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
Deborah Katchko-Gray is a professional cantor and accomplished needle artist. When she’s not weaving melodies with her voice she’s weaving embroidery thread, creating Judaica with a technique called Swedish weaving. Swedish weaving is a type of embroidery in which the stitches are worked on the surface of the fabric. Rather than the needle passing to … Continue reading
Here’s a huge thanks to all the Jewish authors and the publishers who bring Jewish books to life. To mark this year’s Jewish Book Month, I’ve gathered a group of Jewish book recommendations for your bookshelf (and kitchen shelf). Most of the selections are new this year, but for the Jewish sewing and needle craft … Continue reading
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
This month, when so many students are going back to school, seems like the perfect time to highlight Rachel Braun’s book, Embroidery and Sacred Text: New Designs in Judaic Needlework, in which Rachel draws on principles of mathematics to develop needlework designs that explore Jewish spirituality. Rachel teaches high school math and statistics, and she’s … Continue reading
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
Surprisingly, matzah print fabric rose up to become the theme of the week in my studio. It started with a project from Cathy Perlmutter’s new book. Then the matzah cover won the most popular sewing pattern in the shop. And then someone asked when the matzah cover kits would be back in stock. There was … Continue reading
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
Let’s talk about that moment in a sewing project when you’re about to make that first cut in your fabric. It can be intimidating. Sometimes it can be downright scary. And sometimes that fear is enough to stop a project in its tracks. I’ve had sewing students tell me they’d pay someone just to stand … Continue reading
This is the season when the weekly Torah portion returns several times to the subject of the Tabernacle the Israelites built after leaving Egypt. Building the Tabernacle was a community project that involved sewing, weaving, and embroidery, among other crafts. I thought this would be a great time to post an excerpt from the introduction … Continue reading
This Fabric Friday’s selection is Robert Kaufman Fabrics’ Kona Cotton in the color “Wheat,” to coordinate with the matzah print fabric you probably already have in your stash. I walked into one of my local quilt shops this earlier this week, not sure if I would find a color that would coordinate well with my … Continue reading
When looking for Jewish design inspiration, illustrated Jewish manuscripts offer a treasure trove of themes and forms. And now, the British Library has made dozens of illustrated manuscripts from the Middle Ages accessible online through the Hebrew Manuscripts Digitisation Project. Within the digitized collection you’ll find hand calligraphed Passover Haggadahs, daily prayer books, Kabbalistic texts, … Continue reading
Thank you, Stephanie, for sharing this beautiful handmade full-size tallit, personalized through a mix of creative techniques. Stephanie started with the tallit instructions in the Sew Jewish book, choosing the variations for the full-size tallit. Then she sewed on ribbons for stripes in a mix of blues, purples, and teal. She used fabric paint to … Continue reading
This Sukkot I got the chance to lead a workshop for the Beacon Sukkah Project, a Sukkot-long program of arts and lectures organized by the Beacon Hebrew Alliance and Beacon Arts in Beacon, New York. To fit this year’s theme, “Open to the Sky,” I led an introduction to drawn thread embroidery, and thought I’d … Continue reading
During the festival of Sukkot we eat in the sukkah, visit with family and friends in the sukkah, and sometimes, so I’ve heard, sleep in the sukkah, although I’ve never done that. Why not sew in the sukkah? Particularly during the intermediate days of the festival when we’re less likely to be entertaining friends for … Continue reading
You’ve probably heard of Grandma Moses, the American artist who started painting at the age of 78. But did you know that painting wasn’t Grandma Moses’ first creative vocation? Years before she took up painting she captured the landscapes and rural life around her through embroidery. Grandma Moses became famous for her folk art paintings … Continue reading
This topic requires a bit of a personal story. One of my favorite pieces of Judaica in the world is an 18th century Turkish Torah ark curtain –parochet—in the collection of the Jewish Museum London. The curtain is a red flannel wool richly embroidered in gold with Biblical and classical imagery: a city –Instanbul, perhaps, … Continue reading
So you’ve finished making the main body of your tallit —or tallis, prayer shawl— and you’re ready to add the corner pieces, the square pieces of fabric that decorate the corners of the tallit and help reinforce the holes for the tzitzit strings. Does it matter how close to the edges of the tallit you … Continue reading
