Liturgical Embroidery Designs: Continuing the Process

Working through the process of creating a new collection of Ecclesiastical hand embroidery designs is always a challenge.  The past few days have seen continued work on a Fleur de lis liturgical hand embroidery design.  The goal is hopefully to create a Liturgical embroidery design collection suitable for use on a variety of church linens and church vestments.  The nice thing about continuing to work on a specific design over an extended period of time is that the design often (but not always) improves. It becomes refined, and clarified. It gains style and individuality.  Or at least, that is the goal….. and it is nice when it happens.

The first design in this Fleur de lis collections was not much beyond the interpretation of a vintage Ecclesiastical embroidery design.  And that is sometimes the most difficult part of the design process: creating an element or theme to work with. This liturgical embroidery design has so many curvy parts which is a bit of a challenge when one is still in the learning process of the computer program. Once the basic design element is complete, the next step is taking a very simple design, and adding a bit of charm and originality without making the design too complex.  Yesterday’s design was stepping things up a notch with the Fleur cross.  The design turned out nice, but the square in the center – it is OK and will work, but it was not quite right. I liked it, but I did not love it. It was a take it or leave it thing. So, this evening it was back to work  to see if things could improve.  And, I will let you be the judge.

This is one of the first modifications, and it is not bad. The question is whether the tear drops stay or go.

The tear drops are removed, and it somehow looks a little plan in those corners now. One more idea came to mind. In my work cataloging vintage Ecclesiastical embroidery patterns for a monastery, the sisters often turned the designs on a 45 degree angle for use on a burse or pall. since those pieces are square, these design feature helps “fill the corners” to eliminate or shift the voided space.  So, giving that thought a try, here is the result.

Not bad. The design is almost there. Just one more thing to finish it off…..

So what do you think? The border could be couched gold threads for gold and silk work. On a burse or pall, the border could be accomplished by using a narrow trim such as these Dice trims.

Now the Ecclesiastical embroidery design awaits proper sizing for use on a pall or burse, and maybe a little more work on that border when the hour is not quite so late.

Over the next few days and months, I will continue to work with this design element and see what else might evolve.  Down the road, there is a plan for some of these designs. They might find their way into machine embroidery designs……..or in a collection of Liturgical hand embroidery patterns and designs for use on church linens and church vestments.  Time will tell……………

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.