How to Sell to Religious Institutions

Churches could be a great market for your custom embroidery work.
Oct 1, 2008

Some churches display more elaborate wall banners that incorporate dimensional elements, including padded appliques and elegant trims such as fringe and tassels.

Religious-themed embroidery is some of the most beautiful in the world, and is crafted using time-honored methods. Today's commercial embroiderer can continue the tradition of creating ceremonial worship embroideries, as well as selling more contemporary products to churches and other religious organizations.

Vestments and other ceremonial accoutrement aside, modern churches also buy embroidered products for all sorts of teams and events, from fundraisers to golf tournaments. Let's take a closer look at the various opportunities.

Altar Linens
Many churches use multiple sets of altar linens, each in specific symbolic colors dictated by the church calendar. The colors are displayed on communion table and pulpit coverings, called paraments, on banners and on stoles worn by pastors or priests, called vestments. This means most churches have multiple sets in colors including green, blue, purple, black, white gold and so on. A good reference for detailed information about this is "Symbols of Church Seasons and Days," by John Bradner (Morehouse Publishing).

The group of church members usually responsible for the design, creation and care of these valued worship adornments is the Altar Guild. "I find Altar Guilds to be a delight to work with," says Libby Noll, of 12needlestichery.com, a custom digitizer and embroiderer. Her first experience with the religious embroidery niche began as a fluke. She visited a Cokesbury store near her Indiana home. Cokesbury is a retailer specializing in religious items, and Noll says she was looking to check the fabrics used for Advent altar linens.

"The sales associate actually took my card because they don't make custom shaped or specially sized altar linens," says Noll. A local church needed a special altar cover that was wider in the middle. They had a quote from a large religious specialty provider for a price of $3,000 for one set consisting of a 70" x 30" altar cover and two 20" x 24" lectern scarves. For that price, Noll made them three sets and repaired their existing sets. "I had about $500 in materials," she says. "It was mostly fabric, including some from the drapery department."

Another referral led a small rural church to approach Noll for unadorned, green cotton altar linens to commemorate its 150th anniversary. Because it seemed almost unnatural to her to stitch up church linens without embroidery, Noll pinned several stitch-outs to a sample of forest green dupioni silk (irregular, rough silk woven with two thread colors that can shimmer in certain light). The committee loved it and selected a Trinity design to be embroidered on its commemorative linen set.

"The satisfaction is worth its weight in gold," adds Noll, who attended the small church's dedication ceremony.

Embroiderer Lynn Smith of Wellington, Colo., became heavily involved in this area when she married an Anglican priest. After making and embroidering his vestments, she started getting requests from his colleagues to make items for their churches.

"I offer very high-quality items at a lower price than the large supply houses," Smith says. "I price them so smaller churches and missions can afford them. I also make traditional items that are no longer offered by the supply houses." You can see Smith's work at altarlinens.com.

Banners
First Communion banners and baptismal banners are small and simple, usually incorporating very basic religious symbols. Some churches have a felt banner made for every child who is baptized, christened or confirmed. Two good reference books on the subject are "Banner Patterns For Worship," by Carol Jean Harms (Concordia Publishing) and "The Banner Book," by Betty Wolfe (Morehouse Publishing).

Larger, more complex banners are hung in sanctuaries and, like paraments, are changed with the church season. Care must be taken to ensure they will hang straight and do not pucker when embroidered. It helps to use a good fusible stabilizer or even fuse a separate piece of fabric to its reverse side.

Banners are trimmed with ribbons, fringes and woven trims. Appliqué is a great way to place large elements and lettering on banners. Although dramatic in scale, large sanctuary banners are frequently simple in design. For example, a pair of Advent banners might simply have a star and the words "Wise Men Still Seek Him" or "Peace on Earth." To help meet your customer's budget, suggest making the banners reversible with a different color and message on the each side.

Many traditional religious symbols are hundreds of years old and in the public domain. They can be digitized or purchased, and some can be created using stylized fonts. For example, Noll made the popular IHS symbol using the Rosemail alphabet from Great Notions. "I just deleted the greenery," she says.

Some research will be necessary, because even when using seemingly universal symbols, subtleties exist. For example, Baptists prefer a plain, unadorned cross, while Lutherans, Catholics and others favor a more ornate "budded" cross.

It's relatively easy to get detailed information, as well as a wealth of artwork, for religious embroidery from the Internet. It's a great place to get ideas and make sure you are using the symbols correctly. While much of the information on religious embroidery relates to hand embroidery, it is easily translated for computerized machines.

To begin your Internet research, visit webclipart.about.com and click on the Religions tab. Also, use a search engine such as Google to find detailed information and artwork suitable for your offering. If you plan to digitize any of the artwork that you find, be sure to read the information regarding permission to use, as artwork on some sites is restricted from commercial use.

You can work directly with worship centers by sending a letter to local places of worship describing your embroidery services. Larger churches have many ministries, so do your research to find the people responsible for those programs. Send individualized letters to the youth director, director of music ministries, Sunday school director and so on.

The director of the music ministries is often a good contact because that person works with the choir (if the church has one), and choirs often wear stoles, robes or other garments adorned with religious symbols. This work may be a good place to begin because the embroidery required is frequently a single-color letter or symbol.

Some churches order embroidered shirts as awards for fundraising golf tournaments. Many churches have sports facilities and organized leagues, which could mean orders for team uniform embroidery and/or appliqué. Keep in mind that donating a few tax-deductible customized garments can result in future orders.

Within a few miles of each other in my North Dallas community are three retailers serving various faiths in the community: Family Christian Store, Judaica for Jewish temples and The Sacred Heart, specializing in merchandise for Catholics. Any shop of this type is an excellent prospect for your embroidery services, either by direct offering in their store or through referrals.

Approach religious specialty shops with a proposal for how you could work together. You may be pleasantly surprised at how well custom embroidery complements the existing offerings of these businesses.

A thoughtful gift suggestion is a white cotton handkerchief commemorating a first communion, baptism, and confirmation or bar mitzvah/bat mitzvah. Embroider the name and date across one corner. Add a simple cross, Star of David or other appropriate symbol if desired.

Make a sample or two of this item to take on your initial visit to the religious specialty shops in your area. Be prepared with your pricing, and offer to leave the sample handkerchiefs for the merchant to display.

Often selected as gifts or presentation items, soft Bible covers or Bible carriers are easy to personalize with names and dates, or even the name of a Sunday school class. The fabric can vary, but if it is too heavy to be hooped, simply hoop a piece of self-adhesive stabilizer and finger press the cover or carrier onto the sticky stabilizer.

The bottom line is that there are a variety of opportunities to service the religious market. Do your homework and you might create a niche for your business that will result in repeat orders.

Deborah Jones is a commercial and home embroiderer with more than 30 years experience in the computerized embroidery field. For more information or tocomment on this article, e-mail Deborah at deborah_jones247@yahoo.com.

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