16th Jan 2008
A Look Back: The Celtic Stole
Clerical Stole made of green wool crepe and gold-toned upholstery fabric, quilted with variegated metallic threads, with muslin batting
This one is near and dear to my heart because it was made for my husband’s ordination.
The process was rather agonizing, however, because even though he was very consciously not hanging over my shoulder, it felt like he was, and I really didn’t want to screw it up.
I started thinking I would do a heavy panel of knot-work with two contrasting, gorgeous, metallic cordings that I found.
It was too heavy, and I couldn’t get it to even think about being even. So, I decided to go with a metallic thread quilting pattern for the knot-work on the front and the back.
I doubled the lines to help it read more to the back of the sanctuary, which I’m happy to say it does, and to give a much clearer image of the over-under patterns the knots go through.
The tabs at the bottom are upholstery fabric, and they shimmer much more than you can tell from the pictures. I did some quilting with the metallic threads within the pattern of the fabric, and on the side opposite the knots, brought that quilting up into the green after cutting the panel with a flame-like shape. The initial thought was a single line outlining flames, but it wasn’t nearly dense enough, so I kind of went nuts and was pleasantly surprised with the results.
He seemed to like it, too.
And here are the three ordination stoles, up to May of last year, all in one place at one time, with their ministers, too.
Hi Jess, thanks for the explanation and link to Simple Tags. I’ll try to do that when I get time. Great post about how you made this project, I didn’t know ministers wore such contemporary stoles. Very impressive!
Thank you, PaM — these are all Unitarian Universalist ministers, if that helps explain the more contemporary looks and lack of “traditional” symbolism.
Jess-
Do you have a stole pattern ? How long are they ? How do you do the pointed piece at the back ? I am making a stole as a good bye gift for our intern minister.
Thanks
Hi Elizabeth,
I draft a pattern for each minister, depending on the width and shape of their shoulders. For instance, if you have a person with sloped shoulders, you don’t want it as wide as someone who is very broad. I make them in four pieces, usually — two for the back and the two strips that hang down, with the seam right at the top of the shoulders. I also shape the neck so that it will lay flat over the robe.
To give you an idea of the differences — the stoles pictured above have very different patterns. The blue one has a round yoke in one piece, because he’s so broad (and it was the first one I made!). The green one is the pattern described above, and the FLW one on the left has a cross-over back, instead of a central back seam, to go with the design.
There are some commercial patterns available for stoles, but they’re usually not as “fitted” as mine.
For length, I usually go just below the knee.
Enjoy your project!