Vestments

From time to time I find myself making textiles for my church, vestments and related textiles for the altar. It has now been more than a decade since I made my first one - a stole created as a welcome gift for a newly hired priest. As it happens, he was fond of elaborate textiles. With some other church ladies, we made an embarrassingly expensive set of vestments including a frontal I constructed. At $200 per yard, it was a stressful make for me. And yet I wanted to make it.

Recently my current priest requested that I make new vestments and altar textiles for the church (different church). In this case, the vestments are owned by the church, not an individual priest. The old textiles have been in rotation for more than twenty years and are most definitely ready to be retired.

Initially I understood that he just wanted a stole replacement. As the project evolved it turned out much more was involved.

The only requirement is that they be green. My church follows a Christian liturgical seasonal color scheme. Green is the color of *ordinary* time which is almost any time outside of Easter and Christmas. In other words, these textiles are well used throughout the year.

The project started in November. I was struggling with a design to be honest, but then I broke my ankle and could not sew. That gave me a pass, and we were headed into Advent and then Christmas, so I had some time. I struggled with a design.

Here is one path I started to pursue. It looked very unsophisticated to me and I could not imagine it in church. Now I go to a very casual church and have a very easy-going priest. I'm sure he would have worn it. I abandoned the project.

Since my ankle surgery, I've been lucky to see lots of improvement and a gradual return to my sewing room. So a few weeks ago I decided I really wanted to get this done and let it go.

I still made lots of mistakes and kept telling myself that I was almost done. My husband stopped listening to me every time I said, I'm almost there! But I did finally finish everything. 

Here is what I made:

1. Two stoles - one for an average height priest and one for a taller priest. This is a kind of scarf that goes around the priest's neck and hangs nearly to the floor under other garments.
2. A chasuble - This is a poncho-like garment that is worn during Mass.
3. The chalice veil and the burse - The veil covers the chalice that contains wine for communion. The burse sits on top of the veil and contains additional linens used in the Mass.
4. A cover for the cushion that holds the Missal during Mass.

I learned a whole new vocabulary during this process. Like Steve Martin said about the French, my church has a special word for everything. I had no patterns for any of these items.

THE STOLES

When I finished the first one, I learned that another was needed for extra tall priests. I pulled out my drafted tissue from the first one and realized that during the design process, I had managed to make the first one too short! So I added a section to the bottom of the shorter one and I honestly like it better. I'm sure I made mistakes on the longer one too but I cannot remember any more.

THE CHASUBLE

After much fiddling, I decided that the best design would be one that I like. I know that sounds a little selfish but he gave me free reign and it ultimately made more sense to me to follow my instincts. The design is an abstraction of the ubiquitous crosses that appear in all Christian churches. I wonder if that comes through at all.

My most significant challenge was the lining. I *finished* it back in January and left it parked on my dress form while I struggled with the other items. The outer material is silk dupioni and the lining is my go-to, Bemberg rayon. Perhaps something else would have worked better but I was too far in to turn back. The rayon sagged and pulled and drove me nuts every time I looked at that dress form.

The final result involved removing the hem, shifting and pressing and fiddling until I felt there was nothing more to be done to make the outer fabric and the lining meld. I did add a bias cut facing all along the hem. My thinking is that if it continues to shift, then the silk dupioni facing will show, rather than the lining which is of course not an exact match in color. The lining is certainly visible but does not appear so sloppy now. Anyway I'm pleased with it.

THE CHALICE VEIL

This appeared to be fool-proof at first blush. It's a 24 inch square with some decoration. I borrowed a blue version from church and made lots of notes, but evidently not enough. I added a cotton canvas interfacing to make it easy to drape in the desired shape. As I was finishing, I decided to take a look at the altar one Sunday and discovered that it should not be that stiff. So off to remove the stiff interfacing and on to add something with body but way softer. Whew!

THE BURSE   

I knew from the get-go this would be a stretch for me. The examples from my church were like a little book cover covered in silk. Of course I consulted Dr. YouTube and I did find some tutorials. Just not for the style my church uses. You may have noticed that I incorporated sashiko in the above designs. The cover for the Burse presented a great little spot for a Celtic design done in sashiko stitch. To stiffen the front and back of the burse, I bought two cut-to-size mat boards from my local Dick Blick.  I stitched the design and made the two sleeves for the boards about 1/8 inch larger. I  finished it with hand-stitch on the inside, trying to keep it flexible for use. I hope it holds up to use. It was satisfying to see it come together.

