Ecclesiastical Sewing is an ideal choice for quality liturgical fabrics, trims, and appliques. We work with the best manufacturers worldwide to bring you our handpicked selection of liturgical fabrics in a variety of colors, textures, and designs. Our fabrics range from rich brocades and silks to crisp cotton and linens, ensuring that we have the choice of material for every project and preference.
We know that quality materials are key to bringing your liturgical designs to life. That’s why we are committed to providing only quality materials for our customers. We carefully select our materials to ensure that they are not only beautiful but also durable. With our commitment to quality, you can trust that your finished products will withstand years with proper care.
In addition, our trims and appliques enhance intricate designs and fine craftsmanship, adding texture and dimension to any project. Whether you’re looking to create a new vestment or altar cloth, our selection of trims and appliques will take your designs to the next level.
Don’t wait any longer to elevate your liturgical designs. Shop with us today and experience the difference that quality materials can make. With our selection of liturgical fabrics, trims, and appliques, you’re sure to find the perfect materials to bring out your real ideas. Moreover, our commitment to quality ensures that your finished products will exceed your expectations. For an even more personalized touch, we also provide custom embroidery suggestions. Consider Ecclesiastical Sewing to assist you in fulfilling your liturgical dreams!
Special ecclesiastical fabrics for pastoral attire, like stoles and chasubles, use intricate patterns with silks, rayons, and gold/silver threads. The Wakefield pattern, with black and gold threads, offers varied textures and a reversible design—use it as a gold fabric with black accents or a black fabric with gold accents.
This trim features a zig-zag design filled with star-shaped motifs. Notably, it has triangular peaks at the upper edge where it attaches to the Altar Linen. An interesting detail is the deep hem of the linen, matching the trim’s depth—around 5 to 6 inches. While this may seem unusual to modern eyes, older reference books mention long Fair Linens having deep hems, especially if they reach close to the floor. The added weight from a deep hem likely contributes to the Fair Linen hanging well.
The title is Lace for Church Use by Marie-Clare Downham.
…types of lace used in the church…
Tassels and fringe make excellent finishes for stole ends, but there are tricks for both. For tassels, use a button-hole marker to ensure even spacing. Decide on the number of tassels and the desired distance from each end, then mark and pin them in place. Tassels have a small cord or loop at the upper edge; attach it evenly. Tack the cord on the back of the stole, ensuring even hanging. In the photo, gold rayon blend tassels were initially used but later replaced with metallic gold tassels.
Baptismal Towels or Baptismal Napkins may be as simple or elaborate as one desires to make them. The size of this Baptismal Cloth is approximately 19″ x 21″ as the finished size. The embroidery may be a very simple hand-embroidered cross. The hems should be narrow. Now, there may be more specific instructions available in some older Church Vestment Books
Lace, and variations is often applied to the hemline and sleeves of vestments such as a rochet which forms part of the choir robes. The lace can vary with styles of pattern, and materials, being sometimes a little heavier and bolder, to being something very light and airy.
Dice Trim,” has tiny alternating squares woven in a solid color and a gold thread. This trim, although narrow at 1/2″, is a powerhouse of a trim, it gives a clean, tailored look. It sews very nicely. It comes in a nice assortment of liturgical colors: black, red, green, blue, gold, white, and purple. Dice Braid offers a very clean, tailored, crisp finish to vestments. It can be used to edge the long sides of stoles or as an end finish to a stole. It can be used as a finish on the edge of a chalice veil, as well as being used on any other type of vestment where trim is needed.
The end can have fringe on the lower edge, or the edge can have a plain hem as the finish. Creative placement of trims and orphrey bands offer other options. One of my favorite ways to finish the end of a stole is to use tassels. The tassel choices for this current stole project are a soft white or cream tassel and a gold tassel.
Making a choice of having all of the designs stitched in a quatrefoil frame…
The design worked in a quatrefoil border on silk dupioni, which will need to be applied to the base silk fabric….
Applying the Ecclesiastical Machine Embroidery Design involves clipping corners, stitching, and turning the edge under. The motif is carefully stitched in place, ensuring a secure and neat attachment.
The orphrey trim for the chalice veil had been planned and cut to size and position based on the use of the black Passion Cross. The idea was to place the black motif on a gold motif so it would be more visible. The center of the orphrey was located and matched to the center of the design on the black Fairford Fabric.
The Two Agnus Die projects for the Easter Set, the gold thread used for couching the blue silk sky is a Gilt Smooth Passing Thread size 4 with a silk core. The thread is imported from Access Commodities here in the States and is available from Hedgehog Handworks. The Gilt threads have 1/2% gold and are very nice to work with. The silk core makes the thread very pliable and so nice to plunge thread tails – an excellent goldwork thread.
The Passion Cross – Church Symbolism by F.R. Webber
– This is a cross whose ends are cut to points. It is also known as the Cross Urdee, and the Cross Champain, sometimes the Cross Pointed. It represents the sufferings of our Lord and has been called by some authorities the Cross of Suffering. If pictured as rising out of a chalice, it represents our Lord’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. It may be used as a symbol of Maundy Thursday, or of Good Friday.
You must be logged in to post a comment.