This cloth is folded in half - and it almost completely stretches across my parent's king size bed! Man....I knew this cloth was long but my goodness....

It's cut!!

off to the races!

I'm back, and much more coherent this time (I hope).

For those of you got lost in my last post, I'll give you a quick run-down:

I got a job from my priest to divide an altar cloth in half last week. But I have to be careful, because the ends have to be matched a certain way.



It had been on a side altar table for quite a bit. This poor little linen cloth looked like it hadn't been washed in....well, let's just say, it's been a while.

It had soot stains, water stains, and a few others stains that I have no idea what they were. The cloth, which like I mentioned before, should have been white. But with so many stains on it, it looked a little on the yellow side.

Needless to say, it needed to be washed. BADLY.

This is about the best "before" picture I've got.

So, after dumping about a quarter of a bottle of stain remover on it, it got dumped into the washing machine.



After the washer finished with it, I set up the ironing board and heated up the iron to the highest setting. Linen is a rather stiff cloth, despite the fact that it wrinkles faster than I can say Jack Robinson. Grabbing the wet cloth, I then proceeded to iron out all the wrinkles that the washer put into the cloth.

Yes, you read that right.

I'll tell you a big secret of the trade ladies:

If you ever have to iron a linen tablecloth or you ever iron church linens yourself....

Iron it while it's wet. And keep ironing it until it's dry. 

Believe it or not, a priest taught me that trick when he taught me how the altar linens should be ironed. He learned to do it that way in seminary, in case anyone was wondering. And yes, priests are taught to iron linens in seminary. Cause SOMEBODY's gotta teach the ladies the correct way....

Believe me, if you iron it while it's wet, or at least damp, the wrinkles come out SO MUCH EASIER. And you don't have to mess with putting a gazillion gallons of water in that teensy-weesy water tank. Ironing linen takes a lot of steam to do, so why not have it practically ready made?

So much ironing....

I think it took me only 2 hours to iron this cloth completely (it was very long, twice my arm span). If I had dried it in the dryer, I guarantee you I would have been there for 3 times that long. And the ironing job would not have lasted that long - maybe a half hour. After ironing it dry, it still hasn't wrinkled. And for anyone that has worked with linen, you know that it only takes a weird look to make it wrinkle. No joke.

Because this cloth was so long, it had to drape on the ground.  So, to protect it from the dirty floor, I put a towel down to catch it.

Now that this cloth is clean and smooth again, I can get started with the actual sewing part! Stay tuned for part 3!!

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine

Soooooo.......

I happen to casually mention to my priest that I used to repair linens and vestments for the church.

Little did I know that he had a job lined up for me the week afterwards...LOL.

(How did that happen???)

Last week, Father let a couple of us into the church so we could go to choir practice.

He pulls me aside and says "Catherine, have you got a minute?"

Of course, I did. The women didn't start rehearsing until 30 minutes after the men anyway. (And you don't refuse a priest if you can avoid it. *nods sagely*)

So Father tells me to follow him. Which I did. (Though, in hindsight, I should have put my stuff down somewhere beforehand. Oh well. Minor details.)

We go into the sacristy, and Father goes to the circuit board and flips a couple of switches.

Odd, I thought to myself, normally any repair jobs are kept in the sacristy.

Now, Father goes past me and opens the door to the sanctuary. Again he tells me to follow him.

I thought to myself, Okay......what in the world......as I *quickly* scramble to put my headscarf back over my head (I have a teal fleece headscarf that I wear in the wintertime and I had pushed down when I was inside the door)

(I should point out right here, that no woman, unless accompanied by priest or under special permission is allowed to go into the sanctuary proper (you know, the chancel, behind the communion rail, etc.). Especially through the sacristy door.) 

Anyway, we go into the sanctuary, genuflect before the Tabernacle, and go over to the Epistle side of the Altar (which is the right side, in case you didn't know). We stop in front of a small table where there is a white (or what should have been white on closer examination) cloth was draped over.

(I should point out here also, that this is the table where the cruets, the patens, and the Lavabo dish and pitcher are placed during Mass, just to orient you girls to where we were.)

Father looks at me and says, "This is a cloth."

"Yes, Father." (kid you not, girls, he really said that)

"It's about twice as long as it needs to be."

Okay! I got it now. From there it was a small discussion on what exactly he wanted done to it (a simple case of cut, hem, and make sure it matches the other side, oh and please wash it, it's a little filthy) No problem!! (or so I thought)

During the rest of the men's practice, I took the time to examine the ends that I supposed to match.

I found out that it was going to be slightly more complicated than I had anticipated.

For some reason, the edge was cut, serged and partially French-seamed to make a flat finish, and then hemmed with a two inch hem (embroidery matched to boot).

The edge is on the left,  it's really hard to see but there is a double layer there. And you can see where the hem goes right up that IHS embroidery.

Well, that raises the stakes just a tad....Oh well, just going to have to be a lot more careful and get this edge right. No pressure. (Now I understand why Father said it might be a bit of a bear...)

But before I do anything to this cloth, it's going in ze washing machine. And then the ironing board. But that's a story for another day.

WHEW. Did I lose anyone in that mess? I apologize, it came out much MUCH more rambly than I had anticipated. I promise Part Two will be more coherent (I hope...) 

Hope you enjoyed the post!! Have you (or your mom) ever taken care of your church's linens? Chat with me in the comments! 

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine