Yearly Archives: 2014

Hello!
So! after hours (and hours… and hours…) of aeroplane and in-front-of-the-TV stitching, I have finished my first AC project(s).
This is the mid-length skirt and the fitted tank top, both from the book, Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, by Natalie Chanin.  The two are actually just one pattern, a full length dress pattern, which you cut off at the relevant places to make either a skirt or a top.  Or a tunic or a dress.
Great idea, by the way.    I love the economy of one all-inclusive pattern.  Means you only have one thing to store, but about a zillion “making” opportunities in there.  OK, to be accurate there are eight garment possibilities from the one pattern, but surely at least a zillion wearing and layering combinations to be had.

My skirt!  I’m so pleased with it!  It is totally hand-quilted and stitched in the reverse appliqué technique described in the book;  using a top layer of lightweight deep olive bamboo/cotton knit, bought originally from Potters Textiles years ago, and the base layer is a thicker and more stable dirt-brown cotton jersey from KnitWit, also bought years ago.  These are my colours, yo  🙂  I also used some of that same brown cotton to make part of Tim’s hoodie, here.

The stencil pattern is Anna’s Garden from the AC book, enlarged 306%.  I applied the stencil to the olive fabric using a small foam roller and regular household paint, as described here.  The thread used throughout is a brown/grey Gutermann’s upholstery thread, although Spotlight ran out of my colour (grrr!) so a small portion was done in the same colour of Gutermann’s topstitching thread.  Top-stitching thread is kinda OK stuff but I really prefer the upholstery thread; much smoother and less prone to the strands separating from each other.
All the seams are hand stitched too, and felled by hand.  I had initially toyed with machine stitching the seams; but of course after all that hand embroidery I knew I had to finish off properly….   This took a blink of an eye compared to the embroidery side of things, so I am so pleased I opted to “do it right”, so to speak.  I like the way the felling shows upon the right side as a row of dimples; barely hinted-at stitches along the seams.

I finished the waistband with chocolate brown fold over elastic, bought from Tessuti’s in Melbourne. This stuff is extraordinarily expensive here and pretty hard to find in Perth.  Believe it or not; this colour is the closest match that I’ve found… anywhere. 

My top: I actually do have a matching deep-olive-and-dirt-brown fitted tank top printed, planned and ready to go, but as soon as I finished the skirt I had a Vision; only the plainest of plain white tanks would be the absolutely perfect-est accompaniment to this busy busy skirt.  I had the immediate compulsion to make such a thing.

I bought the white cotton jersey from KnitWit, and made up a very simple fitted tank; no frills but still constructed in the Alabama Chanin way, so stylistically it matches the skirt really well.    The seams are stitched and felled by hand, and the binding applied with herringbone stitch.  Although there a visible knots aplenty on the inside of the skirt… unavoidable!  I went out of my way to hide them on the inside of the tank top, concealing all the knots inside the layers of the felling and binding.
Neckline and armhole binding and seams: below left, right side view; at right, inner view with felled seams

Fitting-wise;  I raised the back neckline of the tank and made the shoulder straps a little wider also.  In my early experiments, I sliced a biggish sway-back wedge from the pattern which affected both the tank and the skirt pieces. 
Time-wise; the tank top took, like, one day at the most? while the skirt has taken weeks!  Although I would like to add more Alabama Chanin pieces to my wardrobe, there is no danger that I am going to get addicted to this technique.  It is basically identical to hand-quilting and I have made enough quilts to know I can only take so much of that.  My left pointer finger needs time to rest and recuperate.  The tip of that finger has skin like a rhino now.  Seriously.
Obviously I am thrilled to bits with my first Alabama Chanin project, and the second!  however there will be one little hurdle; I’m going to have to force myself to wear the skirt and not treat it like a museum piece.  I’m having visions of unwittingly sitting down on a patch of oil, or brushing against a spiky bush or someone carrying a glass of red wine tripping and falling in slow motion  in my direction…. aaagh!  The stuff of nightmares!  😉

Details:
Skirt; the mid-length skirt from Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, hand-embroidered and stitched cotton jersey in two solid colours
Top; the fitted tank from Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, hand-stitched, white cotton jersey
Sandals: Franco Burrone, from Marie Claire