Vestments for Father Oak

Before Christmas, I had hinted to my dear s-i-l, that a Father Oak would make a great present for Daniel.  I am really wanting to try to introduce the faith in a Montessori-influenced way.  So to say I was surprised to find one under the tree for him would not be truthful, but it is beautiful! 

Today, I finally got around to "dressing" our Father Oak; that is, to make him some vestments in the liturgical colors.  I managed to get four done - - green, red, white and purple.  I have the pink one ready to sew, but other duties called before I could get that one completed, so it will wait until tomorrow.  I love the way they have come out.  I used braiding around the neckline on all of them and the hemline on the green and red ones.  I quickly realized after doing the green and the red, that I was quickly going to run out of braiding (I had purchased 3 yards - - who knew it would go so fast!), so I found a spool of gold ribbon that I had here to do the hem of the white and purple one.  I used gold lame' for the cross, chalice and dove on the red, white and purple, using Heat 'n Bond to iron them on to the vestments (Boy - - - I love Heat 'n Bond, but be careful with it and lame'.  Using a cloth can help, but you don't want to get the adhesive on your iron if you can help it!)  I am looking forward to completing the pink one - - not sure what symbol I will use yet. 

You can find directions for making a Father Oak (or Fr Pine, Fr. Birch, etc) here on Wildflowers and Marbles. Jennifer also made stoles to go with the alb, but I am not sure I need them.  It will be enough for us to remember to change the vestment. 

I also sewed mine up probably a bit differently.  I had purchased some taffeta and satin for the vestments.  They can be pretty slippery to work with and tend to fray.  To help with that, I decided to use some interfacing and to line the vestment with some bleached muslin.  I traced my pattern onto the interfacing and cut around it leaving about 1/4 inch seam allowance.   I ironed it to the satin/taffeta and then cut the satin/taffeta using pinking shears.  I sewed the satin to the muslin, right sides together, cut out the neckline hole, again using pinking shears, and then flipped it right side out, which gave me a nice seam along the outer edge.  I pressed the edges so that they would lay flat and then stitched the braiding around the neckline to cover the raw edge.  Then trim could be added as I wished.  I guess you could line it with fabric of the same color, too, if you wished.

So there you go - - our dear Father Oak is no longer devoid of vestments.

God Bless!
Jennifer