Altar linens and Liturgical sewing and embroidery

I have made several sets of clergy stoles for my retired pastor husband. I was asked to help with some new linens for the altar and communion at the church where he is now filling in while they call a new pastor. I have done this once before, and I learned a few new things this time. In an effort to preserve my process, and share the resources I used in case I need to do it again, I am going to document it here. The altar guild ordered several yards of a cotton linen blend fabric that was 60 inches wide from www.churchsupplies.com. It is listed under fabric by the yard, linen cotton. It was $68 a yard, and they consulted on the phone and shipped to Alaska quickly. I used the dining room table and my gridded cutting mat, a long tape measure, and a metal t-square to measure and cut the fabric. There are 2 cloths to cover the altar, called Fair Linen. In my research I found that it is meant to remind us of the linen that they wrapped Jesus in for the grave, and some include an embroidered cross in the front center and small ones on all 4 corners to stand for the wounds in His hands, feet and side. Once the fabric is cut, I took it to the ironing board, which I had covered with a piece of woven gingham fabric to help with keeping the edges straight. The hems are much easier to fold correctly if you use a soft surface, a long straight ruler and some kind of blunt pointed object and "score" along the turning line. The ruler goes just over the outside edge of the fabric to hold it down while you are making a "dent" in the edge.

After scoring the hem lines, use a hot iron without steam, and carefully fold the hem in and iron along the crease. I was turning in 1/2 inch first, and then 1 1/2 inches, and I did both folds one after the other. When you get to the corners, press up both edges so you can see the folds.

The next step is to mark the corners to miter them. There are instructions and videos online. I used a ruler and a pencil, since it was going to be on the wrong side and would not show, rather than trying to remove other kinds of markers. The edges have the first 1/2" fold in place, and a mark is made right at the edges, 3 inches from each corner. Then draw a line across the corner, through the fold lines. The fabric is folded so the edge marks line up, pinned to hold everything in place, and stitched across the pencil line. Check first to make sure the corner is correct, and then use scissors to trim the edges to remove bulk, and use a point turner to make the corner sharp and neat, and pin the hem down. Repeat for all 4 corners.

I took the whole thing back to the ironing board and checked measurements and ironed the hems again all the way around and pinned. Then I used some foam tape on the machine to make sure my stitching would run evenly right along the inside edge of the hem. I stitched on the right side. I used extra fine cotton thread that I had in my supplies.I also marked the place where I needed to turn the corner by measuring as I came to them and placing a pin at the spot.

I hold onto the fabric with both hands, gently, and let it feed through the machine without pushing or pulling, but all the handling of the linen can make the hem section stretch a little, and your hands will help control any fullness. After the hemming was all finished, I pulled the threads to the back side, tied the threads into a knot close to the stitching, slid them into a self threading needle, or one with a large eye will work as well, and buried the threads inside the hem and clipped off the ends.

The final step was machine embroidery, which was another whole project that I didn't document. I used a ruler and the iron to mark folds where the designs needed to be, hooped, stitched using white thread and several layers of tearaway stabilizer underneath and washaway on top. My favorite trick to remove the washaway stabilizer that doesn't tear off easily is to spray it lightly with water, place a paper towel on top and run the dry iron across the paper towel, and then pull the towel away and the rest of the stabilizer comes off with it. The final result was 2 long fair linens, 2 large rectangles for covering the communion ware on the altar, and 4 small squares to go underneath the communion vessels. They all have 1 1/2 hems, mitered corners, and embroidered crosses.

My favorite source for information and supplies for clergy stoles and liturgical sewing. Elizabeth Morgan's book Sewing Church Linens is available here and is a great wealth of information as well as my reference for this project. www.churchlinens.com The fabric I used was cotton linen blend from www.churchsupply.com Most of the embroidery designs I used came from Windstar Embroidery and were in the sections Christian and vintage. They all stitched out very well. www.windstarembroidery.com Love and Best Stitches, Kathy

Strawberry Jam and Good Memories

A gift of Florida strawberries prompted me to turn some of them into jam. The smell of sugar and berries, and the sound of jar lids popping this morning made me remember doing those things with my Mother, and the hot summer Memphis days in the kitchen when we canned fruits and vegetables from her garden. I hope my kids and grandchildren have the same kinds of happy thoughts about the things we do together. If you haven’t made a memory today, or pulled one out that makes you smile, maybe sharing this will help you to do that. Celebrating today with strawberry jam and good memories! I used the recipe from the Certo liquid fruit pectin package and 8 cups of sliced berries for 8 half pint jars of jelly and a little left over. I used my favorite recipe for homemade bread, Amish White Bread. It makes 2 9x5 inch loaves of bread. I use 1 cup of whole wheat flour instead of all white bread flour. It makes a loaf that is easy to slice and holds up well enough to use for a sandwich. It's also the perfect way to enjoy fresh strawberry jam.

