sarah in nyc

Our Minneapolis friends, Alfie and Judy have spent most of their time in New York staying at a B&B across town. They are back with us for Shabbat.  They have been having a blast running around the city. One of their adventures took them to Brighton Beach, known locally as Little Odessa.  They bought us some Russian spices, a Russian spice mix meant for meat and sumac. I have been dying to try sumac. Yesterday I made an amazing salad with sliced cucumber and carrots dressed with olive oil, vinegar, sumac and smoked paprika. It was really delicious. The combination of sour and smoky is quite intoxicating.   I decided to cook tonight’s chicken in the same mixture. I mixed generous amounts of both and rubbed each chicken piece with the mixture. I had thought that the rub would go on easier if I mixed it with olive oil. At the last minute decided that it would make the chicken too fatty.  I’m glad I didn’t go that route because I pulled over two cups of chicken...

This past High Holiday season  a woman I know slightly was wearing a really chic sleeveless glen plaid dress. I loved the mix of the girly yet tailored cut, with the men’s wear fabric. A length of glen plaid came into my life recently.  It may have arrived as part of a www.fabricmartfabrics.com mystery bundle. I don’t know the fiber content. I haven’t done a burn test. It has a nice feel and a nice drape. This book mentioned here, A New Addition to My Sewing Library , had such terrific directions for piecing bias yardage that I have been getting into creating bias yardage whenever I can. I love bias cut clothing because of the natural stretch they have. Also a plaid on the bias is always cooler than going the regular way. I thought that I would make a sleeveless cowl necked dress. I used this dress The Most Boring Dress in the World as my starting point. If you are obsessed with pattern drafting you would know that the cowl needs to be wider than the actual neckline so t...

I loved working with Tess, yet my actual work with the tallit was difficult. This tallit just came together with tremendous ease. I’m incredibly happy with it. I love how the colors that are so close keep your eyes busy trying to figure out exactly where they separate.  I credit Ayelet for the brilliant addition of the crazy green. I never, ever would have chosen it on my own. I don’t think that my client is always right. If I think that a client is making silly choices, I will steer them in a better direction. This green was completely off the wall, and yet it pulls the piece into another dimension.

    Today I had to go to the doctor. The office is ever so conveniently, in the garment district.  Even more conveniently, it is right around the corner from http://metrotextile.blogspot.com/ . Metro is owned by Kashi who came to new york during the Iranian revolution. In most stores in the garment district you pull the bolts of fabric that you are interested in. At Metro, first you have a conversation with Kashi about what you are looking for. Then he brings you bolts of fabric to approve or disapprove. Once he gets a sense of what you are looking for he both meets your needs and then also tries to lead your eye ( and your lust for fabric) in new directions.   I knew I needed two yards of white charmeuse for a tallit that I need to begin soon. I told Kashi what I was looking for. He brought me a bolt and then asked me what I needed it for. He assured me that he would give me a good price. I told him that I had no worries about that. he quoted me an amazing...

I learn new things from each tallit, from each commission. I guess what I learned from this one is a Zen acceptance of my making errors. I sewed two of the pinot/corner pieces on the wrong side of the tallit. Yes, I sewed with a teeny tight zig-zag. So I had to carefully undo my sewing. It was at this point late at night. Tess was picking up the tallit the next day. I really hate finishing up my work at the last minute, because it always seems to ask for disaster. I also know that working when tired is a more certain path to disaster, so I put away the tallit and began again the next morning. I got the pinot sewed on correctly. I also made the eyelets without any further adventures. But by this point I was waiting for one to happen. I had my dressmaking dummy set up so Tess and her mother could see the tallit as soon as they walked in. Tess kept thanking me. Clearly, she was pleased. We began to tie the tzizit. Tess, like most girls her age, had long experience making frie...

