Sewing Church Linens: Convent Hemming and Simple Embroidery

Elizabeth Morgan has a wealth of knowledge pertaining to linens used in the celebration of the Episcopal services and she generously shares it with her readers. I bought a copy of her book several years ago to help me in cutting usable pieces out of an old holey (and no, I really mean full of holes, not blessed) fair linen. The various dimensions were clear and the directions for a convent hem and suggestions for embroidered crosses were invaluable. In addition, her gentle, witty and authoritative guidance lead me to make as many small linens as possible from the thin, fine, silky fabric. It wasn't a total waste of time, but Ms. Morgan advises that one should start with new linen rather than trying to salvage the old; the pieces I labored on didn't last more than a year or two of use. When it came time to replace them, I this time purchased new fabric and enlisted members of the altar guild to help. There were so many questions from the ladies, so eager to help with the hemming, that I decided to gift the guild with a copy of the book. That is why I have purchased this copy. It's the new linen makers' bible for everyone Episcopal.

The book arrived in a timely fashion (THANK YOU AMAZON!). Elizabeth is wonderful! She speaks from years of experience. Many of the other resources for making Church linens out there are 50+ years old. The linen those women and men used was different from the linen we have now, made on new machines. Elizabeth knows this and has a clientele of people across the country that she works with to perfect the art of making altar linens. She carries fine linen as well as thread and has information on the white embroidery for the linen. She also has a fine booklet and tool called THE GOLDEN RULER that is available on her website. [...]

This book MORE than met my expectations. The author, Elizabeth Morgan, is an awesome woman who is never too busy to explain things to you. I called her to ask questions before I purchased "The Golden Ruler" and she spent so much time with me explaining anything and everything I could have asked. I can't wait to see what she creates and/or writes in the future. This is truly a wonderful purchase, the book is easy to read, plenty of visuals to guide you...along with expert advice to create the most beautiful church linens!

This is THE most intuitive and most lovingly done instruction book, of any kind, I have ever seen. I knew as soon as I read her "Mission of the Altar Guild", and then her introduction. Elizabeth Morgan has such a devotion to her 'calling' and it shows in her detailed and very explicit instructions. A beginner, as well as an experienced stitcher, can profit from reading this book. I would hartily recommend it to anyone who wished to get involved in making or in the care of altar linens.

(Thank you for this book describing various techniques for sewing Church linens, we hada few books at home but not like this one. It has helped us immensley understand thebeautiful art and design of vestment-making.*)

I agree with some of the procedures for finishing linen for churches but not all. I believe you need to take extra care to make sure the linen is on grain--which means pulling threads--not matter how many linens you are making. Her procedure was assembly line which I really wasn't interested in.

This book helped me so much. The Altar Guild at my church had kind of faded away, and when I took over the responsibility - there was no one to guide me! This book felt like a helpful friend, guiding me through the process of sewing some wonderful linens for our communion services. Thanks so much for writing this book.

Here's a well written, reverent, practical guide to the mysteries of church linens. The author has learned her craft over many years of hands-on altar guild work. She writes like a person who loves the work she does, and is confident in her knowledge... somehow she manages to keep a sense of humor

Very useful for altar guild women.

Delighted with this purchase. thank you

If you are looking for basic instructions on what you could do then this is a reasonable book.

Gives good overall instructions on how to do the basic church linens

A very useful book