Sewing Church Linens, Revised Edition. Elizabeth Morgan

Washing—Ironing—Folding

       Conclusion

       Sources and Resources

       Acknowledgments

      I want to thank several people who have been channels of grace for me in the production of this book:

      The Reverend Frederick McQuade, assistant to the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany, supported our diocesan altar guild as our spiritual advisor. He is also responsible for the lovely embroidery designs included in the book, having given us the catalogue from which they were taken. (Copies are available.)

      The Reverend Robert Limpert, administrator of Barry House and priest at the Chapel of the Light and our six northern mission churches, both limits and supports my gnosticism.

      Thanks also to Barbara Gent for having proofed the first edition. You have much to thank her for. (For information on her book, see Sources and Resources.)

      Thanks as well to the eight sewing groups of our diocese, who got me going, kept me going, and taught me infinitely more than I taught them. Elaine Manigold, Mary Campbell, and Kirk Hauser have been special mercies.

       Introduction to the Second Edition—1999

      You know how it is when you do something unusual or different—giving a handmade gift or writing a little how-to book. Everyone says, “Oh, you're so creative!” That's the big word, creative! And, I'm not comfortable with it because I'm something else. I'm not creative; I'm inventive. I'm not an artist; I'm an artisan.

      I'm a “fixer” and a problem solver. I can't stand the idea that we might lose the old crafts and so I'm a spinster. I know the tree from whence my basket splints come and I enjoy using a draw knife and shave horse. I began my own church sewing with a major interest in fiber crafts and minimal experience. Oddly, this worked! When you take all this together and stir it up, I'm what you get. And out of this amalgam this book offers you techniques that will help you efficiently construct handsome linens for your church.

      Specifically this book offers:

      1. Diagrams and instructions whose clarity has been tested in the crucible of many classes and lectures.

      2. A method of turning hems that quickly and easily produces hems that are straight and even.

      3. A hemming method, convent hemming, designed to support the fine stitches used in ecclesiastical sewing.

      4. Good information for beginners about embroidery.

      5. Sources and support.

      My intent has been to “gather it all together in one place” so that we won't lose this lovely craft. I hope you will find that I have succeeded.

       Introduction to the First Edition—1992

      The past fifteen years have seen an increase in the number of women who work outside their homes. One of the many results of this change has been an increasing awareness of the value of spare time. We have become very frugal with our spare time and are determined to spend it wisely.

      The past fifteen or twenty years have also seen the revival of a number of the old crafts: quilting, counted cross-stitch, weaving, crewel, and needlepoint. It is interesting to note that the people who are involved in these crafts are just the ones who are so busy with work outside their homes. Handwork has always been a way for busy people to find respite from the busyness of their lives. Exactly because so many women (and men) find their lives so full of pressures, they are discovering that involvement in altar guilds and in church sewing gives them the sense of spiritual fulfillment and creativity that they need.

      Unfortunately, just at the time that church sewing has the potential to become active again, there is very little information on it!

      We can tell just how lively a craft is by the ease with which we can acquire materials and teaching texts. Both materials and texts are readily available for the lively crafts of quilting, counted cross-stitch, and needlepoint. The absence of materials and teaching texts tell us that sewing church lines is not a lively craft! Materials are almost impossible to find—reasonably priced linen, fine threads, pins, and needles. What teaching texts do exist are incomplete.

      A mystique has grown up around sewing church linens that says that this type of sewing is too complex and too time consuming for the average human being to accomplish. This mystique is false. Providing only that you learn the basic techniques, sewing church linens is neither difficult nor especially time consuming. The mystique develops when we lose our knowledge of the basic techniques. Once knowledge is restored, the mystique disappears. I am no longer surprised when I hear someone who thought church sewing would be difficult say, “You mean, that's all there is to it?” I am no longer surprised when someone who thought she was too busy to take on one more thing brings in her first purificator and is eager to learn to make corporals.

      Obviously, sewing church linens can be a time-intensive craft. It need not be so. Any of the small linens can be completed in a quiet evening. Even a fair linen goes very quickly.

      We cannot think about sewing our own church linens without touching upon the consideration of cost. Purchasing ready-made linens is a terrifically costly undertaking at a time when the financial resources of our churches are so desperately needed to clothe the naked and feed the hungry. A linen purificator will cost fourteen dollars. We can make the same fine linen purificator for one quarter of that cost. Sewing our church linens is good stewardship.

      I would offer you one last thought to ponder as you read. I think that Sunday school teachers and altar guild members come to love their chosen ministries with a particular fervor. You can't love something so much and devote time and energy to it without developing strong opinions about it. In altar guilds these opinions readily become fixed into traditions that say, “But we've always done it this way!”

      Several new friends from other dioceses have been kind enough to read this book and give me invaluable advice. Their greatest complaint has been directed toward my adherence to traditions and practices they feel do not coincide with other traditions and practices. You, too, will undoubtedly confront opinions that run counter to the way in which you do things in your diocese or your church.

      The range of these opinions is amazing, and the vigor with which they are argued pro and con is strong. Shall we use only linen, or are cotton and cotton blends acceptable, too? Is it blasphemy to lay six yards of 54-inch wide linen on a clean floor to cut it into a fair linen? Is it heresy to only pin a hem, or must hems be basted first? Are knots heretical? Do we risk offending when we mention the burse and veil, since some churches no longer use them?

      At first I thought to moderate my opinions so that I might become universally acceptable. To an extent, I have done this; to a large extent, I have not. I love my altar guild ministry. I have opinions, as I am sure you do. I am also sure that you can read my opinions with interest and go on to do what is acceptable in your own church.

      Some say this book is too long. I could have given you only instructions. I chose not to because I care so deeply about this beloved ministry that we share.