Simple Family Altar Cloths
Peter Fournier and Catherine Fournier
The practice of family
devotions and family prayer is benefitted by the
installation of a family altar or prayer table in the home.
A family altar is a place where the family can gather for
prayer, where devotional objects can be placed, where the
family rosaries and Bible might be kept and candles lit for
special times of prayer. A family altar need not be
elaborate - for many years our 'family altar' was actually
the top shelf of a bookcase, easily visible but safely out
of reach of our active inquisitve boys. (The bookcase was
also fastened to the wall with angle brackets, to keep it
from tipping over when the boys climbed it.) A simple way to
decorate the family altar, to visually set it apart as a
special place and to follow the liturgical seasons of the
Church in the home, is to use an 'altar cloth' on the family
altar. This family craft will show you how to make a set of
'altar cloths' each in a liturgical color and decorated with
appropriate liturgical symbols. What You Need:
- Enough fabric to generously cover your family altar, with enough to hang over the edge and at least one inch for hemming all around.
- Fusible interfacing (sometimes called 'Stitch Witchery)
- Contrasting fabric for liturgical symbols.
- Scissors, pins, iron, ironing board.
- Symbol patterns.
How To Make Your 'Altar Cloths'
- An 'altar cloth' can be of any fabric you like - cotton-polyester broadcloth is inexpensive, easy to wash and iron and comes in a wide range of colors. Felt or light weight wool could also be used, if you want a heavier cloth.
- Using an iron, fold and press a one-inch hem all around the cloth.
- Cut a one-inch wide strip of fusible interfacing, long enough to go all around the hem of your cloth.
- Slip the fusible interfacing inside the folded edge of your cloth and iron it all around to make a hem.
- Cut out symbols from contrasting fabric by pinning the symbol pattern onto the contrasting fabric and cutting out the shape. (If you don't have any pins, use tape.) See the list below for the symbols, click on each symbol to go to the pattern for it.
- Next, cut out symbols from fusible interfacing. Place the pieces of fusible interfacing underneath the cloth symbols.
- Place the symbols on the cloth in a pleasing arrangement and iron them in place.
- Place your altar cloth on the family altar. You're done.
Liturgical Colors and Symbols
| Season: Advent | Color: Purple | Suggested Symbols: Star, Angel, Candles |
| Season: Christmas, Epiphany | Color: Gold or White | Suggested Symbols: Angel, Infant Jesus, Crown |
| Season: Ordinary Time | Color: Green | Suggested Symbols: Cross, Trinity Triangle, Fish |
| Season: Lent | Color: Purple | Suggested Symbols: Cross, Chalice, Nails |
| Season: Easter | Color: Gold or White | Suggested Symbols: Cross, Flame, Dove, Grapes, Wheat |
| Season: Marian Feasts | Color: Blue | Suggested Symbols: Flowers |
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