I've Been Stole'n!
- fabman556
- Dec 20, 2018
- 4 min read
The new Minister of Music was ordained at my church recently, and I was commissioned by the choir to create two stoles for her: one for Lent, and one for "ordinary time." I did a little research (there's plenty of inspiration and advice on Pinterest, of course) and developed the plan. Here's my Pinterest inspiration board for the stoles project:
For the Lenten stole, I chose to re-interpret a design I had used on a banner made for another church many years ago. The banner features a crown of thorns with crossed nails in the center.
For the ordinary time stole, I chose a music-related theme, and used this butterfly-motif stole for inspiration.
The Appliques
With the design planned, the first step was to create the appliques for each stole.
To transfer the Lenten design to a stole, I used Photoshop to copy the thorns and nails motifs from the photo of the banner, placed that image on a blank Publisher document in the correct scale (in sections, since the design was larger than the 11" x 17" paper), and printed it out. This was used a pattern for the applique. I followed the same process with the nails. For the music stole, I used a cookie cutter for the notes and printed out the words to the correct scale for the pattern.
The appliques are made from Ultrasuede scraps (no need to finish the edges). I fused Wonder Under fusible web to the back of the appropriate-sized pieces of Ultrasuede so the appliques could be attached to the stole with an iron and press cloth. To ensure the design was facing the right direction, I flipped the patterns over and traced them on the paper side of the Wonder Under which had been attached to the Ultrasuede, and cut out the designs.
Tip: The best selection of Ultrasuede can be found here:
Tip: Here's how to use Wonder-Under:
Cutting Out The Stoles
For these stoles I decided to use cotton quilting fabric, as many of the stoles worn by our ministers are made form this fabric. Stoles may be made from almost any fabric.
The base fabric for the Lenten stole is cotton fabric from the quilting fabric wall at Hobby Lobby.
For the fronts of the stoles I cut two full width pieces of fabric 6" wide, and then cut the neck pieces using a pattern I found through a Pinterest post link.
I wanted to use a red accent for the Lenten stole as I had in the banner, so I cut a 6" wide piece of the red fabric and also a red neck piece for the right front. For the lining of the stoles, I used a contrast cotton fabric and cut two full width pieces of fabric 6" wide, and two neck pieces.
Next, for each stole I cut two 6" wide pieces of Warm & Natural cotton batting for the fronts, and two neck pieces, using the lining pieces as a guide. This batting will be used just like batting in a quilt, stacked between the front and lining pieces of fabric.
Assembling The Stole
To begin, I stitched the neck pieces to the appropriate stole front pieces. For the right front on the Lenten stole, I played with the positioning of the red until it felt right, and stitched the purple right front to the red right front, trimming off the excess fabric. The linings were assembled in the same manner, stitching the neck pieces to the stole front pieces.
To begin the applique process, I positioned the appliques (with the paper backing removed) on the stole fronts until I was satisfied with the alignment, and, using a press cloth, I fused the appliques to the stole fronts.
Tip: Always use a press cloth with Ultrasuede: your hot iron will melt the Ultrasuede on contact and there is no turning back.
With the appliques fused to the stole fronts, I stacked the fronts on top of the corresponding pieces of batting, which I had joined together as for the stole fronts. I pinned around the appliques to anchor the stole fabric to the batter and, using matching thread, machine stitched along all the cut edges. I chose to stack the batting under the stole fronts before edge-stitching the appliques because the batting provides a slight bit of dimension during the process, almost like quilting.
With the appliques fully stitched on, I sewed the back neck seam on both the front and the lining, and the pinned the two pieces right sides together.
After stitching both the inner and outer edge seams, I turned the stole right-side-out and pressed the edges flat.
With the open ends trimmed evenly, I turned under the raw edges and inserted a piece of Stitch Witchery (another fusible web). As you well know, DTFM doesn't do ANY unnecessary hand sewing! Die-hards can certainly slip-stitch this opening closed. [shudder]
Find Stitch Witchery here:
It was an honor to create these stoles for our new minister, Rev. Suzanne Ringer, of Oakland Baptist Church in Rock Hill, SC. Our senior minister, Rev. Dr. Jeff Hayes, has already put in a request for a Lenten stole for himself!
Until next time, keep those sewing machines humming, and don't be afraid to try sewing something you've never made before!
@danthefabricman
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