
Stitching with Saints
Come learn about some holy women who loved to work with their hands, including Our Blessed Mother, Saint Zelie Martin, and Saint Rose of Lima. Then be inspired to try some stitching projects of your own. In this post we provide links to resources to learn about lace making and embroidery. We also have links for beautiful Catholic fabric to inspire your next sewing project.
Note: We have a number of video links in this post, and we have noticed on some devices (with lazy load), the video link images do not appear. In this case, please click on the text link to go to the videos.
Saint Rose of Lima
Saint Rose of Lima is the patron saint of embroidery.
Embroidery can be a fun way to learn how to sew. A project we love that can also make a sweet gift is a hand emboidered flour sack towel. Simply sketch your design with pencil on a portion of the towel, attatch an emboidery hoop, and start stitching (the video below gives some great ideas for a variety of stitches).
Can’t see the image? Click here for the embroidery sampler video.
Saint Zélie Martin
Saint Zélie Martin, the mother of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, was a talented lacemaker.
Lacemaking is not something we have tried at Sparkles and Sprinkles, but we think it sounds like a fun challenge. How about you? Do you want to give lacemaking a try? We have gathered together a few videos about lace making to help you get started. The first one is from Alençon, the town where Saint Zélie and her family lived.

We found this picture of beautiful lace made by Saint Zélie in the book Thérèse and Lisieux by Pierre Descouvement.
Cant’s see the image? Click here for Lace Making in Alençon video.
Can’t see the image? Click here to see video on needlepoint lace.
Can’t see the image? Click here to see the beginning lace making video of lace from around the world.
Our Blessed Mother Mary
We can imagine Our Blessed Mother sewing for the Holy Family.
Making a baby Jesus doll or making clothes for a baby doll could be a beautiful way to think about Our Blessed Mother as you sew. For a little inspiration, we are posting a photo of a Waldorf-style baby Jesus doll we made a few years ago. Perhaps sometime we’ll make tutorial on how to make this sweet little doll.

Sewing Sisters
Many religious sisters spend time making beautiful vestments and church linens.

You may have heard of Sister Wilhelmina, whose body was found to be incorrupt. She was the foundress of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles. This religious order may be best known for their beautiful singing, but they also spend part of their days sewing vestments for the Church.
This video gives a glimpse into the daily life of the sisters of Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles (vestment making is mentioned around minute 3).
Are you inspired to make vestments? A fun way to start might be making miniature vestments, as used in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd classes. Here is a link for a pattern sold on Etsy.
Catholic Fabric We Love
A sweet friend introduced us to Spoonflower a few years ago. We had no idea that this delightful treasure of fabric with Catholic designs existed. We are so happy to share with you some of our favorite Catholic fabric designers on Spoonflower…

Littleliteraryclassics on Spoonflower has fabric to make simple pocket saint dolls. This is a darling little project for the beginning seamstress. They can be sewn by hand or by machine. In this photo, we used pinking shears to cut around the edge so that the fabric did not even have to be turned inside out for children making their very first (big) stitches.

Marigold Catholic Goods Co. has beautiful designs! If I could, I would buy them all. The color palette and designs bring such peace and joy. I think you will enjoy them too. We made a pennant banner for a garden party using the “Consider how the wildflowers grow” fabric from this designer. Definitely check out the other designs in this shop too! And if you are not up for a sewing project, but love the designs, you can find these beautiful designs on mugs, scarves, blankets and more in the Catholic All Year Marketplace.

Our homeschool group sewing group used the “Hail Mary” fabric from The Little Rose Shop to make some doll pillows and blankets. The Little Rose Shop has so many other sweet designs as well!

“Sew” delightful… if you would like to make a pennant banner too, we recommend Leigh Ann Wilke’s tutorial . She figured out the math on how to make the best use of the fabric! So it’s a breeze to make it.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reflecting on sewing with us.
You might also enjoy these posts…

Sewing Scripture: Cursive and Printing Practice Pages

Blossoms on the sidewalk: Embracing Creative Messes

Easy pillowcase dresses: Doll and Me Dress Tutorial
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