sarah in nyc

 We just got back from California last night. I took a fairly small wardrobe for the trip (five changes of clothes for fifteen days).  One of the mainstays of my vacation wardrobe was this dress. It's a variant of  below is the schematic for the dress. the One Hour Dress developed by the brilliant  Mary Brooks Picken . The One Hour Dress is cut with wide sides that are gathered at the hips to give the wearer walking ease. I had read an article about the one hour dress years ago and tried to make the dress following the directions to pleat the sides. The final look was hugely unflattering on me but when I let the wide sides fall naturally then I ended up with a really flattering dress that looked much more complicated than it actually was. Made in a knit I can whip up one of these dresses  not in an hour, but in something closer to twenty minutes. My sister in law fell in love with this dress as did our friend Lisa who asked me for the pattern. I don't have a pat...

The weather has changed. It is now officially  gross and muggy NYC summer.   Amazon.com Widgets I had been itching to make a dress but I had too much work on my plate.  Today I scratched that dress making itch. It's a cowl -front dress with six waist darts for shaping. The fabric was purchased a couple of years ago from Kashi at Metro textiles. Kashi told me to buy this fabric, and I listened. It's a cool to wear rayon knit. When I bought the fabric I had been entirely in love with the print. I am slightly less in love with it now.  It is cool  and I can wear it and not wilt. If you want a diagram for cutting the dress just let me know. This morning my husband and I attended the funeral of the mother of a friend. It was nice after the batch of funerals we had attended of people who had died far too young to be at the funeral of someone who had lived to be ninety five. There were aspects of the death and of the funeral planning and the funeral itself ...

The same way that I keep cooking variations on the same chicken dish, (the same technique just flavored differently). I will often use the same basic dress shape over and over. Amazon.com Widgets This simple shape for an a-line cap sleeved dressis a staple in my wardrobe.  A couple of months a go I did a version that reminded me of a Boston Bruins uniform.  Last week I pulled out a length of dense patterned sweater knit from my stash and there wasn't quite enough for a dress for me. I pieced a strip of a black and white patterned sweater knit to the top edge of the fabric. I then cut the pieced fabric into a dress shape. This is the result.A simple dress that has garnered tons of compliments. It's dead simple but  graphically packs a punch. One of my neighbors complimented me on the dress and suggested that I make several more of them in different fabrics. I think I may have five other dresses cut in exactly the same shape. A length of black floc...

My mornings begin these days with morning minyan. I usually take my camera with me because I like to capture a bit of something that appeals to my eye. In retrospect I realize that what I have chosen to photograph makes my neighborhood look far lusher and more beautiful than it might to most people walking down Broadway. I was in love with the quality of the light. I love the thin translucent  leaves of spring. The health food store leases it’s sidewalk space to the flower vendor. By yesterday, we had come to the end of the challot I had baked for Shavuot. I made bagels. A couple of years ago a cousin had eaten some of my bread and asked it if baking it required complicated equipment. This is all you need beyond a cup, spoon, bowl, and baking sheet for making bagels. You use the spatula to lift the boiled bagels from the boiling water ( with added brown sugar). The baked bagels need to be tested by my sons to see if they taste good. This b...

I had bought the fabric for this dress from the dollar fabrics at Fabric Mart , as a segula, an amulet so I wouldn’t die during surgery. I guess my $2 investment in magical thinking worked. I didn't die.  I thought it was time to make good on the magical thinking and make the dress, especially because I’m going to be spending most of the week in Boston with my mother. If I want to wear the dress for Rosh Ha Shanah I had better get to work. This is the basic diagram for the dress. This dress is most easily made with a knit but could work made with a bias cut woven. The back and front are cut the same. I cut both layers of fabric at the same time. Most of the shaping in this dress is not done by complicated seaming darting, but by the shape of my body. I cut the dress with a bunch of ease at the bust, so it drapes, less at the hips so it clings. Here is the version I made last night out of a fabric that had come from a mystery bundle a few years back.  The fabric cost near...