The church year has a long history of using specific colors to mark the various celebrations, feasts and festivals of the church year. There are certain colors that transcend among all faiths. And then within various  faiths, the color may vary according to use and tradition. An example would be some churches use Liturgical Fabrics with the color Violet or purple while other use Roman Purple.

The most basic colors used in the church include a white in some form from Bridal white to deep cream. The white color family is used to mark festivals such as Christmas, Easter, All Saints Day, and in the United States, white is used in some churches to mark Thanksgiving Day Celebrations. Red marks Pentecost, and may also be used in some churches for Palm Sunday and Maunday Thursday, and to mark commemoration days of some Saints. Violet or Purple is used for Advent and Lent. Green is used for the longest period of times in the season between Epiphany and the beginning of Lent, and for ordinary times during the long  season between Pentecost and the end of the church year.

Ely Crown is a fabric design that has been around for a long period of time, yet this pattern is classic enough in its simplicity and beauty to be loved still today. There are two design motifs of the floras and crown, surrounded in an intertwining vine pattern. The above image is a cope that dates to the late 1800’s or early 1900’s which is made from Ely Crown. The cope is still in excellent condition and is still in use in the cathedral, although there are some signs of wear in the silk fibers in a few spots.

Ely Crown is among the patterns that we have selected from our line of Liturgical Brocade church vestment fabrics to include as part of our pre-cut stole kit fabrics. Ely Crown Liturgical Brocade church vestment fabric is available in ivory, green, red, gold an purple. Ely Crown has a pattern size and scale works well when cut into stoles. Typically, the floral design is centered on the stole.

The entire line of Ely Crown was reworked by the vendor about 2 years ago, which resulted in a new fabrication, which changed the hand of the fabric in a nice way. The other major change in the new version of Ely was to update the colors. There was a shift to brighter bolder colors. They were changed to match the Pugin Orphrey. And they did a great job with the matching things up.  Pugin Orphrey Bands are 3″ high.  Available colors of Green, Gold, Red, Violet, and Rose. Using Ely crown as the base to a stole. It is reasonably priced. The Pugin trim could be added at the lower edge with a double band spaced about 1″ apart. An additional band could be added at the chest for a total of three bands. The options for orphrey placement are many. The stole could also be cut as a broad stole or a V-neck stole and the orphrey could run the length of the stole.

And no pastoral stole is complete without a few finishing touches of a cross at the Center back neckline. Tassels are optional, but add a final finishing touch.

Stole kits like the Ely Crown Liturgical Stole Kit are ready for purchase through our online store at Ecclesiastical Sewing.com. And from now until the  December 31, 2017, we are offering a free 4 1/2″ wide pastoral stole pattern with the purchase of a stole fabric kit to mark the Celebration of the Grand Opening of Ecclesiasticalsewing.com

Soli Deo 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: Advent, Ecclesiastical Fabric, Ecclesiastical Sewing, Liturgical Colors, Liturgical Fabrics, Pastoral Stoles Tagged: Advent, Christian Crosses, Ecclesiastical Fabric, Ecclesiastical Sewing, Liturgical Colors, Liturgical Fabrics, Pastoral Stoles