Updates and New Items for Ordinary Times in the Church Year

It has been a while since our last post – spring is flying by. We welcome those of you who are new to Ecclesiastical Sewing and are glad to have many who follow along on a regular basis. For those who are not familiar with who we are, Ecclesiastical Sewing is a small family business located in Northern Minnesota. To date we have almost every member of the family involved in Ecclesiastical Sewing in some capacity or other. The core of our team consists of my daughter Ashley, her husband Travis,  and myself. Our support staff includes my darling husband who has taken the title of “chief bottle washer, maid and cook.  We could not do what we do without him. Middle son Chris is one of our artists & his lovely lady Kate is our constant ray of sunshine, always willing to help with odds and ends, as well as dog entertainer. Younger son Nick is the resident technical support staff. And finally our two dogs remind us that life is short & we need to break from work sometimes. We are also blessed to have other wonderful people working along with us to bring you the products available at Ecclesiastical Sewing.

Our extended team includes Kimberly,  our pattern maker. Kimberly is working on a new collection of church vestment patterns that includes copes, vintage linen alb patterns, a square neck surplice pattern, rochet, deacon stole pattern, and many more…..we could keep Kimberly busy for years with our “wish list” of pattern ideas.  The new deacon stole pattern arrived from the printer and is now available on our website. We now have illustrations for many of our patterns so it is easier to see what they might look like.

Jan and Nancy provide exquisite hand embroidered linens. Those items will be available on our website shortly. Wait till you see the beautiful linen hems these ladies create! Words can not describe their work. We have one style of altar linens hand embroidered in a Patonce Cross design. Several additional styles of hand embroidered altar linens are also in the works. The linens are hand hemmed with workmanship that is truly outstanding. The naked eye cannot even see the stitching on the hems which are perfectly straight.  The set below includes a corporal, lavabo, and purificator which are all made from our Renaissance Linen.

Edward is our talented artist. We have been enjoying his Reformation Design collection. The embroidery for that collection continues to stitch almost non-stop on the machines!  Edward is working on a new collections which should be available later this summer. (Hint: Advent cometh!) Lend an opinion in the comments below on which you like better: red or green in the Catechism stole.

Eldest son Chris is helping out with photography and graphic designs for shows and the website.

Rebecca and Mary are two of our seamstresses who help sew the stoles and chasubles. Of course Ashley, Travis and I take an active role in just about anything that needs to be done. Ashley and Travis are truly the heart of my team, working along side of me, assisting with every line and product we make.

As we begin the summer months on the calendar, we enter a season filled with green trees and grass dotted with the bright pink, purple, red, and white of the flowers blooming profusely all around us. One glance around nature provides a feast of green shades for the eye to behold. It brings the entire world to life. Green is also the color for ordinary times in the church years. With the long Trinity Season or the “Green” Season just getting under way in the church year,  it  might be a good idea to give your green vestments and altar hangings a bit of attention. Consider checking for things like loose threads, hems, or seams that are coming apart; even vestments that have been used one season too many.

There is still plenty of summer left for a few new things for the season of ordinary times should the need arise.

The green brocades provide a wide variety of patterns and colors to select from. Here is one of our favorite selections: Ely Crown with St. Dominic Orphrey bands. It can certainly make ordinary times anything but ordinary.

Soli Deo Gloria