sarah in nyc

This year my kids decided to go as the three kids in the cartoon series “ Bob’s Burgers”. My youngest is going as Louise Belcher, the youngest child in the family. I was drafted into making the costume. I made the bunny hat last night. I used the hood of my older son’s sweatshirt as more or less the pattern. The cotton lycra jersey was in my stash. I’m really proud of the bunny ears. I used cardboard from a granola bar carton to give the ears shape. I didn’t own any chartreuse knit fabric so I paid a visit to Kabbala Man and bought the rayon jersey. I used an existing T- shirt of my son’s to draft the dress. He’s pleased with the result. I think my son may keep the beard although I will be drafted to put his hair in pigtails. While I was in the garment district one of the stores on 8th Avenue was selling  big spools of gold metallic thread and other notions in industrial sized rolls. They charged me $6 per cone ( and $5 for the opened blue cone). I have paid as much as $...

I know I tend to make clothing quickly. Recently though I have rediscovered a cut of dress that I used to wear in my early 20’s.   The wedge shaped dresses of the early 1980’s were made for my body. While I am a whole lot heavier than I was in those days, my body is more or less the same shape. I have noticed both on other sewing blogs as well as on the fashion blogs that those simple dress shapes have returned.  Last year I had gone to an exhibit at FIT about Japanese fashion and those simple shapes popularized by the Japanese designers in the early 1980’s suddenly looked both fresh and grown up.   I also realize that while I crave screaming bright colors in the summer, the colder months have me craving grey. Grey! It’s so cheerful! It’s my cold weather happy color. Much of my colder weather wardrobe has been worn to death. It was time to make cold weather clothing.   This space dyed knit, made out of a mystery fiber, was my first experiment in a wed...

The High Holiday season means that work weeks are compressed.   There is a whole lot more cooking to be done, and everything else needs to be squeezed into two fewer days. Sometimes this makes me feel overwhelmed. Other times I get filled with energy and work really well.   My youngest wants to attend New York Comicon dressed like this character King of All Cosmos . My son is planning to make the neck tube on his own, but he asked me to make him the jacket and sash.   He goes to school just south of the garment district. we decided to meet on the corner of 39th and 8th Avenue and fabric shop.   My son hates shopping. Even choosing between two pairs of pants on line gets him quickly overwhelmed.   I got there early and realized that the whole experience would be easier if I swatched just a few fabric choices and  let my son choose.    In the few minutes I had I quickly looked through the stock at three stores but had th...

There is a group of stores in the fabric district run under different names but managed by the same group of people. The men who run the stores wear giant kippot, are of Sephardi extraction but are also followers of the Lubavicher Rebbe. If you enter one of their stores early in the morning, you are likely to have the sonic treat of hearing the Psalms of the day chanted in the melodic modes of the Sephardic traditions broadcast over the PA system. One of the men who works in these stores keeps a complete set of the Zohar by the cash register to read  when things are quiet in the store. Because of  this off-time study of Kabbala, I call this confederation of stores "Kabbala Man". The locations of the Kabbala Man stores shift. There used to be two on 35th street. Now there is just one. For a while there was a location on 37th street. But there are now two locations on 39th street in addition,to the one on 35th street. How can you tell when you have arrived at a Kabbala ...

My sewing student often uses fabric that I have on hand, in my stash for the garments that she makes for herself. I have also introduced her to the wonders of Internet fabric shopping. I thought that it was time that she was introduced to the wonders of the fabric district. We went to both stores managed by Kabbala Man. My student loved hearing the lecture on the Torah portion of the week that was being broadcast  on the store's PA system. My student found a black sheer knit with a solid stripe. Budding designer that she is, she knew exactly what that fabric needed to be as soon as she set eyes on it ( a sheer over dress to wear over a black slip dress). She wanted two yards but there were three left on the bolt, so my student was introduced to the wonders of bolt end pricing and got three yards for $5. In the end she spent every penny she brought with her. Her other purchases were a turquoise rayon jersey, a black rayon/poly jersey  for the under-slip for the dress she has de...

This fabric was an impulse purchase at Kabbala Man's. It is a soft drapey knit with a bit of a nap. Kabbala man claims that it is a cotton. It feels like it might be a rayon /cotton blend. I loved the early 1970's vibe that this fabric has. I bought two yards. It has a cozy feel. So what do you think I ought to make out of this fabric? Let me know. Post your suggestion in the comments section. In addition to letting me know the type of garment, ( skirt, jacket etc.) also describe the style of garment so I have a clear idea of what you think would work best with this fabric. Thanks.