sarah in nyc

There is a school of thinking in Constitutional Law that believes in original intent. That is they try to intuit what the founding fathers were actually thinking and then base their own legal rulings based on that original intent. While I am not of the school of original intent when it comes to American law, sewing in the manner that I do, I do end up stumbling onto  the clothing equivalent of original intent.     About ten years ago my youngest attended school on Madison  Avenue. Yes, that Madison Avenue.  Once after a teacher conference, I walked uptown on Madison Avenue .  During my walk I noticed that a fancy lingerie store was having a giant sale.  One of the life lessons I learned from my mother is that you should always check out a sale in a really fancy store. Listening to my mother paid off. On the $25 rack was a beautiful white spa robe. I needed a new bathrobe.   I took the robe to the cashier. The cashier became all flu...

The holes on the back of this dyed dress, were actually quite alarming. I figured that I could repair or camouflage them, but I hadn’t quite figured out a plan of action.   As you can see, the situation was pretty terrible. My initial thought  was to hide the holes underneath black  crochet work or  black lace. I even made one rosette out of black lace. There were some smaller holes though, and I started darning them one at a time.  I did my darning while the dress was on the dress form. This actually made the job far easier.  I started with the smaller holes and worked my way up to the larger holes.   Given the Depression era look of the dress, working away on darning the dress seemed entirely appropriate.  I was aided in my efforts with a darning egg. The darning egg was given to me by a client who has become a friend.  It had belonged to her very handy mother.this is the first time I used the darning egg.  It helped ...

My friend Naamah is tall and willowy. She also is a wonderful dresser.  Naamah’s  daughter has a completely different, but also lovely shape, and completely different style of dressing. Although my daughter is not tall. her shape is more similar to Naamah’s. My daughter also has a similar sense of style. So my daughter has been inheriting some wonderful clothing from Naamah. This dress came in the latest batch of clothing. I think that it must be from the mid 1970’s. It’s knit from a mystery fiber ( a cotton synthetic blend), and edged with hand done crochet in cotton. it has a French label. My daughter loved the dress. It’s perfect to wear swing dancing.  She loved the 1930’s vibe of the dress.   She hated the color. Naamah’s coloring is like Snow White’s. The soft green is dramatic against her black hair. These sorts of soft colors do my daughter no favors.     My daughter asked me to dye the dress a dark color, any dark color. Two b...

When my daughter was in 8th or 9th grade I bought her a little cashmere blend cropped sweater in grey. She loved that sweater. So, when the neck wore out a few years ago, I crocheted over the  ripped neckline in a soft angora blend marled gray wool. My daughter finally admitted that she had worn that sweater to death of the past nearly ten years.  She asked me to keep an eye out for a replacement sweater. I remembered that I had a crew necked merino wool sweater similar to this one http://www.woolovers.us/cashmere-merino/womens/cashmere-ladies-crew-neck.aspx?cse=shoppingusa . The wool was lovely, but the shape was not very flattering. I decided to turn the unflattering sweater into my daughter's new shrug. It isn't hard to do this transformation. I  didn’t take photos as I worked, so my drawings will have to do. I cut the sweater on the dotted lines.  First I cut the sweater  East-West  at a point that made sense to me. Then I cut open the fro...

I was invited to exhibit my work at this conference What to Wear- Women, Clothing, Religion .  I’m really excited. It’s a good fit for me. Much of my work is made for women. When I was asked to exhibit  at the conference, I came up with this piece, a head covering to wear while lighting Shabbat candles that is covered with  the prayer recited by women with special requests from the divine. Several years ago I came up with this. Arba kanfot, Tzitzit for women. Yes, it is a very limited market, but it’s my market. Anyway, I needed to make some more sets  of Arba kanfot.  I decided to use a silk camisole that was a hand me down from a neighbor.  I liked  the camisole because the construction was so cool. It was cut in two sections, but not as one might expect with a front and a back, but rather two entirely differently shaped  wedges that fit together to make the garment. I cut apart the camisole, copied the pattern pieces onto newspa...

There isn’t too much that feels better than cashmere on the skin. I am always on the look out for cashmere sweaters in the thrift stores. A bad shape or an unfortunate color don’t detract a whole lot from a well priced sweater.  Any sweater can be re shaped or dyed, to suit my taste.   It’s generally warm in New York City apartments. I nearly always have a few windows open in my apartment, even on the coldest days. I usually wear a sleeveless dress topped by a cotton sweater while at home. When I go out I switch to a warmer wool, often cashmere cardigan.     I found this very pink cashmere v-neck at the Salvation Army this summer. It was half price.  I put it on yesterday for the first time over an orange paisley dress. I realized that I just wasn’t going to wear it  very often unless it was turned into a cardigan.   I folded the sweater in half and lined up the side seams to be sure that I would actually cut along the center front prop...

This is what I gave my youngest for lunch. Inside the foil wrapped package is a cheddar cheese sandwich on home baked challah. The eye balls and lips are left over from Halloween. This image made me laugh all day long. Meanwhile, my daughter has an interview tomorrow at DVF. She called me to help her put together an outfit that would work for who they are. Of course, my daughter does not own any DVF  clothing. My daughter is interviewing for an internship in accessories. We looked at the current line of scarves online.  ( the DVF images from http://www.dvf.com/ ) We also looked at the dresses. They had a late 1970’s vibe. My daughter didn’t own quite the right dress. I did have a dress that a neighbor had given me that was the right look. My daughter tried it on. It looked dowdy.  I  ran the dress through the serger cutting the dress down by a couple of inches at each side seam. The result was this: My daughter was happy with the reshaped dress. ...

The local Salvation Army was having a half-price sale. ( Hurray!!!)  I picked up several cashmere sweaters. None cost more than $6. My husband got an orange v-necked sweater that was too big for him, so I serged it down to his size. The sweater looked awful on him until it was altered. Now it looks pretty spiffy. I loved the color of this periwinkle blue cashmere turtleneck. I don't wear turtlenecks all that often, because like most New York apartments, my apartment is often over heated. If I were living back in Boston, I would be wearing turtlenecks all the time. I knew I would be cutting the sweater open to make a cardigan. I just wasn't sure how I would edge it. I went with a fold over elastic. For those of you who don't sew, that's the satiny elastic that often is used to edge polar-fleece. I'm not sure if I love the edging. It will do for now. If I come up with a more clever idea I will replace the elastic with something cuter. I have reached the point w...

My oldest has always loved dress-up. Dressing in costume was just a big part of her life from the time she was really teeny. When she was little, maybe, three or four, she used to get all dressed up at the end of the day in the black lace bathrobe Mrs. Garcia gave my mother in law as a post surgery gift, a set of wings, a babushka and high heels, and wait in the lobby of our building for her father to come home from work. Once a cranky neighbor took a look at my daughter in one of her get-ups and snottily commented " Is it Halloween?". I replied, "No, it's Tuesday."  In our house, dress up was an every day activity. My daughter still has more fun with clothes than anyone I know. People ask me if she sews. The answer is, on occasion. Halloween is approaching. it's also my daughter's birthday, and so for her, a really big deal. Two years ago, she bought herself a boy's Batman costume to wear at an event in college. Since then,. her friends associat...