Problems and Solutions

I was ready to begin work on Mimi's tallit. I ordered the blue silk we had chosen. A few days later I got an email from the supplier. They were out of stock and wouldn’t get more of the silk for at least a month.

I needed the silk. It was past time to get to work. I Looked for the right shade of blue charmeuse on line and found it for $30/yard. That’s awfully steep. I found a color that was the right tone, but almost-not quite the right color…it was lavender, rather than blue. I also found just the right color, but it was the end of the bolt, and the yardage was short.

My selection of fabric felt very Goldilocks…nothing was just right. I asked Mimi to come by , to see if we could hammer out a solution together. We looked at the fabrics and then both of us , at the same moment, came up with the idea of using all three colors.

We both thought that long irregular triangles of the three very close colors would look beautiful.

I then made a stupid decision. I thought I would piece the charmeuse onto silk gazar. The gazar is very light weight and would add no weight to the tallit. I tried to sew the charmeuse onto the gazar. The two fabrics slip and slide against one another. I remembered that silk does not slide against cotton flannel. I also remembered that I had purchased a bit of cotton flannel with a moose print.

I cut a strip of flannel and began piecing. my life is good once again. the task has gone from being a horrible one to an easy one.

The work is just chugging along. Yes, I will press the strip and it wil look much better.

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sarah in nyc

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