sarah in nyc

Today is a challah baking week. When your dough looks like this, it's time to braid your challot. Here they are post-braiding and before the second rise. Yes, they do grow both during the rise and during their time in the oven. We have dear friends spending the weekend with us. It's a treat to spend time with them. I have been thinking about what to make for dessert. One of the cookbooks I inherited from my mother was a Jewish  community cookbook from Potomac, Maryland. I was ready to throw it away. It was mostly filled with the worst of 1970's cookery. The daughter in law of my mother's cousin was the cookbook coordinator. I decided to give the cookbook one more look before I tossed or donated it. I am glad I took that second look. I found a strudel recipe from my mother's cousin. It looked good and I had hoped to make that strudel today. I suppose I could have made it, but Friday's are still on the short side so I will wait a...

I'm really proud of this piece. So you get to see lots of pictures of it. Amazon.com Widgets I love how the gold silk sets off the lace. Because I added stripes to the under side of the tallit, when the tallit is flipped over the shoulders it still reads as a striped tallit. I used the scalloped borders at the outer edges of the tallit. and scalloped the backing. When the tallit is worn with the sides down this is what the stripe pattern looks like, a mix of vintage gold ribbon, machine embroidery and hand couched gold ribbon.  These are the back corner pieces, constructed out of the lace, the monogram and a bit of hand cording. Thread marking the eyelet. Jane comes on Monday to tie the tzitzit. I had an extra gallon of milk in the fridge. So I turned it into a soft cheese. The end result was very much like that fancy cloudlike ricotta cheese you buy in fancy grocery stores. I decided to turn it into lasagna f...

Jack's tallit is complete. The whole thing came together quickly and easily. That's not something that I can assume. I will show you photos of the whole tallit in it's glory in another post. Jane's tallit made of the antique lace looks beautiful and keeps presenting technical challenges. It's time to make the eyelets. Normally this is a piece of cake. I use an X-acto knife to make little cross cuts , stitch around the resulting hole and then finish with a button hole stitch. This time, well not so easy. The place where it makes the most sense to put the eyelets onthe face of the tallit included crochet lace ( danger of unraveling) ad also a seam with layers and layers of fabric which just makes things hard to do. I am part of an online sewing discussion group that is populated with really smart people who know far more than I do about some of the more arcane aspects of sewing. Sometimes the discussions are far too technical for me or focu...

This year is a leap year on the Jewish calendar. That means that there are two of the month of Adar named appropriately, Adar I and Adar II. Judaism is a legalistic religion  and like all matters of law there is more than one way to look at a legal question. Amazon.com Widgets My mother died on the 10th of Adar last year, a year of only one Adars. I had to figure out which was the right day to mark my mother's yarhzeit. My sisters and I discussed the matter a bit and decided that we each needed to consult our own rabbi.  My sister's rabbi said that she needed to mark the yarhzeit on the first Adar. My rabbi had a different answer. He said that I should say kaddish, and light a candle on the second Adar but in some way mark the day on the first Adar. Today is the day. My oldest sister went to shul last night and this morning and brought breakfast this morningfor the people who showed up at morning minyan to honor my mother. Her minyan is also making tomorrow's ...

I had been reading about  this exhibit  at the met and decided to go, despite the snow. The Costume Institute after years and years of staging costume exhibits where it was nearly impossible to see the clothing is finally beginning to exhibit garments so they can be looked at as opposed to drowning the exhibits in special effects. Jacqueline de Ribes was a rich lady with good taste. Even when she bought clothes from the couture hoses she used to work closely with the designers to makes the clothing work better for her. Eventually, she opened her own design house. I loved the dress in the center of this photograph. The side panels of the skirt are pulled over the front bodice forming both a cape and the gathered bodice.  The sleeves on this gown are gathered loops of fabric. I loved how the button stand curves around the body. If you follow the link above to the exhibition page, you can see this dress on the runway in purple.  I think I prefe...

Often people are surprised that I do all of my own sewing, that I don't contract contract out my work or at least hire assistants.  I think there is an assumption out there that the designer comes up with a sketch and that is the smart work and then the "little hands" as they are known in the French couture world brainlessly bring the ideas of the designer to fruition. Amazon.com Widgets I am both ends of the equation, I both come up with the big ideas and do every bit of the sewing. I find that this is in fact a strength. I have discovered over and over again that only with the actual manipulation of the materials I am able to elevate my work to something just better than it would be if I handing off the sewing to someone else. Right now I am finishing up two tallitot, Jane's which is made out of precious family textiles and Jack's which is being made out of all new materials. Yesterday each of these projects presented me with a moment where I realize...