Videos from the Guild of St Clare

The Guild of St Clare is releasing a series of instructional videos about how to do simple repairs on vestments and a bit of domestic sewing--one episode to come will explain patching children's trousers.

This is the introduction to the series.



This one explains how to thread a needle, and how to stitch down loose braid. Yes, pretty well anyone can do a simple thing like this, and with a bit of patience and practice, and the right advice, can do it to a decent standard.

A lot of vestments in parishes bear the marks of incompetent repairs: certainly the LMS vestment collection does, as is noted in the video. This is not necessarily the fault of the people who carried out the repairs, who were often pressed to do it by priests who did not know anyone else who could have a go. The problem is that while every parish contains a few people who can sew, the techniques and skills needed for vestments, while not necessarily more challenging, are different. If you want to do repairs properly, even quite skilled sewers can pick a tip or two from this series.

A real eye-opener on the distinct nature of traditional vestment-making is the way stoles are made, a technique applicable to many other things. You can sign up to an online stole-making course here for 30th October (10am-4pm).

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