Further adventures of Suzy Home Maker

The holes on the back of this dyed dress, were actually quite alarming. I figured that I could repair or camouflage them, but I hadn’t quite figured out a plan of action.

As you can see, the situation was pretty terrible. My initial thought was to hide the holes underneath black crochet work or black lace. I even made one rosette out of black lace.

There were some smaller holes though, and I started darning them one at a time. I did my darning while the dress was on the dress form. This actually made the job far easier. I started with the smaller holes and worked my way up to the larger holes.

Given the Depression era look of the dress, working away on darning the dress seemed entirely appropriate. I was aided in my efforts with

a darning egg. The darning egg was given to me by a client who has become a friend. It had belonged to her very handy mother.this is the first time I used the darning egg. It helped keep my sewing tension appropriately loose . It also kept the whole vintage sewing vibe going as I repaired the dress.

Here are the results of my labors. I’m pretty pleased with the results.

Continuing with the good home making theme, it’s been hot here. And this is what has been keeping us going for the past few days.

hibiscus tea (2)

Hibiscus tea. you can buy the dried flowers in a Hispanic market, or in the chichi spice and tea store. This batch is from the chichi store. I just put a tablespoon or so in a 4 cup glass measuring cup and heat in the microwave with water for several minute. I let it steep for several minutes, and put into a pitcher and add cold water.

The flavor is slightly sour and really refreshing. I know it looks like bug-juice, that nasty fake powdered drink they serve kids in camp. But it’s light and refreshing. A nice antidote to the heat.

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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...

The light themed tallit has been shipped!!!

I had begun speaking to Sarah about making her a tallit in the middle of August. It took a few weeks to nail down the design. For Sarah it would have been ideal if the tallit were completed in time for her to wear it on Rosh HaShanah., the beginning of her year as senior rabbi of her congregation. For me, in an ideal world, given the realities of preparing for the High Holidays I would have finished this tallit in the weeks after Sukkot. So we compromised and I shipped off the tallit last night. I would have prefered to have more time but I got the job done in time. This tallit was made to mark Sarah's rise to the position of senior rabbi but it was also a reaction to this year of darkness. She chose a selection of verses about light to be part of her tallit. 1) אֵל נוֹרָא עֲלִילָה God of awesome deeds ( from a yom kippur Liturgical poem) 2) אוֹר חָדָשׁ עַל־צִיּוֹן תָּאִיר May You shine a new light on Zion ( from the liturgy) 3) יָאֵר יְהֹ...

A Passover loss

My parents bought this tablecloth during their 1955 visit to Israel. It is made out of linen from the first post 1948 flax harvest. The linen is heavy and almost crude. The embroidery is very fine. We used this cloth every Passover until the center wore thin. You can see the cloth on the table in the background of this photo of my parents and nephew My Aunt Sheva bought my mother a replacement cloth. The replacement cloth is made out of a cotton poly blend. The embroidery is crude and the colors not nearly as nice. The old cloth hung in our basement. We used the new cloth and remembered the much nicer original cloth. I loved that my aunt wanted to replace the cloth, I just hated the replacement because it was so much less than while evoking the beauty of the original. After my father died my mother sat me down and with great ceremony gave me all of her best tablecloths. She also gave me the worn Passover cloth and suggested that I could mend it. I did. Year after year ...

sarah in nyc

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