Advent Altar Hanging and Pulpit Fall Ideas

After the bustle of finishing the Monk’s Habit this week on Ecclesiastical Sewing, it is time to take a short break and enjoy a little catching up on projects and Church Embroidery Patterns.

The season of Advent is fast approaching and the set of antependium and pulpit fall hangings currently in use in my church are nothing short of  – well – horrid. It is sad to say, but there is no other word to describe the set.  The design on the altar hanging is an angel that is a poorly done machine embroidered piece that was most likely intended for a pulpit fall. The symbols are dated, and the size and scale are not appropriate.  Having a poorly made and inappropriate set of altar hangings in place can become a distraction during the service. There is no beauty in the set, no matter how hard one ties to look for it.  Every year there are the same comments: set must be replaced.

I have a beautiful design in mind that is intended to be hand embroidered on linen and applied to the Blue Fairford  Ecclesiastical Brocade Fabric. The hand embroidered Ecclesiastical Design for this set is almost complete, but it will be a while before it can be started.  So, with a few weeks to go before the Advent Season is upon us for this year, can something be done in time for that first Sunday of the new church year?  Perhaps an interim Advent Set of Altar Hangings?

With such a short time frame until the start of Advent, the only option that might succeed is to do an Altar Frontal and Pulpit Fall using machine embroidery techniques.  This Ecclesiastical Set would not be a complete low mass set.  The minimum pieces needed would be an Altar Frontal (which may or may not have a superfrontal), pulpit fall, and chalice veil. I believe there is a stole that would work with the set for now.  The machine embroidery design would consist of stars, and perhaps the Alpha and Omega, and the Chi-Rho symbols.  In the past, I have been able to manage the machine embroidery part of an Altar Frontal and Pulpit Fall stitching over one weekend, and the construction of the Altar Frontal, Pulpit Fall and Chalice Veil over 2 or 3 consecutive weekends. The project is feasible, if it gets started now.  I am still hesitating to take the plunge, but might give it a try.

The fabric being considered is this lovely blue shade of Silk Dupioni. The lovely little spool of thread is Silver Elizabethan Twist. It would be lovely to somehow use this to add some shimmer to the star, but time is limited.

Tomorrow, it’s off to an all day seminar, and then more contemplating and planning on Ecclesiastical Sewing tomorrow evening.  Enjoy your weekend of projects!

Solo Dei Gloria

Be sure to visit our online store front Ecclesiastical Sewing where you may shop for Liturgical Fabrics, altar linen fabrics, church vestment making patterns, liturgical machine embroidery designs,  church vestment trims and notions and so much more. You may also find us on  Ecclesiastical Sewing  on Facebook , Twitter, and Pinterest. Sing up for our mailing list  at the bottom of the page on our online store front and receive a free copy of our Small Linens Booklet as our way of saying thank you for following along.