Here is Tess’s atara.  I’m pretty pleased. center of the atara and now the entire tallit I still have to make the pinot/corner pieces.. I dyed the silk but have to make them and sew them on. I also cooked today. The challah that  here you see rising is now baked. Today is Caveman Shabbat at our house. beef ribs chicken wings Our guest is someone who is nearly family. You need to be really comfortable with your guests when you have Caveman Shabbat. Yes, there will be vegetable matter at this meal, another take on last week’s winter salad. The completed Bein Gavra The Bein Gavra gets presented at services tomorrow. A big weekend. Shabbat Shalom to all.

Before I begin, I want to say that I have really loved working on Tess’s tallit. Sometimes though a piece is marked by lots of errors along the way. This was one of those pieces. In my first attempt to sew down the sky panel, I had skewed something and despite measuring the organza to fit the tallit, it was short. I had to undo my sewing. The next pass went just fine. but I realized that I hated the look of the thread I had used to sew down the organza.  I had to undo two rows of densely packed decorative stitching. That is never fun but I worked away at the task. I use an X-acto knife to take out stitching, and yes, I sliced my finger. After I bandaged myself, I saw that I had bled on the tallit. Work had top stop so I could wash the blood out of the piece.   After the tallit had dried, I tried again. This time I added striped ribbon underneath the scalloped stitching. I used silver on the sky side and gold for the ocean side.   I ended up topstitching the en...

Our friends Alfie and Judy came to visit from Minneapolis. Our oldest came home to pick up her menorah and to get some home cooking. I’m not such a big fan of latkes. To tell you the truth, there are some years that not a latke crosses my lips. I did decide in honor of the holiday to use lots of olive oil in my cooking.   So we ate breaded whiting ( the pan was well oiled with olive oil) and eggplant stewed with carrots, tomato paste and chili peppers ( and olive oil), and oven roasted potatoes with herbes Provencal ( and olive oil). Judy made the kale ( with olive oil salt and pepper). I baked pita and made dessert. Then we lit candles and ate dinner

    This is the second shortest Friday of the year. A an appropriately quick and yummy winter salad is pictured above. I sliced carrots, celery and radishes in the food processor. I dresses the vegetables with toasted sesame oil and rice vinegar. it can’t get any easier and the result is complex tasting. It’s hard to stop eating this salad and the flavor belies the simplicity of the ingredients.   The rest of the meal???? Chicken roasted with apples pears and thyme and the left overs of a bottle of Champagne, and eggplant stewed with tomato and celery, couscous and challah.   Shabbat Shalom!

A query from a potential client a week or so ago got me to thinking. The potential client's question was primarily about pricing ( and why my work is more expensive than a gift shop tallit). This Shabbat I had a lovely conversation with Ayelet's father about her tallit. He said, "We didn't realize that when you meet with a client, you have no idea of what that tallit will look like ahead of time." My initial reaction was, " Of course I don't, the tallit is created for that particular client. I have no idea what we will design together, until after we have talked and figured it out together." Both those conversations had me exploring  the internet to see what others mean when they advertise their work as  " One of a kind" or "hand crafted" in the world of tallitot. I am not going to post photos of the work of other people's tallitot. But you can Google the phrases " one of a kind tallit " or "hand crafted t...

Yesterday, two of the class participants came to my house to work with me to finish off the Bein Gavra. We ate, did some stenciling, embroidered ribbon, sewed it on , trimmed loose threads and had some pie. All in all a really productive day. Kathy,  took lots of photos with her fancy digital camera, and after she emails me her photos I will post them here. For any of you who are locals, it is being presented at Shabbat morning services at Ansche Chesed on December 24. Hope to see lots of you there!!!

