Ange’s Stole

Hope you are enjoying the holiday season. Before the year was out I wanted to show you one of the projects I’ve been working on recently. This was a clergy stole for my friend Ange, the minister of a local church. She asked me if I could make her one for the Christmas Eve service. I immediately said yes as I saw this as a challenge and a great gift for this wonderful woman.

Here is Ange with Pastor Roberta. Their churches (Fresh Air and Grace and Peace)   had a combined candlelight Christmas Eve service. Doesn’t she look lovely in her new stole?

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We chose Celerian Blue, one of my favorite colors right now. I purchased some Kona cotton for the back and a heavier weight broadcloth for the front and dyed them.

stolefabric

Since I had never made a stole, I ended up buying a couple patterns online from Churchlinens and Serendipity Clergy Stoles. I made mockups since I didn’t really trust my sewing skills.

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We ended up using the pattern from Church Linens and Serendipity’s directions. I say “we” because even after sewing those mockups I wasn’t sure I’d get it right, so I enlisted Tami, a local friend/seamstress, who whipped it up in no time!

Once the stole was sewn, I needed to stencil on the letters. My Silhouette Portrait came in handy cutting all of these freezer paper stencils. Choosing the paint color was challenging. Here are just some of the colors I tested.

color choices for the stole From left to right: DeColourant,  ProChem Dark Silver Probrite Textile Paint, Jacquard Lumiere Pearl White, Lumiere Bright Gold, Lumiere Metallic Copper, and Lumiere Halo Violet Gold.

I thought I’d like DeColourant, but it was way too light. The church members wouldn’t be able to see it from their seats. The second and third were never considered.  I liked the gold for awhile. However, the more I looked at it, it looked way too yellow. The Metallic Copper was my choice until I stopped by Dick Blicks to use my coupon and there I found Halo Violet Gold. Looking at the jar I really didn’t think it would work, but it was so pretty that I just had to try it. I’m so glad. Although the Metallic Copper would have been fine, the Halo Violet just seemed to work best with the fabric.

Once my testing was done, it was time to stencil. Freezer paper stencils work so well on fabric. I continue to be amazed at the clean results I get from them. Here I am ironing the stencil to the stole.

ironinglettersonstoleAnd the finished stole.

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And a closeup

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What a fun project! I also used some of the leftover fabric for a small project I’ll share with you in the next couple of days. Thanks for stopping by.