Winter has arrived in Northern Minnesota. The air is chilly, or rather, cold! And it will get colder before it warms up. This will be a good weekend to slowly start some new projects and wrap up some some overdue cleanup.
The fall had many weeks of photo shoots and editing sessions in preparation for the new Ecclesiastical Sewing website, and then there was a last-minute remodel prior to a family wedding. It was fun, exciting, and everything went better than one could hope. And then it was all over, except the cleanup.
Thankfully, life has a way of returning to a stage of normal following a flurry of activity. Normal for now means no major projects looming beyond the ordinary. The Ecclesiastical Sewing workroom is still a ways off from being fully functional, but in time, projects will resume and focus can return once again to the new website and creating additional patterns for use in church vestment making. But more on that at a later time.
For this evening, let’s sit back, put up our feet and enjoy a bit of Ecclesiastical Sewing and Church Vestment making news from around the internet.
Over the centuries, Church vestments were made or produced by commercial workrooms, be nuns or monks in monasteries, by seamstresses, or needlework societies and guilds. While the skill levels of the workers varied, the vestment markers of days gone by have left us a rich heritage with the treasures still to be found within some churches, as well as in museums, the pages books, and on the internet.
There are still a few places where the age-old craft of church vestment making (or at least parts 0f the age-old craft) are still maintained, as well as areas that are on the cutting edge of new designs and styles in church vestments. Let’s take a look.
In a little town in Pennsylvania, the St. Vincent Archabbey workshop was busy this fall creating altar linens for a Papal visit. Rev. Vincent de Paul Crosby has been the designer at the St. Vincent Archabbey for many years. His finished altar linen pieces for the Papal Visit are lovely with the colored threads on what is normally white on white for altar linens.
Far away on the other side for the world in the St. Elisabeth Convent is a sewing studio and workshop that is well known for its high quality Orthodox vestments, as well as other types of Christian Art work. What started out as one small workroom intended for making vestments for the sisters of the convent has blossomed over time into a large enterprise.
For those interested in a little Italian venture, you may want to plan ahead for what is known as the largest religious fair in the world which is held every two years in the little town of Vicenza, Italy. Photos of the event show the latest fashions for everything from Miters to cassocks and chasubles. Italy is known for being the home to some of the top fashion designer in the world. So it is not surprising that Italy’s leading Ecclesiastical Vestment, the the Bianchetti Family, is known for their high quality designs equal to haute couture designers such as Armani, Gucci, and Prada. In true Italian style, the black zip front jacket over the blue clerical shirt in the above photo is a tasteful alternative to the traditional suit jacket.
The Italians are known for being leaders in fashion for both the secular world, as well as the religious world, but for those interested in more traditional vestment styles, you may enjoy reading about embroidery projects of the Sisters of Carmel. A glance through their past newsletters reveals the beautiful work done by the Sisters of Carmel. The Sisters use machine embroidery as well as hand painting for the emblems on their vestments.
After a refreshing look at vestment making around the globe, it is time to get back at projects in the Ecclesiastical Sewing workroom.
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.
Filed under: Ecclesiastical Sewing Tagged: Ecclesiastical Sewing, Ecclesiastical Vestments, Sisters of Carmel, St. Elisabeth Convent
