Retro bride: a sewing pattern from the 70sWhile your taste has probably evolved beyond a veil made of a pillowcase and dandelions, the DIY spirit of childhood can still apply to a grown-up wedding. Here are some tips for the crafty brides (and grooms) out there:

• From Martha Stewart, a custom made pouch to hold the glass that the groom smashes at the end of the ceremony.
• The Knot explains the basics of creating a homemade floral centerpiece.
• Take DIY a step further by sewing your own wedding dress using these vintage patterns.
• Finally, here’s a guide to making your own chuppah, and new uses for the canopy after the wedding.

Jewish Origami: Oy.I can almost guarantee this is totally not the sort of thing darling Jewcy had in mind when "On The Nightstand Thursday" was hatched, I'm sure. But, this week, shuffling through book after book, trying to find just the right, heavy, thought-provoking title to share with all of you, I found these early on and kept coming back to them. Was it the paper hammentaschen? Maaayyyyybe. The little horrible stereotype of a shrugging guy made from folded paper on the cover? Maaaaaayyyyyyyyybe. An any event, I couldn't let this one go, so humor me. I promise you a more impassioned essay of greater intellectual clout next week. But for now: Jewish Origami.

The first book I found was Jewish Holiday Origami by Joel Stern. Tracking down a copy and giving it a whirl, I have to admit challenging as it may be, making tiny origami Torah scrolls might be my new thing. It might. It was fairly easy to follow and didn't make me feel like a complete paper-folding failure, so I liked it. What to do with all of my efforts, I wondered? Well, there's no shortage of tiny Jewish kids on my radar, and they were at first curious, then amazed, then delighted to shred, stomp, hide and otherwise enjoy their paper treasures. My cat was pretty gung-ho about a few things, but lost interest once he realized they weren't too stalkable.

So, I moved on to Jewish Origami by Florence Temko. I kind of sucked at making the tiny origami dreidels, but there was some improvement with each. So, I tried out Jewish Origami II, and had a bit less success, but all in all, I have to admit my Jewish origami experience was kind of fun. So, run right out and try it for yourself and totally, completely impress your friends silly with your folding-savvy.  Plus, you know, if I'm not the only one doing Jewish origami, I'll feel a little less-weird about it all. Heh.

Rejoice in thy recipes, for TasteBook has launched! The beta site offers users a place to find, store, and organize recipes, but that's not all: Also available is the opportunity to self-publish your own customized, hardcover cookbooks.

TasteBook has two key features: first, it simplifies searching for recipes online by indexing recipes from all over the Web into one list of search results. It then allows people to select recipes from those search results and print them out in a professional-looking cookbook.

In addition to being able to publish your own recipes this way, TasteBook has partnered with Epicurious to provide an initial 25,000 recipes--a number that will greatly expand to include recipes from various other sites starting in early 2008.

People can automatically import their Epicurious recipe boxes and can also upload their own recipes and include them in the books they print.

For $34.95, a user can print a hardcover binder with handpicked cover art and up to 100 recipes with their own comments added. If all 100 recipes aren't used initially, TasteBook will issue credits for the remaining recipes, which can be printed out later and added to the binder or sent to friends.

Sounds like craft time!

I stumbled across a beautiful Shabbes quilt not long ago, and when I inquired about it, I was pointed towards various resources online for Jewcy-crafty types. I had no idea! Anyway, sewing and general Martha Stewarting (I know, I know, I want to resent her, too, but sister makes some great stuff) is sort of a secret pleasure of mine, so here's what I know:

For some inspiration, try my two faves: hit the campy and wonderful Judaikitsch: Tchotchkes, Schmattes & Nosherei by Jennifer Traig for projects like the Neil Tzedekah Box and a beaded matzah purse. With a description of "what would happen if Martha Stewart was abducted by a tribe of trailer park rabbis"--- it's obviously useful and hilarious. Then check out Jewish Holiday Style by Rita "Jewish Martha Stewart" Milos Brownstein. A few other good reads you might find some inspiration in: Jewish Holiday Crafts for Little Hands by Ruth Esrig Brinn, and Jewish Holiday Treats: Recipes and Crafts for the Whole Family by Joan Zoloth & Lisa Hubbard.

The Pomegranate Guild members are reviving Jewish traditions and stories through their work with textiles, here we read about Marci Greenberg’s “Knitting by Torah” project, and here is a great article about Knitzvah, Skitch & Kvetch (modified from the popular Stitch and Bitch) and Not Your Bubbie’s Yarn. (And check out this alef-bet chart.)

Quilted Quickest Sewer Upper: Who wants to sew this for me? Kidding! Sort of.

The fabulous Dreidel Crafts offers Jewcy-themed buttons, a nice selection of rubber stamps, several clasps and charms, appliqués, quilt supplies, fabric, candy molds, and on and on. Such great stuff. So fun. And they even offer gorgeous quilting patterns, like this Torah Quilt and tons of other Jewcy quilt designs. Here Elizabeth Rosenberg sells patterns for her stunning quilts, (Oh, speaking of Jewish quilting, read this interesting piece about Jewish and Palestinian quilters coming together for a peace quilt.) Fancy Delancy by the way, specializes in hard-to-find Jewcy fabrics.

Blackwork Archives has these beautiful pomegranate needlepoint patterns (Rosh HaShanah napkins next year anyone?) while Crafty Needle has several patterns for tallis bags and needlepoint. And, will you get a load of these DIY wedding resources? This from Do-It-Yourself Weddings and this from Martheleh Stewart. Rumor has it, The Artful Bride by April Paffrath and Laura McFadden is a really great DIY wedding book, but, uh, yeah, I'm no authority on weddings, yo.

Chadis Crafts offers all sorts of tribey bead projects like adorable “beadie” dreidles that would surely be a hit with kids. A DIY seder plate would be a cute project, too. For more fun resources for kids’ projects, Making Friends has a jewish crafts section, (I say “kids’ projects” but, hello?, I’d totally make the Magen David napkin rings.) and this dreidel would be a cute projects for a bit older kids. Then again, a friend of mine decoupaged beautiful dreidels a year or two ago, so maybe we can have just as much fun as the wee ones on the dreidel craft department. I mean, even Martheleh gets into dreidels. Oh, and see her other Chanukah craft ideas here. Oh, oh, and her matzo cover here. Uh, and of course she makes candles for Chanukah.

Handmade candles: Oy, Martheleh, oh, Martheleh, what can't you do?

Of course, if you’re not so keen to make things yourself, you can always hit a design-your-own site or commission a tallis to be woven for you, or look through hundreds of sites for Jewish artisans (like here and here) and still reap the benefits of having beautifully handmade Judaica.

What about you folks out there in Jewcylvania? Any craftiness you want to share?

(My mother, by the way, is going to plotz over this post. She's so crafty. Must be where I get it from.)

 

I am all about sending New Years cards before the High Holidays, but I’m not all about paying Hallmark insane amounts of money for lame little notecards with a shofar and a Jewish star on them. I have sixty people I want to send cards to this year, and even though I’m not exactly Miss Crafty I figured that I could buy some supplies at a craft store and make them myself for cheaper than it would cost to buy them. Here’s how to make cards like mine:

Have A Sweet New Year

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