Advent Star Altar Frontal

With only a few weeks until the New Church Year begins, an attempt is being made to create a new Advent Star Set of Vestments on Ecclesiastical Sewing. The Advent Star Vestment Set will be a combination of hand embroidery and applique techniques. This is a temporary interim Advent Set until there is time to make the long-term Vestment Set from Ecclesiastical Brocade Fabrics.  So, how does one go about making a Set of Altar hangings is about 4 to 5 weeks?

For starters, the majority of design work has been completed for quite a while. The Silver Metallic Threads are purchased. And most importantly, the project has the approval of my Pastor. For this set, the minimum number of pieces needed are an Altar Frontal with superfrontal, a Pulpit Fall hanging, and a chalice veil. A stole and chasuble are pieces to be added later if needed. The Ecclesiastical Hand Embroidery Design will be rather simple. The Altar Frontal has a large Advent Star as the central hand embroidery motif, with 4 smaller Advent Stars surrounding it.  There will also be a superfrontal (Super from the Latin meaning ‘above’) which will have an Alpha and Omega, and a Cross. The Design concept consists of very simple motifs. Dimension will be added to hand embroidery the  by outlining and using accent threads.  This will be a piece and fuse project.  It needs to move along quickly.

This evening, it is time to frame some linen and start piecing the applique work.  There will be minimal amount of hand embroidery on these Ecclesiastical Embroidery Designs due to time constraints.

The framing up of the Advent Star Altar Frontal is going fairly well.  The Advent Star Set will be made from  Blue Silk Dupioni, which is not a very heavy fabric. Rather than using my favorite Alba Maxima Linen as the base for this piece, the hand embroidery and applique work will use a very lightweight linen as the base, with Silk Dupioni appliqued on top.  In the photo above, the linen is framed and the design is traced on the linen. Because the linen is so light weight, the simplest method to transfer the design was to trace directly through the linen.  Being in a bit of a hurry to test for results, the camera was not out.  But never fear.  There are several other framing up projects to do, so I will be sure to capture those designs when framing up, as well as take you through the steps of attaching the Silk Dupioni to the linen.

The Advent Star Ecclesiastical Sewing and hand embroidery project is underway, and the clock is ticking.  Here’s hoping for no major interruptions in the next few weeks.

Solo Dei Gloria

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