A Tiny Clothing Manifesto, Passover Calculus and Food Friday

That's right folks, three topics in one post.

One of my readers often asks me why I don't make haute couture clothing, meaning garments made with lots of complicated and invisible on the outside, inner structure. The simple answer is that I don't wear those sort of garments---by choice.

What I do love to make and wear are garments that are as comfortable as pajamas and can be worn for a range of occasions.

Before we left on our west coast trip I made a trio of new dresses and also brought along another three or four dresses. We were away for twenty one days. We had a range of different activities we participated in from attending synagogue, going to a few fancy dinners, just roaming around. We experienced several different kinds of weather from close to freezing to warm enough to go out without even a light sweater.

All of the dresses I made were worn multiple times, with the exception of the sequin dress I made to wear to the wedding---that one I only wore once.

This dress on the other hand, a simple tube of synthetic suede with a wide cowl neck was worn over and over throughout or trip.

In the photo above you see it with a sequin shrug for a fancy dinner. I wore it with warm sweaters and scarves and with a cute little mesh and leather zip up jacket. I have also worn this dress to scrub the floor, go grocery shopping, attend funerals and synagogue services.

These are the kinds of clothes I love to make and wear.

So what did I make for the trip?

A simple A-line dress in a loose nubbly blue and white knit.

A green and white printed knit. I had cut the front too small so I inserted a panel into a center front. I deliberately cut the panel from a different part of the pattern to create a bit more visual interest. I had thought that I would need brighter clothing for Santa Barbara. I hadn't realized that the local dress code is darker colors for the winter months.

Finally, my vacation new dress collection was rounded out by this dress, a paisley knit that can be worn off the shoulder or on.

Both print dresses are made out of fabric made for a Hawaii based designer.

The clothing that I make fits my life. It isn't haute couture, ( which I would wear seldom or never) but it works for me.

Now for Passover Calculus---

My usual Passover prep schedule has been upended by the fact that we are sponsoring a Kiddush for our synagogue next Shabbat. Of course I am cooking ( along with Sara our co host). Rather than working my way to Old Mother Hubbard's pantry with dwindling supplies so I can start Passover cooking---this Wednesday I am filling my larder full with food that will be lunch for 150 people. served next Shabbat.

I am not at this moment going to be talking about the cookies I am making for a celebration in my building this Monday evening.

My daughter and son in law are coming next Sunday to help me switch the house over the Passover mode. That's great... because i can't do it on my own,but I hadn't scheduled my big Passover shop until a few days later.

I can't cook food that isn't yet in my house. I can't ask my kids to help with the switch during the week because they have actual jobs.

After feeling my head go into tilt over and over I realized that I could get my soup going right after we get the house switched over next Sunday---provided that I get the soup bones delivered before we switch over the house.

OK, I paid too much for the bones but they arrive next Thursday and I can figure out the rest later.

Tonight we are eating beef stew. If I hadn't added enough flavor we can always add some gochujang at the table.

Shabbat Shalom and a bit of a preview for the season.

Barukh Dayan HaEmet - Blessed be the True Judge

In 1986, when I first began working for my synagogue, one of the volunteers was a teeny little Austrian woman. Ida was so little and cute, you could swear you could just put her in your pocket and carry her around. Ida also babysat for a little girl in our community. When I saw the two of them running around together and laughing as if they were both four, I knew that when I had kids, Ida would babysit for my kids. In order to be sure that Ida would take care of my oldest, I told her I was pregnant at the same time I told my mother. Soon after my oldest was born, Ida was ready. She was silly, but she was also Austrian. She had her rules. She would care for a child only until they could walk. She felt that she was too old to chase children. She would work only twelve hours a week. The baby had to be fed, dressed and ready to go out when she showed up. Ida's rules made sense. It taught me, and my oldest, the value of having a schedule. Ida and ...

Two funerals and a birthday

I know that it has been a while since I posted. We went to Boston last weekend to celebrate the bar mitzvah of a family friend. I may post about the weekend in a different post. Two disparate topics in one post is all I can manage today. Yesterday was a busy day and filled with big emotions. We began the day at the funeral of a young man who was a Hebrew School classmate of my older son's. I had such fond, fond memories of the sweet, funny, kind and exceptionally bright young man who also had terrible struggles. I kept remembering the young man both as a delightful child full of promise and the suffering that he and his family have been through for the past many years. I sat with two women whose children attended preschool with the young man. We three held one another in our sorrow. Yesterday was also my husband's birthday. My husband is not someone who wants things. When we were at Bingo---the kosher version of Costco I spotted a large package of ste...

It All Feels Like Yesterday

Today, an oponion piece in the Wall Street Journal had the headline These Days, It All Feels Like Yesterday. It seemed a perfect way to sum up how we live our lives these days. I have been far more willing during this Covid time to do the sort of slow going work that I tend to avoid like the plague during normal times. I have been working away on Max's tallit. I had decided to get the lettering on the atara in a new to me way. Actually, to be completely honest, this is a method I have read about since I was a kid. You draw the design on a bit of what is called "waste fabric". Then you embroider the design and then you pull away the waste fabric thread by thread. The embroidered design remains, but all of your guidelines are gone, as if by magic. I had more or less finished embroidering the letters. (There were little bits of letters I hadn't quite finished but knew that I could add after the purple fabric was pulled away.) I began by picking out all of my red basting ...

sarah in nyc

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