Vestment Restoration

Vestment restoration is just one of many tasks our talented workroom can accomplish. To begin the process of restoring your vestments, please use the contact form at the bottom of the page to detail the type of work you require. Depending on the state of the vestment, we may ask you to bring it to our Westminster showroom so our Technical Director can review exactly what needs to be done.

Please contact us using the form below to enquire about starting a vestment restoration project.

Vestment Restoration

Structural Repairs

Most vestments and furnishings only require structural repairs to the piece. This can include patching or sewing tears in the fabric, as well as replacing trims and linings to restore strength to the garment.

Vestment Restoration

Remounting Orphreys

In cases of more extreme disrepair, we may recommend salvaging the orphreys of a vestment and reconstructing them as part of a new piece. This may be required for heavily embroidered vestments where the main fabric has disintegrated, or the structural integrity is too weak for spot repairs.

Below are some examples of orphrey remounting.

Embroidered Marian Chasuble

The original fabric of this chasuble had begun to disintegrate, causing major tears in the silk that would have threatened the integrity of the embroidery. Our Technical Director suggested a full reconstruction of the garment in a new fabric, rescuing and repairing the orphreys as part of a new chasuble.

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'Dragon' Chasuble

This client came to us with a chasuble that was falling apart and in need of complete reconstruction. In the process of repair, we were asked to amend the shape of the vestment to a Roman style while preserving the original embroidery.

Vestment Restoration

Embroidery Lifting

If a precious embroidery needs rescuing from a disintegrating piece, we may recommend lifting the embroidery completely – cutting around the design and remounting it onto new fabric.

You can find out more about the different ways we can rescue historic embroideries below.

Embroidery Repairs

Grape Frontal

This heritage altar frontal was fully hand-embroidered, but the initial construction could not bear the weight of the design. Our seamsters carefully lifted the large embroidery and remounted it onto a new altar frontal, adding conservation netting to preserve the piece.

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Lily Cope

This client only wanted to preserve the embroidery on the hood of this historic cope, repurposing the lily design for a Marian vestment. Using the original hood, we crafted this unique panel and remounted it on our silk.

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Our specialists would be delighted to discuss your restoration needs. Simply get in touch to organise a dedicated repair consultation: