Recommendations: Fiber for Making Altar Cloths.

Dear Reader,

If you are inclined towards making your own altar and shrine cloths, it may be hard to pick out what manner of fabric to use, what kind of yarn is best, or even the type of fiber these projects should be worked in. While there is much to be said for the affordability of acrylic, it will melt when exposed to heat. Thus, if your candle drips onto your altar cloth there is a good chance that it will melt into the the fabric you have there. Many synthetics have this problem as well.

Silk is luxurious but very, very expensive. It also is difficult to care for or clean at home. Synthetic silks have the same problems as other synthetic fabrics and potentially the same issue with water causing problems with how well the dye remains in the fabric. Silk for embroidery details is nice, but be careful in your use because of the potential for the dyes to bleed into the rest of the fabric when it is washed.

Linen is a traditional fiber used for this manner of project. It is hard wearing and can stand up to just about any manner of use. It is, unfortunately, expensive to procure because of the costs of commercial production of linen fabric. Linen yarn is likely to be equally expensive, if not more so because most suppliers of linen yarn on the market are handspinners.

An inexpensive option that is almost as hard working as linen is cotton. The only real problem with cotton is the fact that certain dyes wash out easily and it shrinks upon washing. After a certain point, the shrinking of the fabric is at its maximum point, but you can easily lose a few inches off of a crochet project that just fit the altar surface perfectly. (I forgot to adjust yardage on a project and had this exact problem. Said cloth is now a pretty hand towel because it shrank by about 1.5 inches on the horizontal and vertical axis. Blocking out helps resolve some of this but it will not fully cure the problem, even if you are blocking it out wet every time you wash it.)

Wool is a tempting fiber to use. It is expensive to acquire as woven fabric of good quality. It is tricky to wash because wool will felt and shrink down if you wash it improperly. (Blocking out a felted wool item will not resolve the problem at all. Had this happen to a shawl, it was a loss of about 3 to 5 inches on the vertical and horizontal axis. The shawl is now a wide scarf.) It is easier to acquire as yarn for crafting at home. But, it is absolutely vital to wash your yarn as per the directions on the package to avoid massive problems due to felting, even with yarn that has been treated to be relatively safe from this, like most sock yarns.

Exotic yarns like alpaca and yak down are very expensive. They all have their own unique problems for use. If you decide to make something featuring these yarns, or other fibers that are expensive and delicate (see silk above), a secondary cloth to cover the ornamented main cloth made of a less expensive and protective fabric, like cotton, is needed this way if wax or liquid is spilled, it is possible to save the expensive fabric from damage.

I personally prefer to use cotton. I have some altar cloths that I have made from acrylic. After the mistake of using the cloth and having wax melt into it (and melting the fibers some), I have a cotton cloth I put beneath the candles and any containers holding liquid to protect the other cloth. My protective cover cloth is a white flour sack style towel. It is easily bleached to remove stains and durable. Cotton also takes most dyes, so it is possible to have these protective cloths in an array of colors that matches what you are using for your main altar cloth.