Skip to content

Category: Embroidery

Welcome to the world of embroidery! This beautiful art has fascinated people for centuries. In embroidery, you use a needle and thread to stitch patterns onto fabric, creating a variety of decorative items like clothing and home decorations. The great thing about embroidery is that anyone can learn it, regardless of skill level. All you need is a needle, thread, and some fabric, and you’re ready to start! It’s a fun and relaxing activity that you can do alone or with others, and you’ll always have something to be proud of.

Furthermore, if you’re looking for embroidery designs for religious use, Ecclesiastical Sewing is the perfect place to find them. We offer motifs ideal for churches, including crosses, chi-rho symbols, vines, and other religious designs. Whether you’re decorating a church altar or making vestments for a clergy member, Ecclesiastical Sewing has the collection designs for you.

Using embroidery for religious purposes can be fulfilling and essential. People appreciate well-made religious items, so turning your embroidery hobby into a meaningful contribution to religious ceremonies is an excellent idea. You can create religious items that people appreciate and that contribute to religious ceremonies.

Indeed, embroidery is a beautiful and rewarding art form that anyone can learn. Whether you’re looking to create religious items or just want to embroider for fun, Ecclesiastical Sewing has the embroidery designs you need to get started. So grab your needle and thread, and let’s get stitching!

Ecclesiastical Machine Embroidery Palm and Cross Design on Silk Dupioni

A Fun Experiment with Machine Embroidery

Using modern techniques to complete an Ecclesiastical Vestment set can be a lifesaver.  The designs can often be modified in size to fit specific needs. The colors can often be selected to suit a particular occasion or color scheme.  Selecting someone who is well versed in the Ecclesiastical Arts, as well as fluent with modern machine embroidery can be a delightful way to expand design possibilities for enhancing Ecclesiastical Vestments…

Ecclesiastical Hand Embroidery Pattern Cross Design

The Process of Making Vintage Embroidery Patterns Usable

Vintage ecclesiastical embroidery patterns, mostly 100+ years old, delicate on aged paper. Fragile and creased, the paper poses challenges for fabric transfer; the slightest touch risks damage. Despite their impracticality in original condition, efforts are made to add new life. The best solution involves creating clean versions through scanning the original design, though it’s a challenging process.

Embroidery Design of Archangel

Ecclesiastical Pattern Cataloging

Collection of vintage Ecclesiastical Embroidery Designs, Drawings, and Patterns.
– The collection dates from the 1870s, and includes a wide variety of items, both in terms of content and quality, as well as size. The process of identifying the designs in the collection will take months. So, let us wait for the entire collection of Ecclesiastical Hand Embroidery Patterns to be cataloged.

Regalia of a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece Habsburg Splendor at Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Habsburg Splendor at Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Featuring the Habsburg Splendor Exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, a showcase of exquisite goldwork embroidery. Don’t miss some pieces, including suits of armor, tapestries, curiosities, and renowned paintings by artists like Caravaggio and Hans Holbein. Visit the intricate details on the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s webpage for a closer look at this splendid collection.

IHS Lenten Design for Hand Embroidery

IHS Lenten Hand Embroidery Design

The IHS Lenten Design, taken from a detailed border pattern, offers versatility. The stylized floral elements converted into letters make an interesting stand-alone element. It can be stitched with subdued threads for Lent or with goldwork threads and silk floss for a shimmering effect, symbolizing the glory of the Resurrection. With two available sizes, this design is suitable for stoles, linens, pulpit falls, or even an altar frontal.

Easter Sunrise Ecclesiastical Embroidery Design

Easter Sunrise Hand Embroidery Design

This treasure comes from a rare copy of a German book that arrived over the Christmas Holidays.  The original design is very small.  When it is enlarged on a copier, the design loses definition and the pixels become an issue. This seemed appropriate as a first challenge with the graphics program. Lots of straight lines, a circle, and a few wavy lines for rocks.

Illustration for Cope Hood The First Martyr

Trash or Treasure?

Trash or Treasure?
– These beautiful Ecclesiastical Designs are in tatters, are torn, and have none of their original beauty or glory. But they represent the hard work and artistic talent of a designer from years ago, creating ideas on paper to be transferred via Needle and Thread to fabric. They represent hours of selfless giving of time and talent to create objects of beauty for use in the Church.

Mary Barber Some Drawings from Ancient Embroideries Six winged creature

Mary Barber’s Six Winged Creature Drawing

Two of those unusual things are the Seraphim and the Cherubim.  Artisans of the past have grappled with these creatures and provided some interesting interpretations.  The powdering designs, dating from the glory days of Opus Anglicanum, give us some wonderful examples of these delightful interpretations of Seraphim and Cherubim.

Angel Ecclesiastical Embroidery at Liverpool Cathedral

Embroidery Galleries of Liverpool Cathedral

“The Embroideries at Liverpool” book talks about how people made beautiful embroideries for Liverpool Cathedral. A group of ladies had the idea to use one designer for all the embroideries, making them match the building. The book shares the story of these women who not only created amazing embroideries but also helped with the money for the projects.

Butler Bowden Cope  -  Grace Christie Embroidery: A Collection of Articles on Subjects Connected with Fine Embroidery

Happy New Year

Post from Gracie Christie’s book Embroidery: A Collection of Articles on Subjects Connected with Fine Embroidery which had the design for the lion’s head worked in pearl and beadwork.  While updating links in that article, some other resources surfaced, which might provide enjoyable reading and viewing as the New Year gets underway.  The first stop is a short journey back in time to a previous Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Ecclesiastical Vestments of the Middle Ages: An Exhibition. 

Goud, zilver and zijde by Marike Van Roon, , Holiday Break

Holiday Break

Book written by Marike van Roon, Head Curator at Amsterdam University as her dissertation was added to my library last summer and has become a favorite.  Beginning at around the 1800s, the book lays out the history of European Ecclesiastical History through the 1960s.  There is a nice mix of primary source material in the form of sketches and illustrations from texts and authors of the period, while stunning black and white, and color photography of actual vestments pieces

Elizabeth – Watts and Co

Elizabeth Hoare, the owner of Watts and Co., played a unique role in preserving Ecclesiastical Vestment history. During her ownership, she safeguarded hand-embroidered works from the late 19th to mid-20th century, ensuring their survival when they were undervalued. Her efforts created a lasting legacy, and today, her collection is displayed at Liverpool Cathedral’s Cathedral Gallery.