Liturgical fabrics. Just the mere thought of the word forms vivid images in our minds of rich, elegant, and often luxurious textiles use for the creation of church vestments and altar frontals. These special Ecclesiastical Fabrics, used for the making of pastoral stoles and chasubles, copes and miters, dalmatics and tunics, are often woven in intricate patterns, using special yarns of silks, rayons, and even threads of gold and silver. We look at a stunning Liturgical Fabric, such as this pattern called Wakefield, and what does one see? A fabric… Read more Liturgical Fabrics →
This weekend past weekend was Laetare Sunday, one of the two Sundays in the Church Year when Rose-colored vestments are used. For this Ecclesiastical Sewing project, the two fabrics being… Read more Rose Chalice Veil Construction →
Have you ever wondered or thought about using one of the beautiful Ecclesiastical Fabrics to make vestments for your church or parish? You may have looked at a few fabrics,… Read more Chalice Veil Orphreys →
My children were laughing after Ash Wednesday Service. They loved the new vestments and heard all of the buzz throughout the evening. Their comments afterwards went something like this, “Your… Read more Black and Gold Vestments: Making a Chalice Veil →
Now that the topic of Lent has been broached a few times, it is too difficult to resist taking a quick glance at the Ash Wednesday-Good Friday Vestment Set waiting… Read more A Quick Glance Ahead to Lent →
Living in a small community in northern Minnesota does not present many opportunities for viewing beautiful and historic Ecclesiastical Vestments. So, making the best of the situation, I haunt Flickr, Pinterest, and various websites looking for interesting and unusual pieces of Ecclesiastical embroidery. There are times when the internet seems an endless source, a visual feast of colors and designs, while at other times, there is nothing of interest to be found. Quite some time ago, I came upon the name of a Vestment maker in the UK – Watts and… Read more Elizabeth – Watts and Co →
As the Thanksgiving Weekend comes to an end, its time to relax a bit and see what is going on in the history of vestment making, Ecclesiastical Sewing and Hand Embroidery. Over on Pinterest, there was an interesting church vestment link in the daily feed. Every once in a while, the link has an interesting photo, and the description entices the reader to click and learn more. You know how things work on Pinterest, one click and off you go to something else. The next stop was Flickr and the… Read more Vestment History from Around the Web →
Yesterday, I showed you the framing of my next hand embroidery project. It is the Ecclesiastical Embroidery design for the Pulpit fall for the new Easter Set. The Ecclesiastical Embroidery design features a cross in the center of a circle. The bars on the cross have detailed floral motifs. At the center of the cross is a Chi-Rho with an Alpha and Omega on either side in a modified quatrefoil design. There are some lovely lilies in the corners between the bars of the cross. This is a design… Read more All framed up and ready to stitch →
It was exciting to come across a book that had some illustrations of Altar Frontals, along with Ecclesiastical Embroidery design ideas. These books are rich in history, describing details of Opus… Read more Old Books Make Great Reads →
This weekend will be a bit of a reorganization for the sewing room. Hopefully a few things will be moved out, allowing for additional space. This is great because there are several… Read more New Projects in the works soon →
Oh I just wish I could hop on a plane and visit Great Britain! For many years, I have longed to go there. That desire is even stronger than usual with this upcoming class scheduled for October: The Giants of the Gothic Revival: Watts & Co from Pugin to Comper workshop that will be held at the Victoria and Albert Museum on Sat 25 October 2014 at 10:30. Select the link below to learn more about the programs: Giants of the Gothic Revival: Watts & Co from Pugin to Comper … Read more Upcoming Ecclesiastial Embroidery Events at the Victorian and Albert Museum →
Do you ever spend your days worrying about not having a great idea? Have you ever worked yourself into a frenzy by forcing your brain to concoct a new design? I can… Read more Early Struggles in Ecclesiastical Sewing →
This past Easter-Easter 2014-, a new set of Altar Hangings was created for my home church. This is a photo of the Ecclesiastical Sewing Project featuring a “Black Pulpit Fall”… Read more Good Friday Pulpit Fall →
