Chasuble Master Pattern - $15

This pattern is sold separately from the 'Constructing Chasubles and Dalmatics' booklet.

It is my opinion and experience that we have become much too 'standardized' about the chasuble size - the length and width of chasubles. 

Our vestments are meant to make eloquent liturgical statements in the same way as our stained glass windows.  If all the chasubles in the sacristy are the same size, we're missing out on a degree of liturgical eloquence.  I encourage you to think in terms of different sized chasubles.  Chasubles should come in numerous widths and lengths.  A shorter, narrower chasuble to use in the summer-time makes sense.  Chasubles that are wider and longer make a more eloquent statement for our festal liturgies. 

The 'standard' widths are narrow, average, wide and ENORMOUS!!  But, these are not measured by an 'inch format'.  They are measured relative to the size of the clergy person who will wear them.  Narrow is from crook of the elbow to crook of the elbow.  Average is mid-forearm to mid-forearm.  Wide is wrist to wrist.  ENORMOUS is finger-tip to finger-tip (or wider).  These measurements will vary depending upon the size of the person.

Keep in mind that a 'large' chasuble on a small person will become a small chasuble on a large person! For this reason, you really must measure your clergy before you start designing!  Chasuble length may be anywhere between just below the knees and ankle length - this is measured from the shoulder seam and, don't forget that the back is cut 2 to 3 inches longer than the front.

Also keep in mind that a large chasuble will have very much the same appearance of a cope.

Also keep in mind that a very wide chasuble can be a danger to the stability of the chalice.  I have seen chasubles box-pleated along the shoulder seam so that the edge of the chasuble is drawn back out of the way. 

This pattern gives you all of the various lengths and widths.  As well, the curve of the side hems is as gentle as I can make it.  Turning up side hems smoothly is a bit of a challenge.  Soft curves help a lot!

Dalmatic Pattern - $15

This is a very basic dalmatic pattern.  It can be altered readily to make it larger.  An alternative to using this pattern is to take a pattern from a dalmatic that you like.  While most of the dalmatics I have seen are closed along the under-arm seam, I'm seeing more dalmatics on which that seam is left entirely open.  I don't have a good photograph to show you yet. I've asked if a tie isn't necessary on the side.  The answer has been that a tie is not necessary.  Hmmm!  There's always a new wrinkle, isn't there?

Cowl Neck Pattern - $8

Cowl neck treatments are a bit of a bug-a-boo for us.  I think this is because we haven't been using them for very long.  I think cowls began to be fashionable when we realized that the cassock-alb left a lot of vacant space around the neck opening.  The neck opening used to be beautifully filled with the amice.  Once we stopped using amices, we had this large vacant neck space that the stole did not fill properly.  It's been a problem.  You probably haven't noticed this before.  Now that I've mentioned it, you'll see it all the time!  The purpose of the cowl neck treatment is to cover up that vacant space.  But, cowls are like stoles - deceptive and tricky!

(Incidentally, another way to handle this vacant space at the neck opening is to reduce the circumference of the neck opening.  The standard neck opening must be 25 to 27 inches - big enough to slip readily over the head.  If an invisible zipper is inserted into one shoulder seam, this circumference can be reduced considerably - thus reducing the amount of vacant space..)

My Cowl Neck Pattern isn't really a pattern; it's the instructions so that you can make a pattern.  As with many of the items we sew, a large challenge is selecting just the correct interfacing for the fabric used.

Constructing Stoles - $14

This booklet is sold separately from the patterns - Priest's stole pattern, New Deacon's stole pattern and Old, boring, deacon's stole pattern.  See below.

This booklet contains everything you need to know about constructing stoles. 

If you've never constructed a stole before, I recommend that you purchase this booklet as part of a Teaching Stole Kit. 

if you've made stoles before, I recommend that you purchase this booklet as part of a Teaching Stole Kit.  Because! I teach a marvelous construction method!  You'll learn this method quickly and efficiently by working one of my Teaching Stole Kits. 

If you purchase this booklet and a pattern, it will cost $26.  If you purchase a Teaching Stole Kit for $40, you've paid only an additional $16 for a good stole that would cost you at least $100 if you bought it ready-made.  You're going to learn an excellent construction method and, you'll be working with an interfacing and a lining that I like a lot.  Both are readily available and inexpensive.  This is a bargain!

