Vestments - Monk at Keyboard

It has been way too long since I posted here. Not because I have not done anything I could, but for other reasons. I am going to try now to catch up on sharing.

Today’s post is about my project of making custom embroidered chasubles. I shared the first images of this on the Facebook page quite some time ago. I have now finished two sets of these Chasubles; the first is a less solemn version, which you can see below.

I have finished 4 of these now. Personally, I felt it was a great achievement after having, over the past few years, tested and stitched out the patterns then go back to the design tool to edit them all over again to get what I wanted. There have been many iterations of each design with continued little edits.

These, though, were just a stepping stone towards what I finally wanted, which was a solemn set for the celebrations of the different feasts that are very important to the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit.

I started with these Chasubles from Gruppo Liturgico: https://www.gruppoliturgico.com/en/prodotto/chasuble-39/ and then started embroidering onto white upholstery velvet (only non-stretch velvet I could find). And with some help from a friend, I was able to sow it all together. Images below, which I will leave the reader to judge.

So, here I am, just wanting to experiment with making vestments. It would have been much less work and cheaper to buy the stuff. But I was looking for an excuse right now. So at my parents, I keep a set of vestments, but they are only chasuble and stole, which will not do for a Latin Mass. So looking to make the burse (a rigid case that holds the corporal and goes on top of the chalice), chalice veil and maniple (kind of like a mini stole warn on the priest’s arm).

The Materials for the Vestments

On the bottom left, I have the primary materials in each of the four colours. Then in the middle, the orphreys are also in the four colours, plus a blue (Marian) one. Bottom right is the perplex that I put inside the burse with some white calico to line it. Then the top right is the liner for the back of everything.

The chalice veil was easy to make, much like making a simple square pillow but putting nothing in it. There is nothing overly complex about the maniple either. The burse was a little more complicated. It took a while of looking at the one I brought to work out how it was put together. It seemed that the first thing was to line the perplex, and it was easiest to make something with two pockets into which the perplex could be pushed. The outside was also a little tricky. Trying to get the two wedges on the sides that let it open, but only wide enough to slip a corporal inside, was fiddly. It also had to be hand sewn on.

Work in Progress Photos

I should have taken more photos as I was going. I will try and do that when I finish it. There should be five of everything in the end, but for now, I have four chalice veils, three burses and two maniples done. I will finish it off next time I am at my parent’s.

Category: Vestments

Embroided Chasubles

Learning to make some vestments

The Materials for the Vestments

Work in Progress Photos