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Category: Altar Linen Sewing Pattern

Making beautiful and unique handmade altar linens became an important part of church traditions. Customizing these linens can make your place of worship even more special. Ecclesiastical Sewing provides tips and techniques in altar linen sewing pattern that makes this process accessible to everyone. With the right tools and materials, you can create stunning altar linens that are suitable for religious ceremonies.

We also offer a sewing pattern guide for making altar linens used in religious ceremonies. The guide provides easy-to-follow instructions and precise measurements for creating fair linens, purificators, and other necessary altar linens. It emphasizes the value of careful construction to ensure quality results.

Making your altar linens allows for customization to fit your place of worship’s unique style and requirements. Utilizing quality fabrics such as linen, cotton, or silk ensures the production of durable neat liturgical linens. The pattern from Ecclesiastical Sewing offers precise instructions on cutting and sewing the fabric, ensuring that your linens are the correct size and shape.

Hence, creating your altar linens can be a fulfilling and cost-effective project, regardless of your sewing experience. Ecclesiastical Sewing provides a pattern that suits various skill levels, allowing you to make functional and beautiful linens similar to commercial ones. The pattern includes detailed instructions and precise measurements that simplify the process of creating ideal linens for church celebrations. Using this pattern, you may add a personal touch to your place of worship while also saving money and being fulfilled. In short, Ecclesiastical Sewing’s pattern is the best choice for anyone looking to design their altar linens.

Hand Embroidery Design for Altar Linens

Hand Embroidery Design for Altar Linens

The design consists of a border pattern and a scrollwork cross embroidery pattern. The border pattern comes from my collection of vintage embroidery designs. These vintage designs come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and conditions. They must be cleaned up and turned into a line drawing to be used as an embroidery pattern. The cross pattern is a new design created from components of the border pattern.

Diagram of Amice Norris

Church Linen by Dom Roulin

Before the Renaissance, the corporal was often as big as an altar cloth. Since then, it has had smaller dimensions, depending on the size of the altar. It remains essentially a corporal as long as it holds the chalice, the paten, the host, and the ciborium cover. As the corporal is a simple cloth that has the honor of holding the Eucharist, it needs little decoration to complete its job

Altar Linen Measurements

Fair Linens: Part 1 Measurements

The measurement of making an Altar Fair Linen – The altar height: measure from the top edge of the altar to the floor. Measure the width of the altar from the front to the back. Measure the length of the altar from one side to the opposite side. Optional: measure the hang from the top edge down the side of the Fair Linen to match the length of an altar hanging.

Church Linen Books

Altar Linens: Descriptions and Sizes

Altar linens serve distinct liturgical functions: Fair Linen covers the altar, Corporal holds vessels, Pall a square linen stiffened with either cardboard or plexiglass. Purificator a small square linen used to wipe the communion vessels during the sacrament, Lavabo Towel dries hands, Credence Cloth covers a side table, Chalice Veil conceals post-communion, Cere Cloth protects from dampness, Dust Cloth safeguards Fair Linen, and Sick Call Set facilitates individual communion.

Altar Linen Embroidery Design

Hand Embroidery Design Small Linens

The design is a simple cross with three rays in each corner between cross bars. The Altar Linen Embroidery Design is available in 4 sizes, for purificators, lavabos, corporal a, and even the corners of a fair linen.  This church linen embroidery design will use a few basic stitches such as the split stitch for an outline, and a stem stitch for the rays

Vintage Liturgical Embroidery Patterns

More Vintage Liturgical Embroidery Patterns

A collection of historic designs on aged paper dating from the 1870s to around 1940 and beyond. The collection includes original works by renowned designers from the Gothic age spanning the last two centuries, including perforated designs and transfers sourced from an antique Thomas Brown and Sons catalog. The designs are currently undergoing verification after a thorough historical tracing. It’s important to document and preserve this collection for future generations as a valuable resource for study and learning.

Small IHC Hand Embroidery Design for Altar Linens

Altar Linen Projects – Beginnings

This vintage Ecclesiastical Hand Embroidery Design, originating from a Boston monastery over 100 years ago, still bears the pounce powder from its original use. The intricately perforated design on thin tracing vellum paper is tiny—merely 2 to 3 inches in size. The IHC hand embroidery is elegantly simple and clean, sparking ideas for stitching options. Considerations include a trailing stitch for the outline with a seed stitch filling or even a straightforward split stitch outline.

Fair Linen with hand embroidered design done in whitework

Whitework Embroidery for Church Linens

This antique Fair Linen, while stained, and scorched, with holes from a too-hot iron on one end, features a lovely hand-embroidered IHC motif in the center of the Altar Linen, surrounded by four smaller cross designs for the corners. Worked completely in white threads, the Ecclesiastical Embroidery is still lovely amid the linen stains of age.  The central hand embroidery design is relatively small, considering the Fair Linen is wide and long

IHC Ecclesiastical Embroidery Pattern

Whitework Ecclesiastical Embroidery Pattern

Merge three vintage Ecclesiastical Embroidery Designs into a versatile artwork. The simple lines make it ideal for whitework, but it seamlessly transitions for gold and silk Ecclesiastical Embroidery. For whitework, consider stitches like stem stitch, outline stitch, and padded satin stitch for letters. Alternatively, use outline stitch with seed stitch fill. Chainstitch is another excellent choice for whitework in Ecclesiastical Embroidery.

Linen Ornaments of the Church by Percy Dearmer

Back ground on Fair Linens

Fair linens, the top linen placed on the altar, are crucial liturgical items. According to Percy Dearmer, a renowned liturgical furnishing author, fair linens should be the exact width of the altar and extend within six inches from the ground on the sides. The linen should be good quality, hemmed, and bear one, four, or five devices in white, red, or blue. Modern recommendations suggest the fair linen’s length should match the superfrontal’s, often 9 to 12 inches. Working with 100% linen, mitering corners, and adding crosses can create a durable, elegant fair linen for the altar.

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