Holey, Holey, Holy...

On September 6th, I was really excited to have obtained a ticket for a special HODS event at Norwich Cathedral. Along with a dozen others we gathered at 10am and were taken upstairs to "The Pryor's Hall" where the Broderers' Guild meets to do their amazing repair and restoration work on ecclesiastical textiles.
Helen Johnson, who lead the Guild gave us a wonderful talk, showing examples of their work. The group has been going for about 25 years, and as well as hangings, altarpieces and robes [for clergy and choir] at the Cathedral, they do renovations for churches across the diocese, and right across the country.

This amazing chasuble comes from a church in central London and is a century old. The embroidery is almost Art Deco in style. There is a somewhat sad story behind it - 

There was a 'society' wedding, all very glamorous -the bride wore a stunning  ivory silk gown, and many gemstone. Then tragically, the bride was killed in a car accident, on her honeymoon. Her family donated the gown and the gems to the church, asking that some sort of priestly robes be made in her memory. Hence this chasuble.

But 100 years on, the silk has started to disintegrate. The team have relined the garment with especially dyed cotton fabric, and sandwiched the silk between that and monofilament conservation net. There are hours of work necessary to stitch round the motifs, thus holding the three layers safely together and making the garment wearable again.

If you look carefully at the bottom left you can see an area under the sun rays where the silk has almost disappeared. The net, once in place, is virtually invisible.

This is an amazing church hanging, from Victorian times, but being restored to its former glory. 

I was in awe of their tiny stitches, their meticulous attention to details, and the wonderful, peaceful atmosphere of the sewing room. 

The ladies work with highest quality fabrics and threads - conservation next costs around £50 a metre! Asked about costs, Helen told us "We give an estimate for the work, based on a figure per square inch" 

Bearing in mind that they sit round a table 8 foot by 4 foot, which holds an average altar cloth quite nicely - that's over 4500 sq. in.!!!

When I did my Advent stitching last year, the hardest part was working with the silver thread. Helen said her team do not find the gold and silver threads easy either! For the regular colours, she says they find Gutermann the most reliable.

My pictures did not come out too well, so I was really pleased to find this YouTube clip all about the Guild. It shows things far better than I can

I so wished all my sewing friends could have been with me for the HODS event - especially Kirsten - it was a mindblowing experience! Being a nonconformist Rev, Bob's never really had any amzing ecclesiastical garments. Unless you count his Noah's Ark Waistcoat which I made him years ago for a Family Service...