I’m getting ready to sew another vestment. Purple this time. People who are into color and design already know what I have learned painfully in the last few weeks. Purple is a very difficult color to work with. There aren’t a lot of colors available for a lining for a purple chasuble. I also learned that the purple I’m going to use is slightly bluer than many other choices. This means that lots of trim with bits of color in it will not work. The trim most likely has to be plain gold.
These galloons contain green because that’s what I was looking for at the time. They can all be entirely gold.
Gold color would also work, in general, to line a purple outfit, but the recipient said he didn’t want that. Although the front will have a golden orphrey (that’s the lengthwise decoration) he thought a gold lining as well would be a bit too triumphant for Advent. So this is the answer.
That lining matches that fabric perfectly. These colors, by the way, are totally incorrect. I am not making a lilac colored chasuble, but that’s the way they came through from the online sales person. This shows the main fabric color much better, plus the gold orphrey.
I realized, after painful study of 25 screen pages on a liturgical fabric website, that they do not have 600 choices for galloons. They have about ten, with each choice having different color combinations and sizes. The sizes range from 1/2 inch to 3 inches, and in some cases, each size has a picture. I suppose you could still call that six hundred, but for purposes of decision-making it’s smarter to use the smaller number. After the recipient chooses a galloon pattern, it’s up to me to buy wider trim for the edges of the orphrey and narrower trim to go around the edge of the chasuble.
I am going to buy an actual pattern this time. I drafted my own last time and it eventually worked very well, but I get a headache each time I imagine remembering what I did and where I put the pieces. This is not because I don’t want to do this project. It’s because I didn’t write enough down and I know — I Know — that I am going to repeat certain mistakes, and then repeat fixing them, unless I have some outside influence. Fortunately, now there’s a pattern that can be purchased. Instead of walking through my old mistakes, I can use my pattern and my recollections to adjust the new instructions.
The people who are selling the pattern https://www.ecclesiasticalsewing.com/ were urgent in their comments about studying how the neckline is put together, in a Saint Philip Neri Chasuble. Believe me, you nice people. I have done it four different ways, three of which were mistakes. I’m going to pay attention.