(Go to the section titled 'Vestments' for information about Stole Kits.)

 

Stole Patterns - $10 each

I offer three stole patterns: Priest's, New Deacon's and, Old Deacon's (sometimes called 'Boring Old Deacon's).

The Priest's Stole Pattern - I not infrequently read or hear people who ought to know better say: "Just take a pattern from one of the stoles you have in the sacristy."  Please! Don't do that!  It can be a recipe for disaster!  This pattern has worked consistently for me for years and years. 

The priest's stole pattern is 4 inches wide at the bottom hems and narrows slightly into a gently curved neck that rests smoothly around the shoulders.  The center seam is correctly angled so that the ends hang straight down the front. The ends do not toe-in or toe-out.  The stoles shown under 'Advanced Stole Kits' are all made using the priest's pattern. 

The 4 inch width at the bottom hem can be readily widened to 5 inches - as long as you begin the flare BELOW the neck shaping and widen the stole equally on both sides. 

The 'New' Deacon's Stole Pattern - There is a photograph of the New Deacon's Stole on the 'Vestment' page - it's the red one with the Holy Spirit embroidery. 

The New Deacon's Stole pattern is the liturgically correct alternative to the 'dog-leg' deacon's stole pattern (also known as the 'Old' deacon's stole pattern; alias, Boring Old deacon's stole pattern). 

You see, there didn't used to be 'deacon's stoles' - or, 'priest's stoles' either!  there were just 'stoles' - that everyone wore.  The stole worn by the priest at the 8:00 service was worn again by the deacon at the 10:00 service.  The only difference was that the priest wore the stole with the ends hanging straight down (or, crossed and/or caught into the cincture) and the deacon wore the SAME stole diagonally across the upper body and either tied in a half-knot or pinned with an attractive pin at the waist or hip.

It's my theory that the Old Deacon's stole was 'invented' when the Church began ordaining more deacons.  It occurred to somebody that there ought to be some sort of a 'special' stole, just for deacons.  And, these new 'inventions' sold very well! (Maybe I'm just being cynical.) 

The serious problem with these dog-leg deacon's stoles is that they are commercially produced to fit professional models.  Unless your deacon is shaped like a professional model, the Old Deacon's stole won't fit properly.  If your deacon is larger in the front than in the back, the upper front and back sections should make allowance for that.  Commercially produced stoles don't.  The result is that the stole won't fit properly and the point of stress is the join at the side miters - it stretches and pulls out. 

When you try to construct one of these dog-leg stoles, you're probably going to have trouble making it fit properly.  Custom made dog-leg stoles typically require extensive fitting. 

Add to this the fact that dog-leg stoles require three miters. These miters contain many layers of fabric - face fabric, interfacing and lining.  They're thick!  All three layers of miters must come together exactly.  Miters are not the easiest thing in the world to do.

The New Deacon's Stole pattern is MUCH easier to construct than the Boring Old Dog-Leg. And, to my mind, it's appearance is infinitely preferable! 

This is a wonderful pattern; the half-knot connects the stole ends at the waist or hip (or it may be pinned with a handsome liturgical pin).  The narrower upper portion has the appearance of a diplomat's sash and makes the stole hang smoothly.  The flared portion below the half-knot gives plenty of room for attractive decoration - the width at the bottom hem is 5 inches.  This pattern is handsome, easy to construct and makes more efficient use of your fabric. 

If you absolutely must have the old, boring dog-leg pattern, I can sell you that one too.  But, this 'New' pattern is more better.

The Old Deacon's Stole Pattern - I pretty much described this stole in the New Deacon's Stole discussion above.  You can probably tell that I am not a fan of this style of stole.  I almost never see one that fits properly.  The join at the side almost always gets stretched so, there is a gap.  Or, it breaks altogether - I often see safety pins used to replace broken joins.  These stoles are 4 to 5 inches in width.  To my eye, that's too wide and looks clunky - even on a large person. 

Constructing Copes - $30

The pattern for my shaped shoulder cope design is included with this booklet..

