One of the things that travelers to Rome often do is shop. There are many religious goods stores here - so many that it's almost scandalizing, seemingly verging on materialism or idol-worship. There are also many clerical shops with chalices, mass-kits, vestments, candlesticks, monstrances, statues. You name it, Rome's got it.
Well, last year one of the men bought some fabric so that he could have vestments made. He eventually decided, however, that he didn't want to do this anymore. He eventually talked me into buying it. I bought it only after checking with a friend of mine who makes vestments, seeing if he would be willing to make me a set. The fabric the guy bought was nice, and he bought for the four major liturgical colors: green, red, white and violet. He had also bought enough so that there could be made not only a chasuble and stole, but also a dalmatic and store for a deacon, maniples for both, a burse, and a chalice veil! That's virtually a complete set, all the major colors!
Well, it's been a year now and I've done hardly anything more with this fabric and the idea of vestments, until coming to Rome, that is. For nice vestments, you need a bit more than just the basic fabric: you need crosses for the stoles, maniples, burse, and chalice veil; you need fringe for your stoles and maniples; and you need banding (sometimes called "galloon") for the chasuble and dalmatic.
Well, for four chasubles and four dalmatics in the four colors, I had to buy a significant amount of banding - eight yards for each vestment. So, I ended up buying 17 meters of banding in each color, making sure I had some extra just in case. Doing the math, this comes out to 68 meters of banding! I also had to buy 6.5 meters of fringe.
Well, this has become the source of a few jokes from my classmates, as well as Fr. Laird and Msgr. Callaghan. All in good fun, to be sure. But, it is quite the site:
