If you’re hosting a Passover Seder this year, bring new energy to your table by creating unique table linens with prints designed by indie designers on the custom fabric website Spoonflower. Continue reading
Category Archives: Holidays
Miriam’s Song Matzah Cover Pattern for Your Passover Seder
This Passover sewing pattern features Miriam, the big sister of Moses, and the women who danced with her to celebrate their exodus from ancient Egypt. It’s a festive matzah cover for your Passover Seder called Miriam’s Song. Continue reading
New Pattern: Doll Size Kippah
As I write this, my thoughts are filled with the just-finished festival season and a new collection of holiday memories: a chilly Rosh Hoshanah Tashlich ceremony at Manhattan’s East River, a quiet Yom Kippur, and Sukkot’s scents of etrog and myrtle. Even as I hold on to fresh memories of these autumn festivals, my mind … Continue reading
Hebrew Letter Fabric Panel – Easy as Aleph-Bet-Gimmel
Aleph, bet, gimmel. This fabric design features the 22 letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet and three Jewish symbols: a dove, a Star of David, and a hamsa for good fortune. When I started offering pre-printed fabric panels of this design in the SewJewish Etsy shop I announced it in the newsletter, but only when those … Continue reading
New Pattern: King David’s Jerusalem Passover Matzah Cover
Make your own Passover matzah cover with this sewing pattern featuring King David’s Jerusalem. Continue reading
How to Make a Cuddly Rag Quilt
Guest sewist Susan Yaskin explains how to make a rag quilt, like these Jewish-theme quilts she made for her granddaughters as Hanukkah gifts. Making a rag quilt is faster and easier than making a classic quilt, and if the idea of quilting a whole blanket at once seems intimidating, then making a rag quilt may … Continue reading
For Brides, Pilgrims, and a Certain Angel: The Wreath as a Jewish Decoration and Symbol
Wreaths are not a major motif in Judaism, but Jews used wreaths as holiday decorations and wedding accessories even in antiquity, when the Temple stood in Jerusalem. Although today wreaths are strongly associated with Christmas, Jews made wreaths for Shavuot and other festive occasions before the birth of Jesus. And as a symbol, the wreath … Continue reading
The Rose as a Jewish Symbol
Roses are red, or yellow, or blueish, But did you know they can also be Jewish? OK, that was kind of corny. And we all know roses come in a lot more colors, like white or pink or peach. But the rose’s status as a Jewish symbol is less well known. A Symbol of God’s … Continue reading
Where to Buy Matzah Print Fabric
Online sources to order matzah print fabric for your fabulous Passover projects. Continue reading
Make a Hoopla! Add a Back to an Embroidery Project and Hang it Up
Have you ever finished an embroidery project and wanted to hang it up using the hoop as the frame? Use these instructions to add a back to a hooped embroidery project and give it a finished look. Add a ribbon, and it’s ready for hanging on a wall or window. For the hoopla in the … Continue reading
Sewing Book Review: Stitch-a-hedron! Is Just Plane Fun
Get Stitch-a-hedron! in paperback (Amazon) or PDF (Etsy). Stitch-a-hedron! the latest book by Cathy Perlmutter, is just plain fun. Or maybe that should be fun with planes, as in flat surfaces. All the projects in the book are based on polyhedrons, three-dimensional shapes made from flat surfaces. Combine six squares and eight hexagons, for example, … Continue reading
How to Play the Dreidel Game – The Rules in Fabric and Thread
It’s Hanukkah season and here’s your dreidel game refresher in fabric and thread. There are lots of variations, but this is the classic version as I learned it. Good luck! Start the Game At the start of each round all players put a chocolate coin into the center pot. The first player spins the dreidel, … Continue reading
This Cell Phone Bag Is Ready to Ship for Hanukkah
Did Hanukkah sneak up on you, too? Heck, even Thanksgiving snuck up on me. Only yesterday I realized I needed to check in with my kids on which foods they’d like for Thanksgiving. Then I realized Hanukkah starts only 10 days later. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for Hanukkah sewing. For folks who … Continue reading
Personalize Your Cell Phone Sleeping Bag
Personalize your cell phone sleeping bag, the cut-and-sew project available at Spoonflower (Cell Phone Sleeping Bag Cut-and-Sew Project), by adding your name with embroidery. You can use an electronic embroidery machine, of course, and you can also embroider a name by hand. If you’re giving the bag as a gift, a hand-embroidered name gives your … Continue reading
Honeycomb Place Mat Sewing Pattern {Free PDF Pattern}
Sew a set of honeycomb place mats for your Rosh Hoshanah table and get ready for a sweet new year. These mats would be great in the sukkah, too. This is a simple pattern, easy to sew, and it’s a free pattern to boot. L’shanah tovah! Wishing you a good year! Materials Recommended fabrics: The … Continue reading
Hanukkah Sewing Pattern: Soft Toy Dreidel
Even the little ones can get in on the holiday fun with their own soft toy dreidel. An you can get the PDF pattern in the shop! This dreidel sports the traditional Hebrew letters and a pointed bottom just like a classic dreidel, but in soft toy form. The letters are machine appliqued, and I’ll … Continue reading
New Passover Matzah Cover Pattern
The dream: make a matzah cover that looks like a piece of matzah. For more than a year the idea had been kicking around the back of my mind, and after two months of getting the pattern just right –as well as figuring out how to photograph it– the dream is now a reality. You … Continue reading
We’ve Got a Sewing Class for the New Matzah Cover Pattern
I know we’re in Purim mode at the moment, but we’ve just set the date for a Passover matzah cover sewing class at Beetle and Fred that you might want to put on your calendar. The class will be on Sunday, March 11 from 11am to 1pm. Beetle and Fred is located on Main Street … Continue reading
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