Alabama Chanin, Part 1

Dress, DIY Alabama Chanin, made by Tracey

DIY Kit, Camisole Baby Doll Dress, June’s Dream Stencil

Fabric, Alabama Chanin Organic Medium Weight Cotton Jersey (in Brunette and Taupe)

Alabama Chanin Beads

Photography by Santiago Vanegas

June is Alabama Chanin month here at Featherstitch Avenue! If you haven’t heard of Alabama Chanin, please go to their website and read up about them. Or check out this short film by Gael Towey about Natalie Chanin and her company. (Scroll down Gael’s Portraits in Creativity to find the one on Alabama Chanin.) There is so much to learn about what they stand for. Sustainability.  Growing and manufacturing in the USA. Open sourcing their techniques and materials. Because of their dedication to all of these things, it makes me proud to support what they do. I’ve also had the pleasure of taking a few workshops with Natalie Chanin, and she is one of my favorite people to be around. I could listen to her stories all day! There’s a fair amount of information out there about who they are and what they do so I have provided some links for you if you’d like to know more. But today, I’d like to talk about what Alabama Chanin means to me personally.

If you don’t sew, you may not know that sewing can be a very cerebral experience. When drafting a pattern, there is a fair amount of math involved. When constructing a garment, it’s like a puzzle, figuring out the order of the sewing steps, and making choices about how to finish the seams and openings. It requires a great deal of concentration and attention. Most of my sewing is like this. With Alabama Chanin projects, my approach is different. My preference is to buy a kit, in which the garment pieces are precut and already stenciled. So once I’ve selected my color and my thread, my decisions are pretty much done. This frees me up to simply focus on the hand sewing which becomes almost like a meditation. (All of my Alabama Chanin garments are 100 percent hand stitched.) From the moment that I “love my thread” (a technique taught by Natalie of relaxing the fibers of the thread), I move into a different headspace. I find sewing this way calming and centering. For this reason, I’m content to accept the kits as they are, making no personal modifications at all. It helps that they are made with forgiving jersey and at this point I’m very familiar with the sizing of their patterns.

Depending on the amount of embellishment, it can take quite awhile to finish. Each garment goes at its own pace. Some that I have made took me more than a year to complete, but I’m never powering through, trying to get it done. The cool thing about these kits is that they are so portable, and because I hand sew them, I can take them everywhere. I work on them in the carpool line or waiting rooms or on an airplane. (Yes, you can bring them on the plane! I use nail clippers to cut the thread instead of scissors.) For this dress, I used a variety of techniques–appliqué, reverse appliqué, beading, and embroidery. To see more detailed photographs of the embellishments, you can go to my Instagram.

And one more small note–if you read last week’s post, you know that I’m recovering from a dog bite.  But you won’t see my injury in these pictures.  Santiago retouched it right out.  Now, just so you know, we have a strict policy about NOT retouching anything on me, but we thought you might appreciate us making an exception in this case.  After fixing up the photograph, Santiago turned to me with a smile, and said, “Now doesn’t your arm feel better?”  If only it were that easy!!

Have a great week, everyone!  See you on Sunday!