A New Tallit Bag

I've been contemplating making a new  pouch for my prayer shawl. Another blogger that I have followed makes tallits, tallit bags, challah covers, etc. and decorates them with Hebrew calligraphy. I find them delightful and decided that I would attempt the task for this week's post.

When my sweetie and I were married more than 43 years ago, I wore a blue velvet party dress. I still had that dress tucked away in a drawer.

Our wedding photo. Me wearing the blue velvet party dress.

Out came the dress and I set about steaming or trying to steam the wrinkles out of it. Then I proceeded to cut out sections for my bag. The dress also had a lining which I used to line my bag with.  A zipper was installed and I further thought on how I wanted to decorate the bag before I finished sewing it together.

I had a length of  bridal satin that I had been given many years ago that served as background for the script I wanted to use. I confess that I used a Hebrew letter stencil for my script instead of doing my own. The process I used started with stenciling my words on copy paper and filling it the letters with magic markers. Then I taped that paper to my desk and overlaid it with a piece of waxed paper. Over that I placed my satin and taped it down. Using acrylic paints, specifically Luminere by Jaquard and Pearlescent liquid acrylic, I outlined each letter and filled it in with my base paint (blue) and outlined each with silver.

Close up of letters. Blue outlined in silver.

After attaching the satin to the front of the bag with Heat and Bond, I sewed a border of glitzy ribbon around the border. Next I assembled the bag and added the lining.

Barukh attah Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha-olam. Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe.

I love that fact that this was made from a dress that was so important to me. Now it's truly a treasure to be handed down in our family some day.

A Jar Candle 'Snuggy'

Do you have a scented candle housed in a jar? The scent can be very nice if it's a higher quality but all of them have labels that can be rather ugly. And they never go with your decor. I've seen covers for these candles in craft magazines and decided to share my version with you.

I measured the circumference of my jar along with the height that I desired for my jar candle 'snuggy'. I added a 1/4 inch seam allowance to the height measure the top and bottom and extra to the circumference for a healthy overlap for the closing. I cut the fabric I wanted to cover the jar with to the those measurements. A backing was cut, placed face to face with the chosen fabric, then sewn together like a pillow with an opening left to turn it right side out positioning button loops made of trim at the back edge. After turning the piece right side out I then top stitched around the edges of the rectangle. I added a menorah previously stenciled to a different square of fabric on the front and gold trim around the edges. It was finished off with two buttons for closure. I'm sorry I couldn't get a closeup of the stenciled design which, by the way, came from http://www.craftcuts.com/menorah-stencil.html   After stenciling the menorah I added some glitter paint to the candle flames.

For the sewing challenged this could be made by using a heat activated webbing to attach everything together. That is except for the buttons. LOL And you could also use velcro closures instead of buttons. Or you could make the whole thing from felt. I would advise, however, that you remove the snuggy from the jar when having the candle lit. Better safe than sorry.