Chapter Leaders' Outing

 Lucy writes: Guild of St Clare Chapter Leaders convened at the office of the Latin Mass Society yesterday, to enjoy a light lunch and a chat before embarking on a tour of some of London's best sewing shops.

Lucy and the Guild Chapter Leaders, next to the LMS Vestment presses

This is the first occasion on which we have all met together in person. Our Northern Chapter Leaders had the furthest to come, travelling from Durham and Manchester to be with us. The prize for the longest journey went to Clare Megarity, also one of the leaders of the Northern Chapter, who came straight to the meeting from a conference in Sweden.

The Northern Chapter leads the way in commitment both to work and recreation

One of the biggest challenges in vestment mending is finding appropriate materials. The braids, damasks and trimmings aren't widely available and can't easily be found using internet searches. However they are stocked in some places in London, and I was thrilled to be able to share the fruits of my researches with the other Guild of St Clare volunteers.

Buttons at Macculloch & Wallis

I was pleased to have the opportunity to buy some of the materials I will need for the sewing project for the St Catherine's Trust Summer School: a special Marian bag, which I hope also to sell as Guild of St Clare kits once I have completed the preparations.

Shopping was of course followed by cream tea, and readers will be delighted to hear that we have settled the vexed question of whether to put the jam or the cream first on to the scones. The answer is, of course, jam first, but we experimented exhaustively in order to verify our data.

Cream tea at the Ivy Café, Marylebone Lane

I am so grateful to the Guild's Chapter Leaders who pour so much of their precious time, skill and resources into organising the vestment mending effort, helping to build a prayerful community around the traditional Mass.

Chapter Leaders at Liberty of London

N.B. We keep an updated list of suppliers on our website, to help others find the materials needed for vestment mending.