COVER FOR CUSHION

Somehow I managed to make mistakes even on this! It's really just a pillow cover. The old ones close with hook-and-loop on the back. I asked the ladies in charge of such things gave me permission to use an invisible zipper instead. I think it will look nice longer that that sticky hook-and-loop stuff. 

Hudson Hack

It has been over a month since I blogged. What happened? I have been sewing but not really much for myself. Rather I finally forced myself to finish a project I started in November for my church. I will recount that in another post, primarily in case I make such liturgical pieces again! I'll want to avoid repeating all my mistakes. And there were lots of mistakes to avoid.

This past Sunday, I took it all to church and declare it DONE. Then I got right to work sewing for ME!

First up was the February project for Sew Confident! from the Sewing Workshop. In my previous blog post I described the new rendition of the Quincy jacket, now called the Sterling jacket. This year in Sew Confident! the theme is wardrobing. The Sterling jacket was for January and a hack of the old Hudson pants was introduced as the February project.

Original Hudson Pants

Hudson Pants Hack

The Sewing Workshop offered kits and I chose a dark navy linen version. The lovely thing about a kit in this situation is that I was sure it would match the Sterling jacket which I also purchased as a kit. The navy blue linen did not disappoint. It is one of those lovely soft linens that looks good when it wrinkles, especially after washing and drying. It is a nice medium weight fabric that was great fun to cut, sew and press.

The Hudson pants are a basic pull-on pant with only two pattern pieces - the front and the back. It is interesting because of the vertical hem darts. The addition of the darts slightly alters the overall silhouette and shape. I've made them a number of times but not recently.

an old shot of me in linen Hudson pants

The hack for February includes eliminating the hem darts, creating a separate waistband, and adding pockets. The pants are shortened, then overlapping panels are added to the bottom of each leg. The final piece has a silhouette similar to the original Hudson pants, I think. But it was more interesting to sew.

Dark navy is hard to photograph but maybe you can see the sweet overlapping panels.

There was also an emphasis on pants fitting for February so I took the opportunity to re-evaluate my older Hudson pants to see what I liked and what I did not. I lost some weight about a year ago now, so I took in the side seams to create a more slim look.

Recently adjusted for my current size.

I made a serious attempt to *read the wrinkles* in the back, but also consulted a bit with Linda Lee via email before making the new pair of Hudson pants. The separate waistband gave me a late-stage opportunity for better fit than the original cut-on waistband did. 

I made some tweaks and then added extra height in the upper portion of the pants. Before adding the separate waistband, I pulled them on with a knotted elastic at my waistline. Once I adjusted the position of the elastic band, I marked the elastic position with chalk. I stay-stitched along the chalk mark and cut off the excess fabric. Then I added the waistband and inserted the elastic.

For elastic waistbands, I like to mark the two ends with Sharpee so that when I insert it, I don't twist it. The elastic provided with the kit is softer and more stretchy than I'm used to sewing with and required a number of tweaks to make the pants fit closely enough. I may need to remove just a little more but it's pretty good for now.

I do love the pockets. They are lifted directly from the West End pants, an older TSW pattern. They are simple and fool-proof to add to any garment with side seams, I think. The result is a pocket with very little bulk.

This is a super comfortable ensemble and really puts me ahead in my spring sewing. The jacket is made with cotton jacquard from the January project kit. The pants and tank are linen from the February kit. There were lots of color ways from which to select a kit. I'm pleased with my navy pieces. Just right for spring in Atlanta.

MixIt Tank top with Hudson (Hack) pants

I cannot decide if I like the overall length of the pants. I may take the lower panels off, shorten the main body of the pants, and then re-attach the panels. They seem just a little longish for cropped pants.

Through careful placement of the Hudson pattern pieces, I had enough fabric left over to make a little shell using the MixIt tank pattern. Yay!

I adjusted the hem so that it is a sort-of shirt tail. I used the navy linen for a bias facing around the neck but created a more light weight bias facing for the armholes using a not-silky silk from stash. I used it in the Sterling jacket too.

I added a little patch to the back neckline (of course) using my shrinking stash of remnants purchased from Mieko Mintz. I'm sad to report that she no longer sells her remnants, as far as I know. Too bad. They are so pretty.

And now I have an ensemble! Maybe. Should I shorten them?