Clerical fabric
 

I've offered to make a table runner for our altar in church. The fabric I will use is off its of clerical clothing. It is heavier than quilting cotton. I think, it feels closer to denim. Would you use 1/2" seams and double seam lines and what would you back it with? I've thought about a white. The top colours are the different liturgy times in a year plus white

Just a thought but why not use the same fabric that the top will be made from?

I agree that you shouldn't back it in white; the white might show. The ones at my church are double sided with the same fabric. A good half inch seam sounds lik a good amount. The fabric ours are made out of are more like a brocade and need to be dry cleaned.

are you sure it is not linen? More suitable for embroidery, cutwork, harbinger etc

good idea but they want it done in squarea

I agree with Pam that I usually see them backed with the same fabric as the top. I probably would do 3/8" seams, pressed open to distribute the bulk. You could do 1/2" if you want, but it's probably not necessary.

I'm not sure what exactly you're making. It sounds like you are planning to add a batting, in which case, white would be fine except for the fact it is not easy to clean. In our church, people take turns bringing the laundry home with us & people exercise different levels of care with washing. For that reason, provided it didn't show through the front, I'd be more likely to use black or a dark color for the backing fabric. At a minimum, I'd pick the darkest color I could find that didn't show through the top.

If you reduce the stitch length to 1.6mm, you don't need a second row of stitching. You can certainly do that anyways & it will look nice. With those heavy (linen?) fabrics, I actually love the look of a triple stitch, or else a heavy weight thread. It's the one time -- other than jeans -- when I get to use that feature on my sewing machine & I love it!!!

I'm making like a tabletop per for the altar. Can't use same fabric on back as I'm only getting off cuts from making clerical gowns . Im not putting batting Wadding in at this time as it would be too bulky. I may change my mind later on the batting..

I would use a duck, twill or an upholstery type fabric and add no batting.

In that case, pretty much anything would work for the backing, but I agree with tesspug that duckcloth would be my first choice -- inexpensive, weighty & appropriately simple for an alter (and easy to launder). Honestly, my second choice would be either dyed or unbleached muslin -- I still wouldn't go with white unless your church has linens professionally cleaned or you don't expect the alter topper to be used for more than one season. I used to belong to a church that was so hard on its linens that the women were asked to make new linens for every liturgical season. It was insanely demanding and in the end people were taking shortcuts left and right because we knew they wouldn't last -- things like "self-binding" to a piece of cheap felt and always making the part that hung off the sides of the alter pointed & just folding it over on itself to form a triangle shape (since that's the one place the felt would have shown). The only stitching that was done other than decorative embroidery was just a single tight stitch to piece. No point in reinforcing since it was getting tossed in a couple months anyways.

If this is a piece that your church plans to use year after year, then perhaps someone could contribute a nice white linen tablecloth that you could cut apart & use as the backing. If it's going to be well cared for, it's worthwhile to put some time into sourcing materials & doing beautiful stitching. In that case, your idea of stitching 1/4" from the seam would be quite lovely (I'd still use a heavier thread or triple stitch it). With it being 2 layers of fabric, the more stitching you add through both layers, the nicer it will lay on the alter & the better it will hold up to laundering.