sarah in nyc

 A big job is terrifying, so terrifying that it can make it impossible to move forward. The big job can be less intimidating is you nibble away at the tasks  one at a time. I cut, then pieced and backed strips of the Hanae Mori dress for Ezra and Shay's wedding tallit. The center stripe above is lined in white silk.  The other two are lined in blue. These strips are edged in serged stitching that will soon be covered with embroidered ribbon. To the right you see the atara, painted, backed and edged. Atop the atara are the pinot cut backed and serged. Below are the (unpressed and complete with loose threads) pinot with one pass of machine stitching. Now with two passes of machine embroidery. There will be a third row --to attach the corner pieces to the tallit. And now, the stripes... Here, the narrower stripe is edged with ribbon and the wider stripe is awaiting ribbon. Below, ribbon stacked and stitched and soon be to sewn to the stripe. Yet another ribbon and embroidery...

 About thirty years ago I was wandering through the women's section of the local thrift (This was an old fashioned completely un-curated thrift sore, not a glitzy consignment store, or a  coolvintage store but a dusty, slightly smelly thrift store). Amid the ugly polyester dresses I found this: A black wool dress with massive shoulder pads, lots of snaps and a sweep of a ruffle at the front wrap. It was fabulous--- and it was my size. I bought the dress for either $25 or $28. I had never heard of the designer before.  The dress felt terrific on. I felt like a sexy spacewoman in the dress or the general of an artsy army. Not only did the dress feel great on, it looked good on me.  For years, I wore this dress often. Once the internet entered our home I started researching the designer, Theirry Mugler.  This is what Wikipedia has to say  I was delighted to see the prices that vintage Theirry Mugler garments reached at auctions.  This is a current Etsy li...