Purple and Turquoise

Deep purple and two shades of turquoise on bright white. I love the way the colors play off of each other. Very assertive in a fresh and feminine kind of way. The Bat Mitzvah was very precise in her instructions to me.

Jewel Colors on White Viscose

My first try using viscose as the main piece. This white viscose twill is exquisitely soft, with a silk-like feel, and has a great drape. The jewel-tone floral print is also very soft, making the whole tallit easy and comfortable to wear. The viscose does show some wrinkling in use, and I would not recommend this tallit for someone who wears a tallit frequently.

Viscose is inexpensive, and I was thinking that this would be a great alternative for someone who wants a pretty tallit for a special occasion, such as a Bat Mitzvah, but is not going to be attending synagogue often enough to justify spending a great deal of money on a silk tallit. The low-price fabric and simple design make this tallit very affordable.

This one is now sold, but I have more of the fabrics and can make another one with a few days' notice.

Blue and Lavender on Silver

Again, a change of pace. I seem to go from bright to subtle, from subtle to bright. I had this tallit in the plans for a while, and last week I had time to make it. I usually work on natural fabrics -- silk and cotton -- but I do like this crinkle polyester. It's very light-weight, and completely fuss-free as it doesn't show any wrinkles. (The wrinkles are already there!)

The blue dupioni silk is a soft medium hue, and so is the grayish lavender dupioni. In the picture, both colors are stronger than in real life. If you are in doubt about the exact colors, ask me to send you fabric samples.

The Shema is hand-embroidered on the atarah in silver.

This one is sold, but I have more of the fabrics to make another one. Please inquire.

A Little Sparkle

I don't typically use ribbons in my designs. This time, however, my customer found this ribbon online and fell in love with it. I ordered it from India and found a good purple and a peacock green among my own fabrics to go with the ribbon. The result is quite festive.

Black and Burgundy

I took a little break from custom work and did something I have had in mind for a while. I started by embroidering a tallit blessing in dark cherry red on black dupioni silk. I then edged the atarah with a burgundy dupioni that's a little darker than the embroidery but harmonizes well. I selected an ivory dupioni silk for the background and added two stripes of black and burgundy at each end of the tallit. The result is striking. I have never seen a tallit quite like this before. I liked it so much that I started wearing it myself and made another one for the shop.

Size: 19 x 74 inches.

Bar Mitzvah in Jamaica

Here is a bright green, yellow, and red color scheme for a Bar Mitzvah in Jamaica. To get the full impact of the colors, I made two stripes, each with the three colors, and, to tie it all together, I repeated the three colors in the atarah. The base fabric is a natural white silk noil (raw silk), and the stripes are dupioni silk.

Pinstripes!

Yankees or SF Seals pinstripe tallit.

Pinstripes on a tallit? This is a new style for my line of sports team tallitot: Not just team colors, but an actual pinstripe athletic jersey fabric used as the base fabric for the tallit. I made this one for a San Francisco Seals fan, and I now have an order for the same tallit for a NY Yankees fan.

I have created a separate page to show how a sports fan can wear his loyalties to the synagogue. Check it out.

Camp Tallit

Time to schedule for summer camps! One thing moms don't like to do is pack a child's beautiful Bar or Bat Mitzvah tallit to camp where it will be subject to rough wear and a lot of dust. Solution? A washable cotton print fabric that is pretty, yet sturdy. I made this one out of a remnant piece I found in my fabric store, and the price of the fabric and the simple construction kept the price of the tallit very reasonable.

On a budget?

Want to have a nice tallit for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah but want to watch your budget? There are ways to tweak a design to fit different price ranges. Here is an example. A customer really liked my navy and wedgewood blue tallit on white dupioni silk but asked if I could customize it to bring the price down. I had a remnant piece of white silk noil that I could make into a 15 1/2 inch tallit, instead of my usual 18-20 inches. For the atarah, I embroidered just the last two words of the tallit blessing -- Lehit'atef batzitzit. For the bag, I made a simple foldover bag instead of a zippered one. This worked out well for everybody: I was able to use my remnant, and my customer got a tallit that she likes at a price that she felt comfortable with.

20-inch wide tallit with the full tallit blessing.

15 1/2 inch tallit with short embroidery.

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This tallit ended up having quite a story. The family traveled to Croatia to celebrate their simcha in an old synagogue, actually more of a museum since most of the Jews were killed or moved after WWII. There hasn't been a life cycle event in that building since WWII. The mother just sent me a picture and said: "Your tallit covered our son in the first Bar Mitzvah at that synagogue since 1939. The Torah hadn't been opened in thirty years, and most of the remaining twenty-five members of the synagogue had never seen the inside of their Torah. It was all we hoped it would be."

A Very Special Custom Touch

At first glance, this tallit looks like a very traditional blue and white design, but closer inspection reveals a unique feature: The Bar Mitzvah boy wanted to acknowledge his dual heritage and have his name embroidered on the corners in Hebrew and Chinese.

Dark royal blue and light royal blue on natural silk noil.

Horses!

The Bat Mitzvah is really into horses, and the mother requests a tallit with horses on it. What to do?

I suggested that they look online for a fabric that has the style and color of horses she likes, because I couldn't possibly guess. I was right -- I couldn't have guessed this. Once the fabric arrived, I saw immediately that I needed to make a very wide hem with the print fabric, because the horse heads needed to fit in in a way that wouldn't make them look cramped. Among my own fabrics, I found a royal blue dupioni silk to connect the print with the white background, and I also used it as the center section of the atarah. This tallit with its riotous colors is highly unusual and a lot of fun.

Blue and Grey

Most of my tallitot are shawl-style, and the design is typically appliquéd on the top side. Once in a while I am asked to make a large tallit that is worn in the traditional manner, with the ends flipped over the shoulders. In this case, the color needs to be seen on both sides and the fabric needs to have a good drape and enough weight to stay up.

The fabric I use for these large tallitot is silk noil, also called raw silk. It's not at all slippery, comes in many colors, and looks great with accents of dupioni silk.

This large tallit (42x72 inches) is made of a light grey silk noil, with stripes of two different blues pieced in so that the color shows on both sides. The atarah repeats the two blues, and the white embroidery creates a balance with the tzitzit.

Purple, Green, and Blue

One of the best parts of doing custom work is seeing color combinations that I would never have thought of myself. I put my fabrics out and then watch with fascination what my customers come up with. Here is a very unusual color combination of light green, deep purple, and a striking royal blue. The Bat Mitzvah was very certain that this was what she wanted, and I love it.

Blue and Turquoise

  The color scheme for this blue and turquoise tallit is based on a bag that my customer's grandparents had bought. The Bar Mitzvah boy wanted a tallit that would be as close a match as possible with the bag. After some very careful shopping I found the colors that worked, and here is the result.