Little Pieces of Me

With February just about over, it is appropriate that I have finally (finally!) finished my February Blues project. And it has been a long time coming. I'll cut to the chase. Here it is, an Alabama Chanin inspired skirt. This is a self drafted 4 panel A-line boot length skirt made in French Terry for winter warmth. The surface design was stencilled onto the same fabric, cut out, arranged and painstakingly hand stitched in place. And that's where all the wintery days of the past month have gone. The hem is finished with dyed-to-match cotton lace - that I did not crochet myself. This work is very different for me. Not only is it far more labour intensive that most of my projects, it is also by far the most decorative work I have ever done. I don't usually even wear patterns, but the idea for this outfit popped into my head pretty much fully formed. So what could I do but make it? I had to get it out of my head somehow. I am pleased with the finished skirt...

Following on from my previous post, I have also been working on some samples of the appliqué methods shown in the lovely book Alabama Studio Sewing + Design: A Guide to Hand-Sewing an Alabama Chanin Wardrobe by Natalie Chanin. Reverse Appliqué I have a little experience with reverse appliqué - which is when you have two layers of fabric, a stitched pattern and then cut away some of the top layer to reveal the bottom layer. I remember doing some sweatshirts with this, way back in the 80's. Yes, that was in the previous century. So for that reason I didn't do an Alabama Studio style sample of this technique. At right is an example from the Alabama Chanin web site which shows it very well. Essentially, the process is the same as I was discussing earlier, but in this case you cut out some of the stencilled design. Changing how much you remove, how you have done the outline stitching and the colour of the two layers creates many variations that make the pattern be sub...

This past week I've been quite absorbed by a new book - Alabama Studio Sewing + Design: A Guide to Hand-Sewing an Alabama Chanin Wardrobe by Natalie Chanin. Maybe absorbed isn't quite the right word. Possibly obsessed. Natalie is the founder of the clothing line Alabama Chanin. You can check out the company site here , but you'll actually see a lot more images if you just use Google Images. The clothing is quite remarkable. Although the actual garment designs are relatively simple, they are all completely hand sewn by women in Alabama, made from organic locally grown cotton, and feature a range of embellishments that are stunningly labour intensive. Here's a montage to give you an idea of what the surfaces look like. And these lovely things are every bit as expensive as you would imagine. But in an interesting turn, Chanin has made the clothing potentially available to a wider market by not only selling completely customizable sew-it-yourself kits and supplie...