Church Needlework: A manual of practical instruction

by Hinda M. Hands

Fig. II.—Ancient Albe

(South Kensington Museum)

The diagram (Illustration II.) shows the shape and dimensions of a very old albe now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. The linen it is made of is 22 inches wide, and the seams are joined down the middle of the front and back by means of an insertion, worked in buttonhole-stitch with white linen thread, rather more than; ¼ inch wide. The seams at the shoulders are treated in the same way with insertion ½ inch wide, into which is worked an inscription in red thread; and there is a small red cross on each of the gussets let in at the waist to contain the gathers, which are set very close together, to provide the necessary fulness for the skirt.

The apparels are made of fourteenth century brocade.

Modern albes are usually either gathered into a neck-band somewhat like a surplice (see Illustration III.), and so are full all the way down, or they may be widened gradually from the shoulder.

The measurements are very similar in each case, and take from 7 to 9 yards of linen, a yard wide.

In the gathered pattern (which is much handsomer than the plain one) there are no cut seams except for the sleeves; the selvedges should be over-sewn together with fine cotton very closely, and then the seams will not show at all. Those on the sleeve should be finely stitched and the raw edge turned in and ‘felled’—i.e. hemmed—down on the inside. The neck and shoulder bands should be stitched with fine back-stitching on the outside. They may be decorated with any fancy stitch as well, or a narrow border may be embroidered. The hem round the bottom should be from 1 to 3 inches deep. A border of embroidery may be worked all round, above the hem.

The custom of working a lace insertion in the middle of a seam, which used to be common to the better sort of household linen as well as that for the Church, has fallen into disuse of late years, in consequence of our linen being woven so much wider than it used to be. But it might still be used in the front and back of the plain albe, and it may be well to describe the method of working it, as it is not at all difficult to do, nor so tedious as it might appear at first glance. And irrespective of the width of linen, there are occasions when the length may require addition (such, for instance, as the enlargement of a fair linen cloth for an altar). It is a recognised law of art that Beauty should be called forth by Necessity; and the hiding, covering, or ornamenting a seam was perhaps the very first incentive to embroidery!