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.