Prelude to a Kiss
Tailoring by
Janson Fangio
For the officiant of the wedding in this play, we chose to have an Episcopal priest over any other denomination as a traditional Anglican wedding seemed the most appropriate for the setting i.e. upper middle class white folks in New Jersey in the 1980s. furthermore, the liturgical language of the ceremony the playwright used is basically from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer...I should know, I was married in the Anglican Church!
I had no decent priest vestments hanging in stock to pull from, only what seemed to be rudimentary attempts through a vague recollection of what priests might look like, i.e. poorly made black robes with a square of white attached to the collar; furthermore what these attempts were stabbing at was more Roman Catholic than Anglican. Purchasing liturgical vestments was an impossibility as they are very expensive and vendors are not necessarily willing to sell to non-religious organizations. I therefore endeavored to make, from scratch, authentic Choir Dress for an Anglican/Episcopalian priest. Choir Dress, meaning vestments worn by a priest for public prayer and the administration of the Sacraments other than the Eucharist, generally comprises of, in order of layer, a shirt with clerical collar, Cassock, Surplice, academic hood and tippet or preaching stole. Choir dress is generally made out of simpler, more rustic materials i.e. wool and cotton/linen, whereas Eucharistic Vestments are made of finer materials like silk brocades, damasks and heavily embroidered woolens. I had the time to "nerd" out on this costume but not really the money, I therefore spent very little by using cheap and readily available fabrics. I used some old white hotel bed sheets that had been donated a few years before for the surplice, some black poly/cotton sheets for the cassock and some moire taffeta I had laying around for the tippet. The academic hood seen in the pictures was not made but is a real one that I found, surprisingly, at a thrift store. |
I re-purposed a black shirt that I had in stock by replacing the collar with a banded collar to accommodate studs. I made this new band from the leftover scraps from the cassock. I made the white clerical collar from scratch out of some scrap material I had. I patterned it by reverse-engineering a collar I borrowed from one of the priests at my church. I used very heavy interfacing in the "fall" to ensure the smooth rigidness. Modern collars priests purchase are often made of a pressed plastic which are both easy to clean by just wiping down, are durable and maintain their rigidness for a very long time.
For the cassock I used Butterick pattern 6844 which is actually quite good; it is, however, the roman style with a multitude of buttons up the center front and a narrow notch for the white collar to show through. I modified the pattern to the English style which is double breasted and has a wider notch for the collar. again, I studied a cassock from my church to know better how to pattern it.
For the Surplice, or the white over-gown, I used the pattern seen above which I found through a google search. Obviously I sized the pattern up to accommodate the actor.
For the tippet I, once again, studied an example from my church.
Please consider the results:
For the cassock I used Butterick pattern 6844 which is actually quite good; it is, however, the roman style with a multitude of buttons up the center front and a narrow notch for the white collar to show through. I modified the pattern to the English style which is double breasted and has a wider notch for the collar. again, I studied a cassock from my church to know better how to pattern it.
For the Surplice, or the white over-gown, I used the pattern seen above which I found through a google search. Obviously I sized the pattern up to accommodate the actor.
For the tippet I, once again, studied an example from my church.
Please consider the results: