sarah in nyc

Today I was asked to fix a Torah mantle.  If you only looked at the top of the mantle you would think that it looked like it was in good shape.  The bottom inch or so was completely looked chewed up.The velvet had worn away. In fact, the last couple of inches at one of the sides was completely gone. The mantle was made out of a shade of plum velvet that was popular during the late 1980's and would be difficult if not impossible to match. I thought that I could construct a ribbon to cover all of the ugly bits. I began by stitching two rows of plum velvet ribbon to the navy blue grosgrain.using a bronze metallic thread. it was a good beginning but not quite enough. I then noticed the embroidered border of grapes at the top of the mantle. So I painted a row of grapes in the center of the ribbon. It took a while. I sewed the ribbon onto the mantle and patched up some of the really grotty bits on the inside of the mantle. I noticed that th...

I have been working away on the tallitot for the twins. there have been nights where I have laid awake in bed trying to problem solve. So at this point: One tallit is complete with stripes turned and top stitched One tallit has it’s stripes complete. The tallit is stitched together but still needs to be turned and top stitched One atara is complete One is nearly so One set of pinot are done These are the stripes on one of the tallitot. This is the evolution of one of the atarot.  First I painted the text on the grosgrain ribbon. Then I couched metallic thread for the border. I decided to add a hand couched motif on each end. I began with a circle, and then thought that a bit more was needed. This is what I ended up with. Couching, that is stitching down cording with thread is a great way to use threads that are otherwise too difficult to embroider. In this case, I used two otherwise impossible to use threads. The spool with the heavier thread is a rayon Lur...