How delightful to be asked to make ordination vestments! Let’s have a look…

I love working with priests who provide some basic ideas as to style etc. but are then willing to let me take it from me there. Artistic freedom and all that… within reason! We chose a warm creamy dupioni silk and a deep red and gold for the column orphreys and the rest was up to me. I’m thankful for the trust.

I love the drama of a red lining on a white vestment although it requires care during construction so that it doesn’t show through… there is a cotton interlining throughout so that the colour of the face fabric remains true. The lining material was washed and dried on a hot setting beforehand too so as avoid any nasty surprises come cleaning time!

One of my many pet peeves is saggy linings. Goodness, am I petty and peevish! I hope not! The above picture is of the lining and face fabric and interlining (!) being sewn together all in one stitch along the shoulder seam. This is an 18th C technique, one of many I use for hand sewn vestments. This method ensures that the lining is anchored in along that seam and goes a long way towards preventing this regrettable problem.

One of my lovely children took the picture of mama’s hands at work on the neckline. As I thought about ordination, well it is a wedding really isn’t it! I just happened to have this beautiful Asian silk brocade in a similar warm white tone and used it to add a discrete floral element… weddings and gardens and flowers and all that.

Requested was the simplest of sets, so only the chasuble and stole rather than the full low mass set. I can make the other pieces down the road a bit.

I’m rather pleased with the end result. A gothic style but on the narrower side, a modern ‘Neri’ cut perhaps?

Intriguing isn’t it? Prior to the industrial revolution and machine sewing, tailors and seamstresses had fascinating ways of constructing garments. One of my areas of interest is the study of these historical methods.

So to answer an oft asked question, yes I do make vestments, to order and they are entirely hand sewn.

Up next on the table, repairing lace. Thanks for reading.