Photos are below. This thing is GORGEOUS, I tell you! I’m feeling VERY pleased with myself, I have to admit.

Action shot! The dalmatic in use!  
the answer to the frequently asked question, “what is a dalmatic, anyway?”
I didn’t make this. It’s by Adam Kochlin Designs. Their stuff is gorgeous! ]]> http://goingcrafty.com/?feed=rss2&p=5 0 http://goingcrafty.com/?p=11 http://goingcrafty.com/?p=11#comments Sat, 21 Jul 2001 22:39:29 +0000 admin http://goingcrafty.com/wp/?p=11 The green stole is finished. It took longer than I expected, mostly due to a lot of design-process futzing on my part. Since I don’t have any really good photos (this is what happens when I do things at the last minute and need to get them sent off right away!), I’ll describe it briefly, and badly.
I used 7 shades of green silk for the patchwork. After the red stole, which was an Adventure in Underlining, I decided to try something easier this time. Ok, I cheated. Fusible interfacing was involved. Not just plain old fusible interfacing, but the super-nifty gridded kind for quilters. I lined up my little squares of silk on that, pressed them lightly (with my mega-swanky new iron) and then folded along the gaps between the squares, and stitched the seams. Clever!

So, I made a nice long strip of patches, in the pattern of the image on the left. I split up the 7 colors of silk into 2 groups, which I treated as 2 different fabrics; 3 duller shades, which I used in place of the gray blocks in the image, and 4 more vibrant greens, which are the green blocks. I alternated the fabrics within their groups. The patchwork pattern is simple, but it also resembles a series of crosses, so it seemed appropriate.

I really drove myself insane trying to come up with a good way of adding a cross to the stole. I played with applique, and with goldwork embroidery, and with more patchwork, and nothing really worked. The traditional cross, with the horizontal piece about 1/3 down the vertical piece, didn’t work with the patch pattern, which suggests a more symmetrical design. So, I stared at it for about a month. Stare. Stare. Stare. Then, I was poking about on embroidery.com and saw a gorgeous Canterbury Cross machine embroidery design. A small bulb sputtered to life in my head and I decided to give that a try. The image here is exported from my embroidery software; it’s not the actual embroidered design, and it’s about half the actual size, but it gives you an idea of what it’s like.

I stitched it out using 2 different gold threads, and green rayon thread. I used a gold Madiera thread for the main fill area; it has a slightly twisted texture, so it reflects light differently than the other gold thread, a smooth-finished Sulky, which I used for the edges and detail. The end result was very rich. In fact, it reminded me of the hand-embroidered ecclesiastic symbols sold by vestment houses. Those are shipped as individual motifs that can be sewn to vestments, with gold or colored thread couched around the outside.
I couldn’t actually stitch the cross directly on the patchwork fabric, because of the seams. When the needle is moving as fast as it does for embroidery, hitting a seam can throw off the stitches. So, I decided to stitch the cross out on a piece of the lining fabric, which was a lightweight Thai silk. Then, I cut the fabric close to the edge of the design and turned the raw edges so they were under the motif. Now, I had an embroidered applique! I basted it in place on the stole, and then couched a green rayon cord around the edge, with a heavy gold cord around that. The effect was much richer than a plain machine-embroidered motif.

The stoles I made are in the Byzantine style; the center of the stole is at the Deacon’s right hip, and the ends cross over the left shoulder and hang almost to the floor. It’s a long piece of fabric! On the red stole, I simply mitred the pieces at the hip, where the two ends come together to form a 90° angle. For the green one, I used a square of fabric with another embroidered cross applique to form the corner.

The green stole was my second foray into liturgical vestments. The first was an ordination stole for the same friend. Red is the color for ordinations, so we selected seven red silk fabrics of various textures to be used in a patchwork design. The photo is kind of rough. It really turned out well, despite the fact that I had no idea what I was doing.

Relevant reference: Crosses of Many Cultures, for applique designs

I played with the seven different fabrics a while, found the right sequence, and put together a small section. It looks great, although I did learn some things in the process. For one thing, I need to use a slightly smaller straight stitch, since the corners of the rectangles are a bit loose. I also need to avoid doing this project at 1:30 in the morning. Really. I hate waking up, looking at what I did the night before, and wondering what the heck happened. sigh. I swear, that seam looked straight at the time…
I have also been making altar linens for my church, and embroidering them with my Rose. My narrow rolled hems are actually rather impressive. Well, now they are. My first attempt at a lavabo towel was a bit, um, charming in its imperfection. I really enjoy having some handwork to do while I’m having Couch Time, and hemming the linens is wonderfully relaxing. The book, Sewing Church Linens, is a must for anyone attempting this project.

Have you ever noticed that, when you’re making something for someone else, whether it’s a cake or a pillow or a dress, your thoughts are very much on the recipient? I know that, when I was making MacKenzie’s birthday present, I was thinking of her much more than I usually do; not just about how big to make things or what colors she likes, but wondering about what she thinks about, what her fantasy world is like, and how she’s growing up. I think this is why I enjoy working on church sewing so much; it gives me a space to think about God and Jesus and grace and all the other things I lose sight of when I don’t have those still moments.