Boy Bishop!

Here are some lovely photos of the dressing up clothes I recently sent off to the Pugin Centre & Shrine of St Augustine in Ramsgate..



First we have a Grey friar:-

Next we have the Gothic Chasuble I showed in an earlier post, with its accompanying maniple and stole:-

And finally, the Bishop's Mitre and Cope - good to see the Mitre stays on!!

I love the pious expression! Maybe he will be a Bishop one day!

First Communion Gift

My sweet Godson will be making his First Holy Communion tomorrow. As he is chuffed that he will soon be able to join his numerous illustrious elder brothers in serving at the altar, and has recently got interested in "playing" at Mass, I thought I would whip up a 'play chasuble' for him for a First Communion gift.

As he has an angelic name, I thought the angelic orphrey bands would suit - it was a huge roll of stiffened ribbon I bought, ahem, about 20 odd years ago, when my lad was a baby - in the vague hope that I would find some use for it...sometimes it pays to horde things!

It looked a bit bland in the centre of the cross, in need of a motif, and as I had plenty of red velvet scraps, what better in this month of the Sacred Heart, to place one there.

As I've been rather busy sewing lately, I didn't have much time to spend on this, and I was racking my brains for a quick solution to the flames needed at the top of the heart ….

Having just completed a dress for a certain young lady, I had plenty of scraps of the fabric lying around, and realised that if I cut a piece in just the right way, it would do splendidly...

Sweet Heart of Jesus, bless all the little ones about to receive you for the first time. Amen.

Recent Shenanigans

Well, the busyness of the business has been taking over to the degree that I haven't managed to post anything much lately. So here's a random selection of what Zelie's Roses has been up to...

A winter wedding dress of pure silk

It started out as some very large circles - I am so grateful that I have my wonderful cutting room floor!

And became a very elegant flowing gown, with almost a 1940's feel...

Then to carry on the circles theme, I managed to make a couple of circle skirts for a little lady...

Who chose the teapot one for her first day back at school!

Whilst I'm also working on several altar frontals/tabernacle veils, I did manage to get this one made in time for Easter...

This was it being tried on for size, during Lent, hence the purple Tabernacle veil!

Oh yes, and somewhere in between all that I managed to pop in a set of vestments for the Shrine Church of St Augustine, and the National Pugin Centre. It included an Alb, Chasuble, Cope and Mitre.. as well as a Monk's habit. As it was to be a Pugin-esque Chasuble, I was very blessed to find just enough vintage orphrey banding to make it look sufficiently authentic....

You may well ask how I managed to do all that in such a short space of time, well, they are meant for children on their educational visits to the centre, so didn't have to be too perfectly finished, although I did spend time making sure they were robust! I hope to get some pictures of them all being modelled in the not too distant future.

And just as I thought I could settle down to some serious work on a real-life full-sized Chasuble that needs to be ready for an Ordination in June, a Bride to be in distress got in touch asking if I could make her a Wedding Mantilla Veil, as she hadn't been able to find anything big enough, and her Wedding was in two weeks' time! Happy to oblige, I fortunately had some lovely lace in stock so was able to come up with this...

Now, back to that Chasuble...(and the next Wedding dress I'm working on too...!)

Junior Priests!

I was saying a few prayers after Mass, last Sunday, when one of the young lads rushed past me, into the sacristy.  He came out bearing a cassock, and as he whizzed past me again said, "I'm going to be a Priest!" I smiled at him, and as he disappeared into the hall where the teas and coffees are served, I wondered to myself, "how strange that he feels so certain of his vocation, and for him to come up and tell me about it." "Has one of the Priests said something to him in the Sacristy?" I mused, and then, "of all the boys in the parish, I would not have thought of Thomas as having a vocation, but of course, one never can tell..." As I made my way into the hall, it dawned on me, the children were going to have an All Saints parade, and he and his younger brother were dressing up as Priest Saints, I'm glad I hadn't attempted to reply to him! I then saw his younger brother, and he was dressed in a costume that brought back memories, it was my son's Priest costume which we'd passed on to the boys.. Good to see it still going strong!

It got me to thinking I'd like to have another go at some mini Chasubles, and since I have plenty of Chasuble type fabric lying around,  I've started to make a few more, in case anyone would like to give a young lad a nice Roman Chasuble for Christmas!

