The Process of Making Vintage Embroidery Patterns Usable

The Process of Making Vintage Embroidery Patterns Usable: Treasure hunting can be a great deal of fun, especially if you actually stumble across a bit of treasure.  Treasure can be a wide variety of things to many people. When it comes to Ecclesiastical Sewing and Embroidery, treasure usually, but not always, involves something of beauty from the past. If that treasure is usable, or if it might be possible to restore an item in some capacity, that is a source of great satisfaction. Not everything old can be restored and reused. But when there is enough of the original item intact, recreating a design can become a fun project.

Vintage Ecclesiastical Embroidery

Let’s look at this box of stuff which looks more like a mess than anything else. The box holds a few Vintage Ecclesiastical Embroidery patterns that I have been able to collect over the years.  Most of the designs are over 100 years old. Many times the paper used for these old designs is fragile and brittle, folded and creased. The slightest touch can result in a rip or tear of the paper. But what if one were to actually transfer a design to fabric using these patterns?  Most likely, the paper would shred the moment the pounce pad touched it. While these Vintage Ecclesiastical Embroidery Designs are not very usable in their original condition, there are still things that can be done to add new life to these old beauties. 

So, the best option to save these designs has been to create a new clean line version from a scan of the original design. Sometimes that is easier said than done.

And at other times, it is easy to do. The above design was an easy Ecclesiastical Hand Embroidery design to convert to a clean line drawing.  The lines were fairly simple, and there was not a great deal of detail. This design has two different cross shapes. The Fusil cross is on a diagonal, and the Fleur de lis cross has been modified to look like leaves.

Stitching and Thread Option

This simple design has me thinking about stitching and thread options. One thought might include felt padding on the tips of the cross, which could be worked with chips of wire check or bright check encased in a pearl purl border such as this project worked by Mary Corbet over on Needle’nThread. The outer edge of the Fusil Cross could be worked with Imitation Japan Gold threads couched in rows of two.  The flower could be long and short stitched with a chip work center.  But the Fleur cross – what might one do with that?  Any ideas?  While my original thought for this design turned to gold and silk embroidery, whitework should not be overlooked.  This design would stitch beautifully with white threads.

A copy of the cross is available in two sizes for you to use for your own Ecclesiastical Sewing and Embroidery Projects.  The sizes would stitch up well for use on a stole, chalice veil, or pall. Slight size adjustments might be needed

Fusil cross with double border center primrose and leaf shape

Solo Dei Gloria

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