Stoles!

STOLES!
Through one day’s comedy of errors, St. Luke’s finds itself with three lovely choir stoles and the possibility of more.
It all began when Kay Marovich decided the choir needed something to make it look more cohesive. Robes are nice, but heavy and hot. Black bottoms with white tops are adequate, but dull. Perhaps stoles would do the job, every choir member wearing an identical St. Luke’s stole.
What a surprise it was to Kay when she discovered that Kikanza Nuri-Robins, preaching at St. Luke’s on August 9, was a couture seamstress. “Oh, could you help us make stoles for the choir?”
“I’ve got a pattern. I could send you the pattern.”
“Do you think you could show us?”
“Yes, maybe I could come down and do that.
“Maybe we should come up to where you are.”
“Well, I’ve got an extra sewing machine, so come on. And bring people who sew. Bring sewers and we can get this done. I will not do it for you.”
The seed was planted. To make it grow, a call went out for St. Luke’s folks literate with needle and thread who would drive to Los Angeles and sew. Kay found deep red corded polyester blend for the stoles and she sent samples off to Kikanza. Kikanza lives very close to Mood Fabrics (of Project Runway fame) and there she found a somewhat slippery polyester taffeta to bind the stoles. Kay didn’t trust herself to choose the right red thread, so Beth Eichel went to shop. Kikanza told her not to get Coats and Clarks thread because it does not work well on newer machines. “I made a number of assumptions,” Kikanza said. “I assumed that she would get one of the newer brands of better quality thread. I assumed she knew what kind of thread to get for the fabric she and Kay had purchased.” Not having sewn in many years, Beth did her best, choosing a beautiful embroidery thread that matched the fabric, at a cost of $5/spool.
In her lush, 1940 home in mid-city Los Angeles, Kikanza created the first approximation of a St. Luke’s stole. Then she cleared her professional cutting table for us and turned her clean, multipurpose garage into a comfortable workshop with three sewing machines and space for more.
Wednesday morning, August 26, it somehow took from 8:30 to 9:00 for three willing volunteers—Shirley Kline, Beth Eichel, and Bertie Wood—to find one another between the upper parking lot, the lower parking lot and the closed church. When they succeeded, sewing machines and bags of stuff were quickly moved from car to car and away they went, Shirley driving her Lexus, Beth clutching MapQuest instructions, and Bertie enjoying the view. It was 10:00 when they arrived an hour late, unloaded, set up their machines, and discovered that the large role of fabric for the stoles had been left in Beth’s car, for which she was carrying the only key.
While Shirley drove Beth south to fetch the material, Kikanza cut bias strips of taffeta to edge the stoles. She taught Bertie how to remove the four eight-foot rows of tiny stitching that attached the edging to her sample stole, saying that it had to be restitched. The edging was cut on the straight grain; it should be biased.
About 11:30, Beth drove up in her Lexus with Shirley and a heavy bolt of beautiful red brocade with gold designs. Suggesting that the embroidery thread be returned to JoAnn’s Fabrics, Kikanza and Shirley produced from their sewing boxes appropriate red thread for each machine. Everyone got down to work. While Bertie picked patiently at stitch after stitch after stitch, Kikanza gave instructions and demonstrations for cutting and sewing. “We cut these 1¼-inch bias strips to make a Hong Kong finish for the binding. We’ll use the selvage as fringe. We’ll miter the corners at the top. 10 or 12 stitches per inch. Don’t backstitch, just sew off the edges.”
At some point, Beth disappeared into Kikanza’s immaculate kitchen to serve up the tuna-and-apple sandwiches she had prepared at home. Three of us enjoyed lunch outdoors looking over Westwood and the hills beyond while Kikanza continued to work. She attached pieces of bias binding to make each strip long enough to edge a stole up one side, into a point at the back, and down the other side and then she deftly finished Bertie’s stitch removal process.
As the crew returned from lunch, Bertie dropped out for an hour’s nap in the den and Beth discovered that she was wearing the wrong glasses to do close stitchery accurately. Shirley and Kikanza actually finished their stoles before all packed up, cleared the garage, and said goodbye to one of the most gracious, talented people in Christendom.
Now, St. Luke’s, who is ready to sit down behind a sewing machine and complete one of the 15 remaining choir stoles? If it’s you, please call Kay Marovich for scheduling, materials, and the perfect red thread.