NOW SOLD!

NOW SOLD

These have proved rather popular, so they are now all sold. Please contact me if you would like a similar one made.  Priced at £40 to £50 for the Chasuble, stole and maniple, (depending on fabrics used) and an extra £18 to £25 for the Alb depending on whether you want lace or not.

Last First Holy Communion Dress of the Season!

Today I managed to deliver the last dress I will have to make for First Communions this Spring/Summer - whew, a weight off my mind! It was quite exciting when the first few commissions came in, then it became rather daunting as I had more orders than ever before this year. But, thanks be to God, everyone got what they wanted, and in time for their special day.  I also have to thank  my trusty courier, (you know who you are, Mrs P!) a lovely American lady married to a chap from my parish, who very helpfully took dresses over to the States when she was visiting family, and posted them over there, thus avoiding the worry of them being held up in customs. She also brought back the pretty fabric that I used in this last dress. 

Isobel's dress is made of embroidered polyester chiffon fabric,

lined with cotton lawn, and trimmed with bands of cotton broderie anglaise..

With wide satin ribbon ties.

Now I can put the white threads away, and move on to another project at the other end of the spectrum, a cassock for a lad who enjoys serving at the altar.

Baptismal Gown for a Summer Baby

I made a First Communion dress for a little girl last year, and her mother is now expecting a new little one, so she came back to me for a Baptismal gown.

This is the first one I've made since I desperately tried to finish my son's before his Baptism - nearly 19 years ago now! (Which you can see in the Header photo of the blog, next to St Zelie!)

The mum had several ideas of what she wanted, so using those, and my own finds - a fantastic lightweight cotton lawn with woven satin stripes and tiny lozenge-embroidered stripes - some lovely soft cotton Nottingham lace, and several specially digitized embroidery designs, it came out beautifully. 

The only problem with sending it to the USA was that the tracking number went dead after it was logged as having got on a plane at Heathrow, so there was a rather nail biting week or two where I hoped and prayed that it was still in transit - and eventually it did turn up - in plenty of time, since baby is due in June!

I was very pleased with the way it turned out but it was time-consuming to make, it took just as long as a first Communion dress!

Detail of the baptismal shells

an IHS cross

and some wheat and grape vines

The fabric is light as gossamer,

and has a cotton lawn lining

Had to wait for an obliging gust of wind to show it off!

A simple button fastening at the back

And of course, there has to be a matching bonnet with embroideries

And the expectant mum is very happy with it too, DG!

This picture makes it all worth while!

I'm not sure whether folk realise how much time and effort I put into my sewing!  I am a bit of a perfectionist, so the work I do has to be finished to a high standard, and I take a lot of time mulling over whether I'm getting the size right, and which lace trim will go best with which fabric, etc. Each dress can take me over 3 to 4 days to finish, (with house-wifely duties in between!) and each one is unique. It is lovely to see photos of the girls on their special day, but photos like the one below, just make my day!

Miss P shows the  pleasure and
excitement on opening the package,
just after it arrives.

I'm looking forward to seeing her in it too!

First First Holy Communion Dress for 2015!

It's that time of year again, when the requests for traditional long-sleeved First Holy Communion dresses come in.

Here's one I've almost finished; just the back zip to put in, but it was a nice sunny day, so I put it on a dummy and took it for a walk in the garden! The wind obliged by filling its sails, and making it look really pretty. There is an embroidered cotton strip down the centre of the bodice and skirt, and self fabric tie backs. I made the lace heart motif, which adds a special touch to it.

It should fit a 7 - 8 year old girl. Length from nape to hem is 39 inches, waist should fit 22/23 inches, and chest 26 inches, (99cm, 56/58.5 cm, 66cm.)  It is made from a lovely lightweight pure cotton, that has an embroidered design - see photos below for details. Having long sleeves, and with a full cotton lining it is extremely modest and traditional. Priced at £70 ($108.)

The dummy is too big for the dress,
so as the back isn't done up,
I can't  show a back view properly;
but it has a fabric tie, and a concealed zip.

Detail of  embroidered cotton strip down the front
of the dress

Detail showing fabric embroidery.