I’m very happy and pleased that my Mum agreed to let me photograph her wearing her very recently completed hand-dyed-embroidered-and-stitched creation, and to show the pictures here on my blog …
thank you so much Mum!
This is Mum’s third Alabama Chanin project, and the first completed one… she has very nearly finished a more wintery skirt and top but has put those aside for a little bit in order to make something with the flavour of summer. She wanted to have something to wear now!
Mum hand-dyed white cotton jersey in three different shades of pink for her top; pale apricot pink for the under layer, a deeper apricot-rose pink for the upper layer, and a true pink- pink for the neckline binding. The floral design is her own, and she made a stencil using dressmaking paper from Jackson’s but does NOT recommend this; it buckled and was apparently a nightmare. The design was rollered on to the upper layer in slightly watered down, regular household paint applied with a small roller. Mum used double thickness Gutermann’s upholstery thread to hand-stitch the floral motifs, all seams and the flat felling of all seams; and pink stranded embroidery cotton for the cretonne stitch to secure the neckline binding. We had some debate on whether the armscye seams should be stitched down to the sleeves or the body?? a quick recce of the Tshirts in the general vicinity seemed to indicate that there is no convention here but men’s buttoned shirts are to the body so this seemed like a good example to follow.
The pattern is the Tshirt pattern from the book Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, by Natalie Chanin, with the neckline from the tank/dress pattern, and short sleeves. Before launching into all that time-consuming embroidery Mum wisely tested the pattern and found it necessary to make small adjustments for fit… both of us loathe muslins and generally avoid them like the plague and yeah, it does seem ludicrous for a basic Tshirt in a forgiving stretch knit, but an Alabama Chanin project is kinda exceptional. It doesn’t take long to run up a test Tshirt on the machine using a long basting stitch, and is well worth the effort. And could save lives!! Well; at the very least, a tantrum 😀
Thank you so much Mum!
