Vestments

Great Hockham Mothers Union banner

2012-02-07T10:33:00.007Z

A while ago a friend came to me with a plastic bag filled with something in the way of fabric in a very sorry state. She quietly told me that she'd noticed the Mother's Union banner at Church had been very grubby indeed so she washed it. The entire background of silk had rotted away and the embroidery was sadly in need of some tender care. Could I please have a look at it and see what I could do.I love these kinds of jobs and have absolutely loved every minute of restoring this old and very beautiful thing. I had to use tweezers to pull out the old threads and it was fascinating to see what was underneath.Appliqueing primroses is a therapeutic exercise on a cold and wintry day.
and though replacing the threads around the lettering was a painstaking job, it was worth while in the end.
Luckily the embroidery and applique of the mother and child was still in good condition. It's extremely hard to make faces look good with fabric, it's where the real Art lies in this sort of piece and this one is beautifully done.The work that no one sees is just as important as without this stitching , the banner would bag and look like a sack. I was able to use the original interlining but it was very thick linen and I ended up with plasters all over my fingers as I stabbed & stabbed again to get the needle in exactly the right spot.

Finally though it was finished. I'm very pleased with it and hopefully it will last another hundred years or so.

Kerry Dwyer's stole

2010-03-22T13:35:00.006Z

My friend Kerry is an interfaith minister in Sydney. She asked me to make a stole for her ages ago but we couldn't decide on a symbol that would encompass an Inter faith message. Then I went to London to visit Watts of Wesminster and found a fabulous book on Ecclesiastic embroidery with this image of a phoenix in it.
But then it turned into THIS... a much better image. Graphic & powerful.
With a hand made tassled fringe.
Painstakingly sewn onto petersham ribbon.

Finished at last.
Let's hope lots of loving couples get to gaze at it on their big day as they kneel in front of Kerry D.

2009-08-03T10:08:00.001+01:00

My buddy Jeremy has given me a Mitre to restore. I've carefully unpicked it and found a date inside which you can just see in this picture, it says 1896. Boy, that's old.
It's a beautiful thing with pearls and garnets along the Victorian metalwork edge. I've found the perfect red fabric and have replaced these tattered and worn bits.
With shiny new lining tails.The embroidery on it is exquisite and there are semi precious stones inside the circles on the front.
It has a cross on the top that has two stones missing so a friend, Sheila is going to replace them with moonstones for us.

Lotus embroidered stole

2009-05-11T15:42:00.001+01:00

I finished a stole today that is to go to Australia.
The woman it's for is studying to be an interfaith minister and wanted a motif that would transcend and combine all religions. We decided on a lotus as she has one tattooed on the back of her neck. I think it worked out rather well.

Swaffham banner

2009-04-01T16:13:00.007+01:00

I've been asked by Swaffham (Norfolk UK) Mothers Union to make a new banner for them, replicating their old one which you can see here. The fabric is so old that the blue around the outside edge is almost white.
I had a job & a half to find the right blue. Eventually I found some beautiful silk at Watts & co in London behind Westminster Abbey. Extremely pricey though.
The symbols on the banner are interesting: crossed keys & crossed swords for the saints Peter and Paul. Here's the original with swords.
And the beginnings of the new ones: transferred onto the back & then sewn through with cotton thread to mark the front
Here are the new ones embroidered on.
I've had another job and a half (that makes 3 jobs now doesn't it?)to try & get the gold fabric that is appliqued on for the cross & lettering but after emailing 7 different companies today a few of them have started to reply and have said they will send samples. It's a really unusual lurex that looks like it has real metal in it. Who knows how old it is In the end I used gold kid for the cross and crown. It worked well but my poor fingers were very sore from pushing the needle through the leather.
Attaching the gold cord took ages but it finally took shape and started to look like the real thing.

Thetford Masonic Banner

2008-10-14T14:21:00.005+01:00

Ages and ages ago our very wonderful friend Harold Lock asked me if I'd be interested in having a look at a banner they had at their Masonic Lodge. It was the centenary of it's consecration in 1909 and they needed a new one. Did I know anyone who could do the job?
Here's a picture of it. Faded and cracked but still a fine example of the Victorian banner maker's craft.Would I be interested in trying to replicate it? I was.
At the time I thought it should be no problem at all. I thought I'd embroider the gold lettering to save me having to learn how to use gold leaf on fabric ......A million miles down the track I discovered that it was a much harder brief than I had expected. First I had to find the material for the ground, which took forever and lead me through a range of very expensive silk manufacturers. I finally ended up finding exactly the right fabric at a sale in North Norfolk. I had to trace the original onto transparent plastic, then trace again over that before putting it onto the fabric.
Without moving it an inch...
Next I had to find the gold embroidery thread. NO GO. Embroidery threads come in yellow or beige or taupe. Nothing like the gold I needed. I decided I would try to find some gold paint instead. I had success here again in Norfolk at the Norwich Art supplies shop where I found the perfect gold powder that became a fabric paint when you mixed it with a particular medium. So far so good.....
Every morning I'd wake up thrilled to be working on such an auspicious piece. I honestly loved every minute working on it.
So after much joy & a small amount of anxiety I finally finished it. Such great symbolism, with the all seeing eye, the sun and the moon, the Mason's square and compass. It was great to see something so old and faded come back to life again .