My 'Constructing Copes' booklet contains a full discussion of the several possible methods of cope construction - with helpful information so you can avoid avoid the pitfalls (like, putting up the cope hem without letting the cope hang out for a week! Gracious, that was a disappointment!). 

I developed the shaped shoulder cope pattern several years ago. 

If you know anything about copes at all, you'll know that the semi-circle copes will not stay square on the shoulders - the cope will slip and slide.  The priest you send out for the processional with the cope square and even, will start the recessional whopper jawed.  The shaped shoulder cope fixes that problem!  Thank goodness!

If you're familiar with shaped shoulder copes, you'll know that most of them are three-piece patterns - a back and two fronts.  The shoulder shaping is done in the side seam.  While this is a good design, the back pattern piece must be very, very wide and this limits your fabric selection.  Alternatively, you add triangular piece to the lower corners of the back.

My pattern is a five piece pattern - a back, two fronts and two sides.  The shoulder shaping takes place in a very peculiar looking dart in the middle of the top of the side pattern pieces.  It works very well!  And, the fabric width makes no difference at all.  In fact, the circumference of the cope may be varied from a maximum of five yards to about half that - a very slim cope! 

I would mention here that, in my humble opinion, there is no better cope fabric than Dupioni silk.  And, I do not advocate lining these copes - unless you use the same fabric.  Dupioni has a crisp body that makes a cope 'move'.  Dupioni has a lovely, soft sheen that is dramatic and the colors are marvelous - especially because copes are not necessarily directly connected to the seasonal colors as chasubles are.  Copes that contrast with the seasonal colors are completely acceptable. 

If you're interested in constructing copes, I recommend this set of booklet and pattern.

 

Books

This section includes my 'how to' books and pamphlets that don't necessarily contain patterns. This section also contains the group of historic books I've been able to collect over the years. 

Constructing Pulpit Falls (A Primer for Constructing Frontals and Super-Frontals) - $8

Anyone who sews knows that there are 'tricks' to any trade.  The more experienced you are at sewing, the more aware of this you are.  It is perfectly possible to make a pulpit fall or a frontal without knowing the 'tricks'.  However, if you know the 'tricks' beforehand, you'll avoid making all the mistakes that cause so much wasted time.  There's a saying: 'Experience is the best teacher - as long as it doesn't cost too much!' 

There are no patterns for pulpit falls, frontals or super-frontals (antipendium).  There can't be any patterns because, to my knowledge, no two altars IN THE ENTIRE WORLD are the same size!  This goes for pulpits and lecterns too.  You just have to know how to 'do it' - the tricks of the trade. This little pamphlet shows you the 'tricks' about using a good weight interfacing as the foundation upon which pulpit and lectern falls, frontals and super-frontals are built.  You learn which interfacing works best and why.  You learn how to connect the pulpit fall (or frontal) to the lectern (or altar).  You learn how to bind raw edges so there are no lumps and bumps on top of the altar.  It's a good thing!

Altering Ready-Made Shirts To Fit A Clergy Collar - $5

The clergy shirts and blouses offered by our ecclesiastical supply houses leave a bit to be desired as far as style and fabric choice are concerned.  This little pamphlet tells you how to take a ready-made shirt or blouse and convert the collar so that it takes a clergy collar. Being able to do this vastly expands your choice of style.  This little pamphlet was written by a friend who is a priest.  She wears about a size 3!  She makes most of her clothing and devised this method for altering collars in order to expand her choices of style.  She has a lovely, simple jumper that she wears with a white blouse that has puffed sleeves - and takes her clergy collar.  I have another priest-friend - a guy - who prefers Brooks Brothers shirts - preferable striped.  He has the collars altered to take his clergy collar - and looks like a million bucks! 

This is just a small little pamphlet that I have on my computer.  I can easily email it to you as an attachment.

Mitre Instructions - $8

This is a small pamphlet that give instructions of two methods of constructing mitres.

I have to tell you a funny thing about mitres: When vestment makers get together, one of the first things we ask each other is: "And, what do you put inside your mitres?" 

There are as many different mitre-innards suggestions as there are vestment makers!  Everything from the template plastic used by quilters to horsehair to batting.  The absolute best suggestion, however, comes from a convent in Australia.  They use old X-ray films!  The films are washed and bleached and then two are put together with contact cement!  I love it!  just remember, you heard it here first!

