Skip to main content

Ani, Ani, Ani Achashveirosh

 

A while back I was full of my cleverness in repairing my bathrobe. I thought that by reinforcing the worn out edges of the robe I would get a few more years of wear from a beloved garment.

 

I realized that I had mad the same error that many of my clients do. they bring me a beloved textile and assume that with just a bit of a nip and a tuck it will be as good as new.

Often though, I have to be the bearer of bad news and inform my client that their beloved item is too far gone. That when I looked carefully I can see that the textile is on it’s last legs and it really isn’t worth putting in the time and effort into repairing it.

I bought the red and white striped seersucker to repair my robe, gave it a new nifty trim…but that robe began to disintegrate within a few weeks of my completing the work on it. It was time for a new robe.

 

I did look around for some nice white waffle woven cottons… But given that I have a closet overflowing with fabrics I decided to shop my stash. This striped cotton was purchased as a possible backing for a quilt, but was  a bad fit for the quilt.  I wad serged the raw edges together and prewashed the length of fabric.

I used this child’s robe as my inspiration.

robe 001

 

It comes from the excellent Smart Sewing magazine put out by Universal Publishing in 1948. The wonderful clothing drafts are designed by the brilliant Frances Blondin. Looking at the diagram today, I realize that the Blondin draft was my starting point. I cut the sleeves in one with the body of the robe . It takes up more fabric but it’s quick and easy.

This is what I ended up with.

SAM_1163

SAM_1164

There is a set of internal ties, as well as these external ties. the robe is easy to put on and easy to wear. My husband told me that I look like king Achashveirosh in the robe.

 

He’s right. It does look like the sort of robe that a parent would have lent to their child when participating in a Purim Hebrew school performance. Well, this is my new robe until it wears out or I figure out something better.

I don’t take pictures on Shabbat or Jewish Holidays, so while I often share preparations for Shabbat and the holidays, I don’t show you what we actually do on Shabbat. While we take doing Jewish stuff seriously, it does not mean that we don’t have fun with it.

 

For reason’s I no longer remember, we often wear silly hats during Shabbat dinner. My boys will often wear silly hats for candle lighting.  I took this photo just before I lit candles this past Friday.

stupid hats

And one more thing. I’m not sure how often I will be able to post this week. I leave for Boston in a little bit to help take care of my mother.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

I love hearing from my readers. I moderate comments to weed out bots.It may take a little while for your comment to appear.

Popular posts from this blog

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...
1 comment
Read more

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...
8 comments
Read more

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 ...
2 comments
Read more