sarah in nyc

On the work completed front, Jane came to pick up her tallit. I was delighted to see how pleased she was with the finished piece. Like with all my clients, I showed Jane how to tie her tzitzit. Most people find it a bit of a struggle at first. After all, it is a new skill. Sometimes I have to be a bit more hands on as the tzitzit were being tiedif people are struggling.  Jane's hands were just so deft. All I had to do was watch her tie the knots.  When Jane was about half way through tying her tzitzit she commented how the work she was putting in made her realize how much time and work I had put into the tallit. I had put in lots of time. Each step raised questions about the best way of solving the problems presented. Some of the problems had me puzzling out the solutions for a couple of weeks before I could continue.  However, I could not be happier with how it all came together in the end. I love how this piece honors Jane's grandmother and great gran...

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...

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...