Simple sewing! Cloth Napkins tutorial

I have always thought that I would like to teach sewing. Maybe this is my first class!

 I haven't used cloth napkins regularly since I left home in 1974. My Mother used them all the time and made lots of them. My first experience in learning to iron was as a little girl, and I was allowed to iron the napkins and handkerchiefs.

 The shortage of many supplies during the coronavirus quarantine inspired me to conserve the paper napkins and paper towels I have on hand, and make some cloth ones to reuse instead. I am going to heartily recommend a video tutorial that was my reference. It is well done and she has already worked out all the handy techniques. I'll go over the steps I followed, and you can also watch the expanded version. Here's the video that got me considering cloth napkin production.
  Supplies You will need:
 a square of fabric, (at least 12 inches square, bigger is better) You may want to practice the technique on something smaller at first.
 scissors (cutting mat and rotary cutter are nice but optional)
 ruler
 iron
 starch is helpful, see below
 thread to match
 a working sewing machine, with an edge stitching foot if you have one.
 1 yard of 54 inch fabric, or 1 1/2 yard of 45 inch fabric will make 6 napkins. Quilting cotton is fine.
 I started with 1 yard of 54 inch home dec fabric. I didn't pre wash. I felt the hems would press in better without prewashing. I also used spray starch. My favorite is Sta Flo in the blue jug from Walmart or Fred Meyer, diluted about 1/3 starch to 2/3 water in a spray bottle.
Here's a finished napkin.

I cut my 1 yard of fabric into 18 inch squares. I did a little math for the piece of fabric I had on hand and that size made 6 napkins. The video calls for 20 inch squares. I thought that sounded huge, and I could get 6 from my fabric if I made them smaller. I also skipped the little loops and buttons she shows in the video. They're cute but not necessary. I used starch and ironed the hems in the squares, starting at the top edge and working counter clockwise. My hems were 1/2 inch instead of the suggested 5/8. I folded over once, ironed, folded that hem down and ironed. I went back and took some more pictures of the corner fold with a different fabric.

Turn to the next side, and repeat, folding over the ends at the corners and pressing.

Keep moving around the whole square. Repeat for all the napkins.

 Sewing
 I used an edge stitching foot and did not pin anything. Start in the middle of one side, with the folded hem facing up. That means the bobbin thread will show on the front side of the napkin, so make sure your tension is correct and the stitches look nice. Practice on a scrap if you need to first. I lengthened my stitch a little, and used contrasting thread that showed up against the fabric on top and in the bobbin. If you're not confident of your stitching, use a neutral thread that won't show as much. Sew along the edge of the hem, and stop stitching about 6 inches before you get to the bottom edge. You need to leave yourself space to fold in the mitered corner. If you stitch too far, you will not have room to work.

Stop stitching, leave the presser foot down and the needle in and unfold the hem on the right hand side. Leave the bottom hem folded up twice. It will help to watch the video for this step. Fold the right hem up in a triangle, lining it up with the inside crease from the folded hem. Make sure the triangle fold goes all the way to the raw edge on the right. Tuck in the first fold with the mitered corner and then re-fold the second fold. You should be pretty close to having a mitered corner that meets at the hem edges. Wiggle things around a little if it seems way off. Again, watch the video for a better visual of this step. If it helps, make the folds and put a pin in to hold them ahead of time and remove the pins as you get to the corners.

I stitched just over the first fold of the miter, leave the needle down, lift the presser foot and turn the napkin to start stitching the next side.

Stitch around all 4 sides and repeat for all the napkins. You will get better as you practice! Clip loose threads, make sure the front sides look nice. I ran them through the wash when I finished. They're napkins, they are going to be washed and probably get stained. If they're not quite square or the hems are not exactly even, it doesn't matter. You did something pretty and creative for yourself and your family! I think the size is just right, and 20 inch squares would also have been a great size. By the time you add the hems and then they shrink a little when they are washed, a little bigger is better. The 18 inch made the most of my fabric size.

Here's a regular paper napkin on top of my cloth one for size reference.

I hope this encourages you to try making some cloth napkins. This blogging adventure is not something I have experience in, but what better time to play with technology? If you have questions or need help with any sewing subject, or this project, I will try to answer. I would love to see pictures of your napkins! Love, and best stitches! Kathy