This final project work deals with the history, appearance, usage and design details of the pelena type orthodox church textile. In addition a set of model designs were made for the holy icons of Kuopio orthodox parish sanctuaries. The work was based on the graduates’ personal interest in old historical pelena, which was used in Finland’s orthodox churches and is now almost forgotten. Pelena has long historical roots, dating back to Byzantine times. The word pelena originates from Russian and it describes a cloth or a curtain, which is used as the decoration for an icon. Its purpose is to underline the message of the icon. Very little literature or research is available on pelena. The main sources of information for this work were a post-graduation thesis made for the University of Joensuu Department of Orthodox Theology and Finland’s orthodox church museum’s written sources and photographic archives. In addition the sanctuaries and icons of the Kuopio orthodox parish were photographed to support the work. The themes of the old pelenas and the usage of pelenas in the past and today have been described in the work. In addition to the old pelenas of the orthodox church museum, the new pelena for the holy icon of the cathedral of Saint Nicholas in Kuopio was studied. The issues that effect the design process of a pelena have been presented in this work. The most important of which is the icon itself and its theme. In addition the place and the space, in which the pelena shall be situated, are also important issues. For design purposes, the Kuopio parish sanctuaries were grouped by building style into three categories. From each group one sanctuary was selected for which a model design of a pelena was made. The model design can be applied with quite small changes to the other sanctuaries of the same group. The designs were based on the idea that weaving is the manufacturing technique used. The model designs were made for the holy icons of the following sanctuaries: Cathedral of Saint Nicholas of Kuopio, Church of Saint George of Siilinjärvi and Chapel of Aleksanteri Syväriläinen of Luikonlahti.