 

Simple and Beautiful - $8

This is really a kit, rather than strictly information. S + B is a simple and beautiful method for decorating vestments and banners.  While it's not for everything, it's one of those little techniques that comes in useful with some regularity.  This kit gives you enough of the bits and pieces to give this method a try - for instance to decorate a stole or small banner.   A nice thing to know about!  Here's a picture of several symbols I cut out in an hour or so one afternoon. 

Please notice the intricacy of the rim around the small cross and the crown of thorns.  All you need is a pointy little pair of scissors - and patience!  This is a good trick to have up your sleeve. 

My parish has an old funeral pall.  While the pall itself was sound, the original embroidery came all apart.  Instead of taking the pall completely apart and rebuilding it, as I would have had to do to replace the embroidery, I used this Simple and Beautiful technique.  Here are the pictures:

You can see that I have the lame' cut, placed and pinned, ready to be fused.

Fusing is complete.  Simple and Beautiful.

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The next books are my historic books.  I care a lot about reclaiming the old written materials about the vestment crafts.  I've been seeking out these books for years.  I've been blessed that people send books to me because they know I'll make them widely available.  These books are of interest for two reasons: First, because they are historic and, second, because the authors lived contemporaneously - they probably knew each other personally or, at the very least, knew of each other.  Occasionally, one of them will make reference to something that another has done.

Be aware as you read about these books how very much our fabrics changed after the Second World War.  Before the War almost all of our vestment fabrics were 'the natural fibers' and the standard widths were 24 inches, 36 inches and 45 inches.  After the War, we began to see the man-made fibers and the sizes of the looms were increased to give us fabrics of 54 and 60 inch widths.  This made a huge difference to vestment making as we know it today!

Lucy Mackrille made a poignant addition to her book after the War.  I want to give it to you here:

FABRICS: A POST-WAR CHAPTER  1947

(By Lucy Vaughan Hayden Mackrille, first Altar Guild Directress of the National Cathedral at Washington, DC.  Taken from the second edition of her book; Church Embroidery And Church Vestments, copyright 1939.)

This book is a pre-war composition.  Sad changes have come over the textile industries of the world.  With tears we handle the lustrous and luminous folds of the luxuriant fabrics of years now gone.  It is difficult to contemplate Church life without them.  Those were golden days and we did not know it.

We are emerging from a devastating war; which necessitates the revision of my chapter of Silk Fabrics.  The precious silks I wrote about on page 19 are no more.  The English 27-inch damasks we loved so much are gone perhaps forever.  They have been destroyed by bombs and fire.  The very looms and machines, the patterns and designs are gone, destroyed, obliterated.  There is no more silk thread to weave; even if we had the looms to weave it.  No more silk thread to make embroidery silks, nor to make the shining cords and twists, and luscious fringes.  All silk thread came from Japan.  And now they talk of cutting down the mulberry trees which feed the silk worms; so they can plant gardens to feed the starving Japanese people. 

With the destruction of the English silk industry, silk textile workers in the United States undertook to weave a 50-inch width silk damask, copying the English registered, patented designs, Ely, Agnus Dei, and Small Rose (my italics), as long as the silk thread lasted, and until the U.S. Government commandeered all there was left, for the U.S. Forces, parachutes, etc.

These silk damasks, U.S. Make are excellent and the width is most acceptable, reducing the number of seams in a super- frontal, for instance.  But now the meager supply of silk is no more; and the synthetic fabrics do not compare favourably.  A few years ago a silk industry was established in Canton, China.  Now that Japan has evacuated Canton there is no hope for the restoration of this infant silk industry.

Gold thread is gone too.  Japan made all the untarnishable gold thread.  Whether we ever see any more is a question.  These may again come to our shores if Japan can get ships.

Cloth of gold is no more.  That was largely made in Europe, especially France; but those factories not destroyed by bombs have been stripped of every scrap of machinery.  Nothing is left, nothing.  France has no silk thread, no cotton thread, no looms, no machines, no tools, no man power.

