Patti Schlarb feels blessed by her work.
Schlarb is the liturgical seamstress for the Congregation of Holy Cross. Her office and sewing room are in the basement of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. She was featured in a Sept. 9, 2013, story in the South Bend Tribune.
She has worked for the Congregation for 15 years, sewing about 3,000 albs and other items for C.S.C.s, as well as fabric pieces on the altar and in the Basilica. Schlarb also makes mitres for bishops. She recently made one for Most Rev. Daniel Jenky, C.S.C., bishop of Peoria, Ill., who celebrated the 125th anniversary Mass for the Basilica. It took her 40 hours to complete.
“The things I do here travel all over the world,” Schlarb told The Tribune. “A piece of me is going all over the world. That’s a peaceful feeling for me.”
Read the entire story, “Sacred stitches,” on the South Bend Tribune’s website. You can read two entries on the Holy Cross Vocations blog about her and her work as well, both from 2011: one about her work on the vestments of new ordinandi and the other about the final product.
