Our pall needs urgent change. Do you still offer instructions and material for a pall including the insert? Would appreciate the help. There are very little resources and finding this information in your site has been miraculous!!!Wanda
Thanks for your email! If your chalice pall has an acrylic square insert, you can easily wash the whole thing without taking it apart. I like to soak palls in BIZ laundry powders. Rinse thoroughly and lay the pall on a white towel after blotting out most of the water. Then let it dry on a sunny window ledge and the linen will shrink tight around the insert again.
If you have a cardboard or oak tag insert, just open up the pall seam, remove it and wash the pall in the same manner other small linens are washed. I like the acrylic liners. You can order linen, inserts, embroidery floss and instructions from
http://www.churchlinens.com/
Bunny’s book, Sewing Church Linens is available at Amazon and on Ebay and is a must-have for every sacristy. Pall making is not a difficult task and a simple central motif can be done by even new embroiderers.
I love the acrylic inserts in the pall. I also like embroidering or printing an inspirational image on fabric and then embellishing it with tiny beads or sewing jewelry on them. I like making new ones for the different feasts of the year. Nothing is too much for the altar.
Another resource is Mary Corbet’s blog Needle ‘N Thread (http://www.needlenthread.com/). She has several entries that address pall construction. She also has a small book, Church Patterns, in downloadable .pdf format. It is a printable collection of over 120 ecclesiastical designs suitable for hand embroidery. Of particular interest are the multiple designs suitable for palls. I believe the book is USD 12.
To make the inserts, go to you local window or lumber store, purchase a sheet of Lexan (polycarbonate) or Optix (acrylic) and have the store cut the inserts to the size you need. Locally I use Lowe’s for this as they have the cutting machine available. Once the insert is cut, you will need to sand the sides to remove the sharp edges and to round the corners.
Mary indicates she makes her palls 6 inches square. My church uses an 8.5 inch square.
Check out thetattededge.blogspot.com for hand-embroidered palls at low prices.
You can view a few hand made altar palls made in our workshop in London.