Dress, DIY Alabama Chanin, made by Tracey

DIY Kit, Long Fitted Dress, Paisley Stencil

Fabric, Alabama Chanin Organic Medium Weight Cotton Jersey in Leaf Green and White

Photography by Santiago Vanegas

What do you do when you want to bring lights into the forest and you don’t want to drag in your light stands?  Well, you bring your minions, of course.  Our son and daughter got put to work this week.  (“Just because you’re not in school doesn’t mean you don’t have to work.”)  But they did such a great job rising to the challenge that Santiago put them in the pictures!  I did need to be reminded multiple times to “quit looking at the children, and concentrate on what you are doing”.

And isn’t this setting beautiful?!  I’ve often wondered if I missed my calling as a location scout for movies and television.  At least with this blog, I get to pretend I’m one.  And who knows, I could still possibly fulfill that dream with the film industry booming here in Georgia.  Once, our house was in the running for a scene in a Denzel Washington movie, but we didn’t get picked.  So when we got yet another letter in our mailbox from a location scout asking if we would be open to allowing our home to be used as a set, we immediately said yes.  “Is it a Michael Fassbender movie?”, I asked hopefully.  “Is it a Cate Blanchett movie?”, my husband asked hopefully.  No and no.  Just a shoot for a commercial.  Oh well.

So here we are in the forest, and I’m wearing my long fitted Alabama Chanin dress.  One of the things that I absolutlely love about these garments is that yes, they are hand made and yes, they are heirlooms, but they are not precious.  These dresses are durable.  I had no concerns wearing this dress wading through the stream and stepping over fallen trees.  By the time I was done the bottom of the dress was caked with mud.  No worries.  I tossed it in the washer when I got home and it’s as good as new.  Maybe even better.  Some of my Alabama Chanin garments I’ve had for quite a while and they age really well.  I like them better when they have been lived in a bit.

This dress is made using negative reverse appliqué.  In this case, I stitched within the stenciled shape about an 1/8 of an inch inside.  After stitching all the motifs, the area outside the stenciled shapes are cut away revealing the bottom layer of leaf green fabric.  Then I appliquéd the white circles within the flower motifs using a blanket stitch to give it more of a 3d appearance.  For more information on these techniques, pick up Natalie Chanin’s book Alabama Chanin Studio Sewing and Design.

We finish up our month of Alabama Chanin next week with two skirts.  See you then!