Design Elements
Restoring the Art of Liturgical Needlecrafts
Apostolate of the Canons regular of St. John Cantius
Linen Guide
This section is under construction. Stay tuned...
Bunny’s Linen Basics
The linen that we offer is imported from Belgium. Here are Bunny’s notes about it:
I’ve been purchasing the same weight linen from the same manufacturer for 25 years. Every few years, I do a review of the various linens that are ‘out there’. I have always come back to the linen I’m offering here. This linen is the perfect weight, density and quality for our altar cloths, altar linens, credence tablecloths, tabernacle hangings – for all liturgical purposes that require the use of good linen.
I recently began offering a very heavy-weight linen (luscious!) to use as under-cloths. It is more than 3 times heavier. And a note about linen weight — remember as you compare new linen to the linens in your sacristy, elderly linens become sheer over time. They were heavier when they were new.
Purchasing linen can be difficult there are so many options and most people do not have the information they need in order to make such an important choice.
Linen has three characteristics that should be of interest to you: quality, weight and density. These characteristics help you evaluate the suitability of a particular linen for your altar linens.
~ Quality is judged by the evenness of the threads and of the weave, the amount of weft distortion, selvedge regularity, the type and amount of sizing, and the ease of drawing a thread.
~ Weight is measured in ounces per square yard.
~ Density is determined by the number of threads per square inch.
Quality is not determined by weight. Linen of substantial weight may be very high quality. Linen that is sheer may be of low quality.
Weight and density are related characteristics. The weight of my linen is 4.6 ounces per square yard. The density of my linen is 116 threads per square inch (both warp and weft). Here’s the strange thing: Weight and density are BASIC linen information and – this information is almost never given to the customer! And yet, this should be the first information you get. You should be able to say, “I want to see linen that is about 4.6/116.” Anybody who knows anything about linen should know instantly what you want – and show it to you. After you have that information, you must decide about quality.
Let me prove to you how useful these numbers are to you: My linen is 4.6/116. The numbers for my new heavy linen are 14.7/40. With just this small bit of information I’ve given you, you know instantly a great deal about my heavy linen!
Note: Batiste (sometimes called handkerchief linen) isn’t just lighter in weight because its threads are slimmer; the weave is less dense. (‘Batiste’ is the name we give to sheer linen. ‘Cambric’ is the name we give to sheer cotton.)
Heavy-Weight Linen
Let’s discuss heavy-weight linen more fully.
There is a very strong tradition that requires 3 layers of linen on each altar. There are two reasons behind this tradition:
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Absorbency: The 3 linens are sufficient to soak up any spilled consecrated wine – this is of crucial importance.
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Padding: To give sufficient padding so the chalice and other vessels do not go ‘clunk’ when the priest and acolytes set them down.
Over my many years, I have watched and seen how this tradition works – not very well. The way it’s been done has been to stack 3 fair linens on top of each other. The first negative aspect is that it’s very expensive – both in time spent and in cost. This is especially true of a large or shaped altar.
I worked with a customer whose altar was 5 feet in diameter. She made two sets of three linens each. She pulled all the furniture out of her guest room and worked these linens on her knees, on the floor. Six of them! Then she ironed these five foot diameter linens, one at a time, covered the interior of her station wagon with sheets, laid each one carefully in the back, drove the linen to the church, put it on the altar, and went back for the next one. While I don’t remember how much these linens cost in money spent, I’m deeply saddened by the time spent by this good and faithful servant. I pray that there will be someone else to take up this ministry when she is no longer able.
I know of one priest who handled the three layers of linen by using old fair linens – worn and stained – as under-cloths. While it worked, this method of achieving both absorbency and padding offends my Altar Guild sensitivities. Hence, heavy-weight linen.
This heavy-weight linen exceeds the traditional parameters: My regular linen weighs 4.4 ounces per square yard. This heavy-weight linen weighs 14.7 ounces per square yard – more than 3 times the weight of my regular linen and, therefore MORE THAN 3 TIMES AS ABSORBENT. My regular linen contains 144 threads per square inch (counted both ways). The heavy-weight linen contains 40 threads per square inch. This heavy-weight linen is lofty, thick and makes excellent padding! Because of its thickness, it requires different management. Hemmed edges would be too thick; best to bind the edges with double-fold bias tape. The edges need to be secured against fraying by either zig-zagging or serging – as deeply as possible. It may be preshrunk or by working from shrinkage factors.
This is why we cut off selvedge edges. The linen above has been shrunk and run through the rotary iron. You don't want this roller coaster creating a circus inside your hem. We do love that selvedge edge when we make chasuble neck protectors though.
SHRINKAGE!!
Linen purchased from us will have a tag that gives the shrinkage values for both warp (lengthwise) and weft (across). Using these two factors you can determine the amount of extra fabric you need in order to allow for shrinkage. If you know exactly how much the linen will shrink, shrinking (and ironing) before starting your project is not necessary, which saves a lot of time, and makes laying out and construction much easier!
Shrinkage for corporals, purificators, and lavabos is not a concern, because the amount will be minimal, but for the 16 foot altar cloth currently under construction, the difference is over 15”. If you are working on a large project with linen from a source that doesn’t give you shrinkage amounts, you’ll need to preshrink. When purchasing your linen, you should be safe ordering 10% above the yardage needed. Industry standards are set to keep the shrinkage under that.
Calculating the Cutting and Finished Dimensions of Your Projects.
Here's a link to our Altar Cloth worksheet.
Don’t have a fit about fitting!
Linen is a nice stable fabric, but it is a fabric. It will flex and vary in its shape with differences in humidity, under gravity as it hangs off the edges of the altar, and in response to the way it was ironed after laundering. If you want the ends to touch the floor, the best method is to give some extra length, (around 4-5” ought to do it) and starch and pleat the altar cloth. The last fold will skim the floor and any flexing will simply deepen or extend the last fold. This method has been the standard practice for many, many years. The added brilliance of this arrangement is that, once pleated, your altar cloth is a nice tidy rectangle that sits, in an orderly and non-wrinkling fashion, in the sacristy drawer until it is ready to go on the altar.
If you want your altar cloth to come flush to the edge of the altar, hem it back from the edge 1/8" so the chasuble won’t rub against the hem edge and damage the fold.
Some of our excellent altar cloths have taken a beating, right in front of the tabernacle, wearing through the spot where it folds over the edge. We have started laying an extra length of altar cloth linen just in front of the tabernacle area to either cover damage or prevent it.