ISH Lenten Hand Embroidery Design

With the season of Lent soon beginning, a few new Ecclesiastical Hand Embroidery Designs have been cropping up in the workroom.  It is fun to take some of beautiful old designs of the past years, and recreate them for use once again in the making of Church Vestments and Church Linens.

When it comes time to select a design for an Ecclesiastical Hand Embroidery project, there never seems to be enough variety from which to choose.  As my library collections grows, so does the volume of beautiful vintage Ecclesiastical Embroidery Patterns.  Often the designs are in poor condition, and it takes hours of work to recreated them into a usable design. Many of the older designs were much more detailed and complicated.  And while many of us like some variety with details in embroidery, too much of a good thing often becomes a deterrent to working on a project.  Finding the exact balance between having enough detail in a design for interest, and not too much so as to make stitching impossible is the key.

The IHS design above is an element taken from a very detailed and intricate border pattern. While the entire border was lovely, this design is appropriate as a stand alone element. The stylized floral elements converted to letters on this design are interesting. They would be so fun to stitch as a simple outline, or worked as a monogram style with padded satin stitch.  Worked in subdued threads and colors, the design  fits the season of Lent. But stitching this design goldwork threads combined with silk floss would create a design that shimmered, suggesting the glory of the Resurrection. One could even add adornments of beads or jewels at the centers of each letter. With two sizes of the design available, it would be nice for use on a stole, or on smaller linens such as purificators or lavibos.  It would even work well on a pall.  In a larger size, it could be used for a pulpit fall design, or even an altar frontal.

The IHS Lenten Design is available here for your personal use.

Solo Dei Gloria

Be sure to visit our online store front Ecclesiastical Sewing where you may shop for Liturgical Fabrics, altar linen fabrics, church vestment making patterns, liturgical machine embroidery designs,  church vestment trims and notions and so much more. You may also find us on  Ecclesiastical Sewing  on Facebook , Twitter, and Pinterest. Sing up for our mailing list  at the bottom of the page on our online store front and receive a free copy of our Small Linens Booklet as our way of saying thank you for following along.