Herstory

I'm Catholic, and one of the distinguishing characteristics of my church is liturgy. We are liturgical in our worship. This means that we incorporate signs and symbols of God and his story in our encounters with Him.

What's really cool about that is the history of how we have done that. Every age has represented their knowledge of God's story using what they had. I like that.

Irene and I took this picture, and I thought it would just be a documentation of some sewing, but I see so much more. Check out what's in the background.

There are two of the stations from the Stations of the Cross and one stained glass window. The Stations of the Cross evolved from people being unable to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, so they made representations and walked from one to another, remembering the events of Christ's passion and death. They can be quite ornate or quite plain. Stained glass windows were used as teaching devices, giving the important parts of stories for people to remember and retell.

And on the column, you see Irene holding up our idea for our symbolic representation. It's a swag and jabot, modified from OOP McCall's 8078.


I've made it as curtains numerous times, so when Irene talked about fabric for the columns, I pictured this right away. The white one is made from cotton and is stapled to a square dowel.

The real ones will be made of silk, so I made a silk one with Julie's idea of a sleeve to simplify the hardware. We use colors to signify the changing of the liturgical time, so we will make red ones for Advent, violet for Lent, white for Easter, and green for ordinary time.

If someone doesn't know the liturgical calendar well, as soon as they see that the colors have changed, they know something's up. It creates an awareness that the year has a pattern that repeats each year. I remember when my knowledge of the liturgical year was weak, and the different colors always caught my attention. It's just one more way to engage ourselves in the events of Christ's life.

When I look at that picture and see the carvings, stained glass, and the fabric, I know I am in there. I'm not a sculptor; I'm not a stained glass maker; I don't build cathedrals, paint masterpieces on ceilings, or see visions. But fabric? That I do.

I took the swag pattern and drew my best guess for a small swag. I have lots of cottons scraps, so I cut it out and tried the pleats on top. It took about 7 tries to get it right, but each one took about ten minutes, so it wasn't so hard. I was aiming for a smaller swag, but each fix made it bigger, so bigger it got!

Then I made a jabot to match the width I'd ended up with. Now I just need to make a sample for the two large ones that will go on the front columns, then order the fabric. We will get a team of sewers, pressers and hangers to help us, so I think this will take only one day to make and hang.

And I vowed I'd never sew for church. I guess that if the project's right, I will!