It took me thirty years to figure out how to work when touch of adversity . I had gotten to a stuck point on Tess’s  tallit. I had to take out lots of really dense stitching.  As any of you who sew know, that it truly depressing.  Sometimes I have extra fabric to turn to in case I mess up. In this case, I didn’t . So I had to just be really careful. It’s exhausting to have to be so persnickety. I decided to give myself a break. Rather than just sitting around eating bon-bons, I turned to Ayelet’s tallit.  It’s all put together, except for the atara/neckband and the pinot/corners. My camera is showing the base color of the tallit as a royal blue. It’s not. It’s a royal purple. the tallit really pops. It makes me happy to look at it.the atara is nearly done. The pinot need a bit more thinking through.

Today was my building’s holiday party. I made cream puffs. They were a hit.   They aren’t difficult to make. They do however look really impressive.  Creampuffs are the perfect mixture of nursery food and sophistication.   I made the puffs themselves using the formula set out by Mark Ruhlman in his wonderful cookbook, Ratio. To a medium saucepan, add, 8 oz water 1 stick butter 1/2 tsp salt 1 tablespoon sugar   Heat on high until mixture boils and then reduce heat to medium add 1 scant cup flour and stir , the dough forms and pulls always from the sides of the pan cook for another minute or two remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. you want the mixture to be warm. but too cook to cook the eggs on impact. After you set the mixture aside to cool, preheat your oven to 425. once the mixture is cool add four eggs, one at a time mixing well after each addition. For several moments the mixture will look terrible. This is no...

My trusty copy of The Settlement Cookbook   has a chapter called “ Grandmother’s Puddings”. That chapter includes homey favorites like kugels, pies, puddings and compotes. All this week I have been reading a terrific book, Inside the Victorian Home,   by Judith Flanders. If you, like me love reading about the history of domesticity then read this book. Aside from making it clear how lucky we are to be living in modern times ( it’s so clean, modern medicine is so great!!! ) That book and the weather made me feel ready for an autumnal dessert. If I were making this dessert in a purely Eastern European fashion it would be a compote of apples and pears. If I were doing this in a purely American way it would be a straight pie. Instead, this is a bit of a hybrid. I made a dough in my food processor. I started out thinking I would make an oil crust…but decided at the last minute to throw in an egg and a bit of baking soda, so I think it will be a cakey- base. Ok, if you want a...

Yesterday, I began constructing the stripes for Ayelet’s tallit. Those of you with sharp eyes may notice that the green is much more emphatic than it was in yesterday’s photo. I over dyed it and it is now the color that Ayelet requested. the fabrics in their raw state I began by sewing strips of silk together. I had thought that I would construct the stripes out of simple strips of vertical stripes. My husband took a look at my work and said one deadly word,” Christmas”. I realized that he was right. The orange, pink and chartreuse combined to look like Target’s holiday theme of a couple of years back. it was time to re-think what I was doing. I made some of the green strips narrower.For some reason having the stripes run horizontally made them seem far less like Christmas. Adding the purple sashing also went far in improving the look.

Getting a package of silk in the mail is always a treat. This batch of silk is for Ayalet’s tallit. I love the colors, actually let me amend that. Ayelet had asked for a bright lime green. What arrived is alarmingly quiet. It remind me of the walls of a hospital in the 1950’s. I may have to over dye what got sent to me. The orange metallic was a surprise, a delightful one. I can’t wait to get started.

I’m working away on Tess’s tallit.  I decided to get to work on her tallit bag. I made Tess’s sister’s tallit a few years ago. her tallit bag was made out of an upholstery weight olive green velvet. The bag was embellished  with vintage lace that had belonged to a relative.  We thought that it would be nice to use some of the other vintage laces in the family treasure trove. A couple of weeks ago, Tess's mom sent me a bag of old lace. It was lovely stuff. Unfortunately, much of it was too fragile to use on the outside of a tallit bag. It seemed like an invitation for destruction of the old and fragile textiles. there was one hardy piece of corded lace pictured here. I suppose I could ask Tess’s mom to go through the lace she inherited and ask her to find some sturdier lace. I suppose I also could have gone into my own stash of old textiles and found something that would work. I have been doing lots of stenciling for the bein gavra . I have stencils on the brain. I d...