, we are now able to deal with one another as adults. There is something very sweet and powerful about working with someone with whom I have such a long history.

After several days of temperatures in the low three digits, we are now back to relatively balmy weather in the low 90’s. My husband took the opportunity to go to the beach. I take medications that make beach going fairly unpleasant so instead I decided to go to the Met. a sign at the ticket counter informed visitors that the wait to get into the Alexander McQueen exhibit was two hours long. I wasn’t that dying to see that exhibit so decided to do the museum in my favorite way, aimlessly wandering through the galleries stopping only at the pieces I love. The modern galleries had a room with early 20th century decorative art. Here is Calder’s neckpiece that I believe is called The Jealous Husband . I have a crush on Calder. I especially love his jewelry. I love how you can see his hands at work. I adore his sense of humor. This piece shared a vitrine with This very elegant Lalique necklace. You can click on any of the photos to see them larger. This French Art Deco table is cov...

When I teach people how to sew, I often tell them to think of their efforts as a draft rather than the finished product. Too often people get so  anxious trying to get things right that they become afraid to proceed.  They end up with lots of beautiful fabric but very little actually gets sewn up. I would be in that very camp myself, if I didn’t think of all of my work as being in progress and not quit done.   I had made up this dress a few weeks ago out of a lovely drapey rayon knit that my sister in law had sent me in a www.fabricmartfabrics mystery fabric bundle. I wore the dress in Florida and a few times after we got back. The dress felt too unstructured and too floppy. I had also cut the neckline a smidge too low.  The dress felt more like a beach cover up than like an actual garment to wear on the street. I love the print which reminds me of onions. The dress had too much potential to declare a wadder.   I decided to add a waistband in a grey ray...

Hilary grew up a few towns away from my childhood home. She too ended up in New York and she also was a member of our synagogue community. Although Hilary no longer lives here, our paths have crossed several times over the past few years. She wanted to make a tallit out of textiles that had belonged to people who were important to her but were no longer alive.   The oldest piece in the collection was her great grandfather’s silk tallit. Hilary had found the tallit in her grandmother’s basement. It was a high quality tallit that was probably made in China before WWI. I had once worked with a much more tattered similar tallit that had made it’s way from Berlin, to Teheran to New York, but that is a different story.   Hilary also brought her late father in law’s white silk opera scarf and a beautiful  bright red hand painted silk scarf that had belonged to her late mother. I am piecing all of these together to make Hilary’s tallit. It made sense for Hilary to was...

We are going to Israel in a few weeks to visit our son. It’s going to be hot. I will need to travel light. I bought some light weight rayon knits to make up into dresses that would be easy to wear in the heat and easy to hand wash. The fact that www.fabrics.com was having a sale helped a whole lot too. I used a dress I had made previously as the basis for these three dresses. I was able to make up the three of them in an afternoon.       I’m showing this dress with a belt. I plan to take several with me on the trip. The rayon feels like pajamas.   I fell in love with the giant graphic floral. It reminds me of Marimekko dresses. This dress is made of an ITY knit. it’s a synthetic but fairly comfortable in warm weather.

One ushers in Shabbat with the Friday night meal. One ushers out Shabbat with Havdalah. I make  Challah covers which are used at the beginning of the Friday night meal. I invented spice bags photo transferred with the Havdalah service that are filled with the spices one uses during Havdalah.   Some of my clients have requested matched sets of a Challah cover and havdalah bag. Often these sets are given as wedding gifts. I made both the Havdalah bag and the Challah cover out of richly colored silk noil.  my client had asked for a set in “California colors” the magenta and teal fit the bill. I was thinking about purchasing a Florentine styled stencil. I searched the internet for something appropriate. Instead I ended up painting the designs freehand. There are differing sizes of metallic bits in the paint which gives the painting a certain depth. It looks different from different angles.     I Love the bronze colored middy braid.  using the ...

Adam and his wife, Barbara came by this afternoon to tie the tzitzit for his tallit. I don’t know if you can see in the photo, but Adam is a pretty short guy.  Barbara is perfectly proportioned to Adam. The two of them are crazy in love. It was just so sweet to see the two of them together. Best of all, aside from their sweet relationship, they loved the tallit. Adam insisted that he would have trouble tying the tzitzit.  He did fine. Each of them tied two of the corners. As they worked, we told stories and laughed.         I used prayer books to weigh down the tallit to make it easier to tie the tzitzit.   I loved working with Adam. I hope that he continues to enjoy his tallit for many, many years.

We aren’t eating just Challah tonight. It’s hot and sticky out which means that it’s time to eat Middle Eastern type food. I made a taboule but used couscous as the grain. I also roasted eggplant, tomato and onions in a vinaigrette.  It roasted down to nearly nothing. I also roasted chicken in wine and rosemary , sorry no photo. I also made a big salad. And I made another ginger sorbet. Shabbat Shalom!!!

Right now gluten is seen as some sort of a nutritional villain.  I do have some friends who have Celiac disease.  One of my high school friends  was hospitalized for most of junior year because she had undiagnosed Celiac disease. So I get that some people ought not to eat gluten.   But for most of the rest of us, gluten is what makes the difference between a saggy loaf of bread and one that is muscular. In short, gluten makes bread a pleasure to chew. If I can find it in my local markets, I use King Arthur bread flour. It’s a really high gluten flour. If I use a regular flour, I add some gluten to the dough.  I can’t tell you exactly how much I add, it’s usually something less than a cup to a load of bread dough.   As gluten has become more and more demonized, it has become more difficult to find it. I was happy to see this bag in the Kosher department of my local Associated Supermarket. You can sometimes find gluten at Fairway or in health food sto...

While it’s always lovely to make a tallit with a bar-mitzvah child, making a tallit with an adult often reflects the adult’s more complicated life. This was certainly true with Adam and his tallit. Adam is a really straightforward kind of a man. It’s always nice to work with such a client. Adam was very clear about a few things. First of all,he is an atheist. He wanted me to be very clear about that. Despite being an atheist, he goes to morning services daily. He began going out of a sense of love and obligation to his mother who had died, and then out of a sense of obligation to his community who had supported him during his year of mourning. Adam is also severely color blind. In case you haven’t noticed, I am a color girl. I love color. When Adam met with me he brought the grey shantung shawl that his wife wore at their wedding. We both felt strongly that being wrapped up in this symbol of their love was perfect. Next we had to choose colors for the tallit. When Adam met with...