Manly Lace, Indeed.

We Church Ladies have seen many examples of exquisite lace on vestments, but to my recollection, this is the first time I have encountered lace that was actually made by the priest who would be wearing it!

You can read more over on Needle 'n' Thread about the priest who decided two years before ordination that he wanted to make the lace for his alb, and then taught himself the necessary skills and finished the (rather massive) project on time.

Question from a reader

Where could I find a resource to check out the color/type of a drape for behind a high altar....we have 2 now. One of a liturgical fabric in purple, and quite frankly-it makes the high altar stand out better. The walls are white in the church and so when we put the other one up (white) it pretty much blends into the walls. I was thinking perhaps a red velour?...I do want it to be liturgically correct if we are going to spend any amount of money on it.

My first thought is that you can't go wrong with gold. It's always appropriate in place of white and really goes with any season. Gianna is currently working on a photography project where this piece of fabric is the unifying backdrop for a number of pieces.

It's a piece of upholstery fabric she purchased recently from JoAnn Fabrics and is 54 inches wide (which is typical of decorator fabrics). It's dense enough that it hangs well and the woven design is really quite beautiful - ornate, but not busy.

You could use red - look here for a beautiful example, but as a liturgical color it's most appropriate in a rather limited way on martyr's feasts, Pentecost, and Palm Sunday. I'm not convinced there is a nice way to make a red background like this work with a green ordinary-time altar frontal, so if you tend to coordinate the altar front for the season, you may want to stick with more neutral background colors, or those you can keep up for an entire season, like your purple.

UPDATES: Therese emailed me later yesterday with this:

For something that goes behind the altar, I don't think there's a specific color. It's almost more of an architectural feature, so I would go with something that matches the church itself, and doesn't clash with the liturgically colored frontals, vestments, etc. I could see a deep red velvet working well in a variety of surroundings, but I think it's more of a matter of aesthetics than liturgical correctness.

And I found this photo of a nice use of fabric on a friend's facebook album:

On a related note, be careful about over-dramatic fabrics. One time (thankfully quite a while ago), our parish liturgist draped a purple/blue tie-dyed looking fabric behind the crucifix during Lent and then changed to a more colorful, rainbow tie-dye for the Easter season. Of course, it was legendarily bad! So very, very awful! Instead of enhancing the crucifix, it just sucked attention away from everything that was happening with the Mass and onto it's terrible self. We know of a couple who were married during that Easter season and chose to have their church photos printed in black and white to downplay this fabric.

Today's Word

The recent post at NLM on the Watts Book of English Church Embroidery is interesting enough, but stay on their site a little longer and drool over the amazing fabrics and vestments. Even the banners are impressive!

And as long as we have such a perfect visual aide, let's move into today's word:

Cope
The vestment worn by clergy at Benediction, processions, and solemn celebrations of the Liturgy of the Hours. A cope is a floor length garment and is fastened around the neck by a clasp. A hood shaped like a shield is usually on the back of the cope.

Travel plans to Belgium?

I was just over at NLM reading about the Praying with Needle and Thread vestment exhibit at Tongerlo Abbey in Belgium. The title of this exhibit alone is enough to make me want to go! Spend a few minutes there today marveling at the incredible details of these beautiful works. You'll be glad you did!

Field Trip!

On Friday we had the opportunity to bring an out of state guest to Mass at beautiful Saint Agnes church in St. Paul. We were a little disappointed to discover Mass was celebrated downstairs in the chapel, but their very hospitable pastor, Father John Ubel, graciously gave us a wonderful tour of the main church afterwards.

Among other things, we got to see this lovely chapel where Father pointed out the needlework was hand made by the 90 year-old mother of Bishop LeVoir of New Ulm. As our gentleman guest pointed out, surely she qualifies for the Church Lady Hall of Fame.

Also on the field trip list for the weekend: Loomes, the Cathedral of St. Paul/Minneapolis, and back to Saint Agnes on Sunday for their beautiful Latin High Mass.

Just another day in the life of a Church Lady

This was the scene in my laundry a couple of weeks ago. I should note that I'm not, at the moment, a parish sacristan or anything of the sort; they just sort of found their way over to me. I really shouldn't be surprised at this point.

A couple of tips I've learned from experience: dish soap + a bit of scrubbing seems to be the best way to remove lipstick from a purificator (and, please, if you're going to be receiving under both species, keep the lipstick light, both in the application and the color!). Secondly, if you find yourself in such a situation, and without laundry starch, just fold the linens straight out of the washing machine and press them on a good, hot setting. The steam leaves them nice and crisp.

