A successful work vacation

This was a truly successful work vacation---that is shifting my attention to a different piece on my to do list. I finished the tallit last night.

When i posted last time I was most of the way through the embroidering of the letters on the atara.

My next task was removing the flannel onto which I had calligraphed the text In the past I have used cotton batiste or an old cotton sheet as the, (as it is called in the sewing universe) waste fabric that is then carefully pulled away after the embroidery is completed.

Instead, I used the Grateful Dead flannel because it was at hand. The softness of the flannel fivers as opposed to the crisper batiste made removal a bit more difficult.

There is always a period of time when the piece looks like a complete disaster.

As I worked I thought about the many myths and folk tales where doing a long and boring task is a major plot point. I kept my self on task by listening to podcasts and a thumb drive of old recordings of Jean Shepard from the 1950s which was just given to me by a friend.

Like the heroine of the old folk tales, the task was finally completed.

Unlike the folk tales I wasn't assisted by elves or fairies. I am really liking the look of the buttonhole stitches.

So let me return to the construction of the tallit itself.

Creating the stripes on this tallit is a little bit like playing 3D Tic-Tac-Toe. In most sewing the reverse of a piece in hidden.

On this tallit, both sides are visible.

Dense stitches tend to create puckering on thin fabric. I placed the dense stitching only on the black Petersham ribbons.

I could look at this view of the tallit all day long.

When Alan and I discussed what his tallit should look like he mentioned how uncomfortable he was in a bright Ethiopian tallit. We decided that his tallit should look like a standard black and white one from a distance but look increasingly interesting as one moved closer to the tallit.

Here the pinot are backed with fusible fleece for body and marked with chalk for the center hole so i can place the lettering properly.

Alan chose to have the verbs from the biblical text about tzitzit on his pinot. You can see one of the pinot above the completed and not yet sewn on atara. I used silver and bronze metallic threads to embroider the border. The glimmer is pretty subtle.

Tallitot are usually sold on the internet showing the tallit folded so only the striped section shows. This tallit was designed not to look at flat but how it looks in use.