Jane Nursey's reversible chasuble and stoles

2008-09-26T18:03:00.005+01:00

The lovely Jane Nursey is being Deaconed on the 4th of October 2008 at East Dereham Church here in Norfolk UK.
She wanted a reversible chasuble and two matching stoles. The braid we initially decided on for the white side of the Chasuble was fearfully expensive and Jane asked a couple of members of her Church if they knew of anywhere we could get braid at a more reasonable cost. The couple that she asked are retired from their business of making Passementerie but they readily offered to make the braid we needed as a gift.
How wonderful to be able to wear something you know has been lovingly created specially for you.
The crosses on the backs of the stoles are hand embroidered to a design that Jane supplied.
The silk is from the David Walters silk mills in Sudbury.

Little Ellingham Church

2008-07-14T14:39:00.001+01:00

Yesterday evening we went to a tiny nearby village Church in a place called Little Ellingham. Where the set of green vestments that I've recently finished were blessed. How many people are lucky enough to have their handiwork blessed?

Green chasuble set

2008-05-31T10:22:00.000+01:00

I finished the Green Chasuble set for Eye Church. The beautiful green silk was from Sudbury. The central piece is from a Cope that was torn.

The embroideries on the stole are from a Maniple no longer used.
Here's the original Cope and it's motif.

Jane Nursey's stole

2008-05-30T14:48:00.000+01:00

Finally posting pictures of a stole I did for Jane who works at the Church in East Dereham, Norfolk, UK. I did the embroidery when we went on a working holiday to La Fosse de Tigne in the Loire Valley near Angers. We were surrounded by vines and it was a pleasure reproducing them in fabric & thread.

David Hill's Cope

2008-05-10T10:02:00.000+01:00

My dear friend David is at East Dereham Church.
He's a great patron & wanted a Cope to use for weddings that would outdo the bride !!! David's an East Anglian lad through & through and thus wanted the emblem of St Edmund on the hood; the crown with arrows, symbolising his martyrdom by being shot through with arrows.

The crown shape was built up with wadding first then covered in two sections with gold kid.
Here's the back showing the amount of couching to hold down the applique.

Adding the Morse...
The long Orphreys of red crushed velvet.
The finished hood attached with buttons with crowns on them...

David looking very regal in our not-so-regal living room.

White and gold set finished

2007-02-16T15:28:00.000Z

At last the whole white and gold set is finished.....

Here are a few photos taken in the workroom...

The stole...

The Burse.... Strangly enough it was the Burse that took the most time, it all had to be hand sewn. The one I undid to see inside had the tiniest stitches I have ever seen. It was made of beautiful silk like babies skin.
I had calculated perfectly for the amounts of braid I had to use...

At last

2007-01-16T10:56:00.000Z

Here are some photo's I've been trying to get onto the blog for ages........(computer glitches are to blame).
Trying the cloth on the altar...

The Chasuble being made....

Nigel tries on the chasuble....

At last triumphant.....it all fits.

Fabric arrives

2006-12-01T14:33:00.000Z

News just in on "altarcloth.blogspot.com"
The fabric & braids have arrived in a very well wrapped parcel from M Perkins & Son Ltd

Luckily Nigel dropped in to capture the moment on film.

The interlining that will be used is an ancient type of fabric rarely used nowadays called Dowlas.
It was really difficult to find & Perkins & Son seem to be one of the very few suppliers of it.
Even the Broderers guild at Norwich Cathedral couldn't tell me where to find it. In the end I rang the National trusts textile conservation department, who then put me onto the Royal school of needlework.
From Wikipedia's definition...."Dowlas is the name given to a plain cloth, similar to sheeting, but usually coarser. It is made in several qualities, from line warp and weft to two warp and weft, and is used chiefly for aprons, pocketing, soldiers gaiters, linings and overalls. The finer makes are sometimes made into shirts for workmen, and occasionally used for heavy pillow-cases. The word is spelt in many different ways, but the above is the common way of spelling adopted in factories, and it appears in the same form in Shakespeare's First Part of Henry IV, Act III scene 3. The modern dowlas is a good, strong and closely woven linen fabric."

Now the work begins

Welcome

2006-11-11T17:04:00.000Z

Welcome to the blog about what's happening in the world of Altar cloths & vestments for East Harling Church.

Altar cloths & inspiration

2006-11-02T21:23:00.000Z

Here are a couple of pictures of the altar cloths that are usually hidden in the Cope chest at East Harling Church. They are truly beautiful and incredibly well preserved. Does anyone know their history? Who made them?

Hopefully, the one I'm making will be on view a little more frequently.
Here also are some inpiring embroideries I saw recently at an exhibition at Norwich Cathedral.

The world of ecclesiastical textiles is an amazing one.