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!
If it is a cut edge which is to be joined to another in this manner, each piece of stuff is hemmed separately.
The work is begun upon one hem as a foundation, and when finished is sewn closely on to the other.
For the first row * make two tiny buttonhole stitches into the edge of the hem (or of the selvedge if there is no hem). Then leave a small space, equal to the room taken up by the two buttonhole stitches; then two more stitches, then leave a space of about ⅜ inch, carrying the cotton straight along—repeat from * till the first row is done, all along the edge.