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It's been rumbling in the back of my tiny brain to make an appropriate garment to send me off in. I wish to make my own shroud.

To buy the amount of Aida required would be way too expensive, so im looking into getting some nice cotton cloth with a regular weave in it. I'll have to go and see the cloth for myself , so an online purchase would not be possible. Thus it would require a trip to the mainland. I envisage a 6 feet by 4 feet cloth, hemmed in white, with nice stitched corner motives. For the picture I thought of a nice pic I saw in a book on the Jordan river. It spills into a whirlpool: very foamy and lined with trees and blue sky.

The amount of stitches to fill the cloth would be approximately 677370 stitches. For some reason I thought was more than that... This is based on a 14 count kinda weave.

Couple of logistics to deal with: 1 how long am I going to live? 2 will my eyesight ( and sanity) hold up?
Even if I don't get it done, they need to put the finished part PICTURE DOWN on my face, so I can enjoy it.

In the end , just wrap me in like a taco. Don't forget to throw in floss and needle so I can finish the parts I missed.

This lifetime project is best enjoyed from a pine box.....
Alaric... Canada

Well now - that sure is different. It would certainly be a lifetime or 2 to get something that large stitched. I wonder if it will ever get done.?
Of course the biggest stumbling block is that none of us know how long we will live which adds a whole new dimension to such a project.

I've seen Aida either 56 inches wide or 60 inches wide sold by the yard in a continuous piece up to 10 yards (10 yards is a whole bolt) and it wasn't that expensive by-the-yard not like buying those little Aida scraps like you get in the tubes. Check whatever local fabric/sewing store you have there...like Joanns or similar. If you can't find it locally, would you consider buying Aida by the yard online since you know it is Aida?

Originally my shroud idea was to make it fit over my coffin as it would be on display for visiting hours in the funeral home, but that required a much wider and longer cloth. I have no idea how to stitch two Aida cloths together, so I focused on getting a cotton weave.

But a smaller shroud could be in Aida. A company in Brooklyn, New York sells Aida by the yard, so this would be my best bet.

Only one thing: I find Aida rough on my skin, so being wrapped up in it. Ach ....but then again , I'd be dead.....no sense, no feeling

Alaric... Canada

That is certainly an amazing idea. Good luck with it. You will need a lot of patience

Alaric wrote:Originally my shroud idea was to make it fit over my coffin as it would be on display for visiting hours in the funeral home, but that required a much wider and longer cloth. I have no idea how to stitch two Aida cloths together, so I focused on getting a cotton weave.

But a smaller shroud could be in Aida. A company in Brooklyn, New York sells Aida by the yard, so this would be my best bet.

I guess I'm not clear on the project. Is a piece of Aida 5 feet wide and 30 feet long not big enough? An interment flag used to drape a coffin is 5 feet x 9.5 feet, so if the Aida was a full 60 inches wide off the bolt, you'd need 3.25 yards. Double-check the width before you buy, since some manufacturers may make it in only 36 or 45 inches wide, and specify that you need a continuous piece.

Back in the day in this part of the world, but especially in the islands, a girl needed a certain number of sewn garments and objects for her 'bottom drawer'. Included were the usual wedding and household items, baby clothes and... a shroud (that is so say, her own shroud, childbirth being an iffy business). So what you are contemplating isn't so unusual. In fact, coffin covers of various sorts have a very ancient history indeed. Indeed, if you google 'pall' you'll find companies that sell cloth for this exact purpose! I have no idea whether it's stitchable. I wonder -- regarding the Jordan River picture, perhaps you could inkjet it to cloth, perhaps embellish it with stitches and appliqué it to your shroud?

Well I did a little calculation for you
677370 total stitches divide by 200 which I find a perfectly doable amount of stitches per day would take you 9.27 years to complete
It sounds a most interesting project, keep us updated on what you decide to do x