There is no more linen being made; nor has been since the war began.  The best flax, the long fibre flax, came from the Ukraine in Russia.  The Germans burned over these plains, destroying the very fertility of the soil.  Linen must be woven in a wet country – some place like Ireland, where it rains every day.  So now we are waiting for Russia to rehabilitate her flax fields, so that Belfast’s linen industry may be resumed. 

Commerce is being restored.  We live in hope.  Be very careful of linen vestments, and the Altar linens; washing them at home, never at a public laundry.  Be careful of the silk vestments, keeping them shut up away from dust and light, when not in use.

 Written 63 years ago.

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The Girls + Vincent - $12 each or $55 for all five

This is an interesting group of publications.  Of course they contain a great deal of useful information.  On the other hand, these books were written during a time when all women were competent seamstresses.  I've found that the authors left out a considerable amount of information simply because they presumed that the information was so basic that everyone knew it and it didn't need to be repeated!  (Well, when I was starting out, I needed it!)

These books offer us a window into the times when they were written.  At the end of her book, there's a wonderful photograph of Lucy Mackrille taken in her garden.  A perfect '20s photo!

'The Girls' are Lucy MacKrille, Lilla Weston, Hinda Hands and Maud Hall.  Each of these ladies wrote significant books about vestment making during the early decades of the 1900s. 

Vincent was a British tailor who wrote during the late 1890s. Vincent is remarkable because he wrote books of patterns during a period when there were no patterns - you couldn't go down to the local fabric store and purchase tissue patterns.  There was, at that time, no way to share patterns.  I had no way to share a new dress pattern with my sister in California - I couldn't send a pattern by Pony Express. 

Vincent invented a system for transmitting patterns and then wrote books that gave hundreds of patterns. These books included patterns for women's, men's and children's clothing, under-clothing and lingerie, outer-wear, servant's clothing and uniforms, military uniforms, academic wear, clergy clothing and vestments.  The patterns in Lilla Weston's book utilize Vincent's method.  I'm offering his books of vestment patterns. 

These are historic books that belong in the library of anyone who is serious about vestment making.  These books are simple copies of the originals.  They are unbound and may be kept in a notebook.

The Embroidery Pattern Catalogue (also known as The Brown Catalogue) -  $17 

This is a catalogue of several thousand embroidery patterns suitable for both white-work and for gold- and silk-work embroidery.  It's often referred to as 'The Brown Catalogue' because it was published in the mid-1850s by Thomas Brown & Son 'Manufacturers of Laces, Damask & Fringes, Dealers in every description - Textile Fabrics for Church purposes and Embroiderers.'  Not mentioned in that classic little blurb is the fact that Thomas Brown & Son also manufactured a nearly infinite number of iron-on embroidery transfers - that are shown in this catalogue. 

If you wanted to work embroidery on either linen or vestments, you went down to your local fabric shop - which carried this catalogue, just as our fabric shops carry the Vogue and Simplicity pattern catalogues today.  Each pattern has a number and you'd choose the one you wanted.  The sales person had a list of these numbers and could tell you what sizes each pattern came in - some quite small, others quite large enough for a frontal. You paid the money and the sales person placed your order. 

Of course, the iron-on patterns aren't available any more (which, in my opinion, is just as well because nobody could get the transfer ink out of the linen!)  However, we can still use these patterns by tracing them using the modern transfer pens and pencils available to us today.   The patterns may also be enlarged or reduced using our copiers.

This catalogue is mentioned in Lilla Weston's book as being of great value.

Vestments Required for Holy Sacrifice of Mass - $8 

There's no date on this pamphlet.  It was probably published a decade or so after the Girls wrote their books.  Probably right around the end of the Second World War.  It was published by The Educational Bureau of The Spool Cotton Company, 745 Fifth Avenue, New York.  Needless to say, the information and patterns are very traditional.  It contains instructions and patterns for albs, cinctures, stoles, maniples, chasubles, burse and veil, cope and humeral veil.  It does not contain a pattern for a surplice because (it says right here on the cover: 'Instructions can be obtained in a commercial pattern'.  How times do change!).  The cincture pattern is made in-hand.  It's not the crochet cincture.

Church Laces - $12

This booklet is a collection of about 25 liturgical crochet lace patterns I've gathered over the years from several sources.  The patterns range in size from edgings for small linens to major scalloped super-frontals and inset lace for albs.  A nice group.