Long and short stitch lessons online

Needlenthread.com has been running a series of lessons for working a long-and-short stitch sampler in DMC floss. Why might this be of particular interest to Church Ladies? Despite the prosaic name (it's also known as needlepainting), long-and-short stitch is the basic technique used to produce, for example:

(Source)

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and, in a more modern example, parts of this:

(Source)

Have a look, and make sure to click on the source links for more pictures!

Linen Primer

For the church ladies, caring for linen is a year-round concern, as many of the better surplices, etc, are crafted of this delightful fabric. And as Memorial Day approaches, our own chic linen sundresses and skirts are coming out of storage. Here are a few quick tips to make your linen look its best.

1. Start with a clean iron. If the sole-plate is dirty, heat the iron on the steam setting, then unplug it and let it cool for a few minutes. Scrub with a wet terry washcloth- the steam will loosen anything that's caked on.

2. To keep that crisp finish, iron your linen when its damp. If that's not possible, squirt it well with water and starch before ironing.

3. Dry-clean your fancier linen. Those Dryel bags make this affordable and easy at home.

4. For a more casual look, you can wash your linen. Separating the lights and darks is super important here, as is avoiding bleach, which can be harsh on this delicate fabric. Always use cold water.

Should you starch an alb?

The church ladies at Fr. Z's Altar Guild offer advice. o{]:¬)

From the Mailbag

Reader Micki wrote to inform us of her own way of organizing her holy card collection: namely, a blog with pictures of the cards (over 750, she says, to date!), along with various prayers and quotes. A personal favorite: the "Ave Crux, Spes Unica" card from last week. (Given your Blog Hostesses' great fondness for Our Lady's University, are you really Surprised?)

Reader Teresa in Germany (I presume from her address) writes about embroidery, and shares an image of her own handiwork:

I made a pall for a newly ordained priest, as a gift at his "Primiz"-greeting (after his first Holy Mass) and the sample was from this blog too. I'm looking forward to create a maniturgia. There are also groups on yahoo (sew4church and catholiccyberneedles), where people can compare notes about this matter.

Last but not least, a reader wrote to enquire about a source for "Pray for Priests" magnets in bulk. If anyone has such information, please do leave a comment.

Embroidery and Old Books

One of today's commenters pointed me towards the wonderful Needle'n'Thread blog, where I found this Lovely resource:

Church Embroidery, Ancient and Modern, By Anastasia Marice Dolby

As Your Hostesses are great lovers of both the needle arts and vintage books, you can imagine my delight. I highly recommend you have a look at both the book and the blog, which has several wonderful resources.

Silk burse from a sow's ear

I was originally going to title this post 40 Hours Devotion, but the project took a bit longer...

Above is a burse I rescued from a local priest's hideous burse drawer and re-covered. In its new glory it was first used at a recent Church Lady wedding. As the receiving priest is fairly newly ordained, a gold burse is a nice way for him to to supplement his white vestments and emphasis solemnities such as Epiphany and Candlemas.

The original burse was violently jungle green and studded with rhinestones. It was so hideous that my computer has eaten all documentation of its original state.

For the new cover, I used the gold brocade that was popular among church ladies this season. Due to the shiny texture of the fabric, I had trouble transferring the level of detail of my chosen design using conventional means. Instead, I printed the design on regular bond paper, and tacked that into place on the brocade. I then began the hand embroidery, sans hoop.

Using a variety of plys of embroidery floss (1 for fine detail, 2 for medium, 3 for strong emphasis) I embroidered the line work in desired detail, using a back stitch for a tight line. Using a seam ripper, I carefully removed the excess paper.

I then satin stitched the fills: the feathers and the nest. After steaming the design flat, I trimmed the edges and finished them with Fray Check before folding the edges over and whip stitching the new panel on to the burse, the remainder of which was in good condition.

Here is am excerpt from New Advent's entry on burses:
A receptacle in which, for reasons of convenience and reverence, the folded corporal is carried to and from the altar. In Roman form the burse is ordinarily made of two juxtaposed pieces of cardboard about ten inches square, bound together at three edges, leaving the fourth open to receive the corporal. One outer side of the burse is of the same material and colour as the vestments with which it is used; the rest is lined with linen or silk.

Also, St Isidore's website has many helpful hints about altar linens, such as which way to orient designs.