Your Guide to Natalie Chanin's Books

Rather than answering individual inquiries, let me help all of you with questions about which Alabama Chanin book to buy.



Alabama Stitch Book
• Contains all the basic sewing and applique information.
• Major garment patterns: Corset (sleeveless top). Quite beautiful, extremely fitted, very low neckline (fixable). Swing skirt. A-line skirt made from four gores.
• Smaller projects: bandanna, shawl, boa, flowers, pincushion, stuffed bunny.



Alabama Studio Style
• Contains all the basic sewing and applique information.
• Major garment patterns: Tank dress. Six gore dress with curved seams, low-cut neck (fixable), sleeveless. Can be cut at waist to make tunic, shirt, and skirt.
• Smaller projects: placemats and napkins, shopping bags, throw pillows, doily, apron.
• New techniques: circle spiral applique, eyelet embroidery, stringing.



Alabama Studio Sewing + Design
• Contains all the basic sewing and applique information.
• Vastly expands the vocabulary of embellishment with stripes, ruffles, variations on inking and beading.
• Major garment patterns: Fitted dress. Four gores, sleeve variations from sleeveless to cap to short to flared long. Bolero. Fitted tee shirt. All lengths of skirt from the dress pattern. Hat. Poncho and tied wrap.
• Detailed "fabric maps" and embellishment samples.


Most of the Alabama Chanin stencil patterns are available as downloads at Alabama Chanin, so they are available no matter which book you choose.

Ooh, have fun!

A Weekend in Alabama

The Composer and I are off on a short trip away to Florence, Alabama which is home, as you may know, to the Alabama Chanin jersey company. We'll be hitting The Factory pretty hard tomorrow.

Tonight there was just time for a bountiful dinner at Yumm, an Asian restaurant. We were full of plans to go to Odette, but it was closed for renovations and we will miss it, sad face.

I couldn't believe how much food the Composer ordered (and ate). Then we strolled around the University of Northern Alabama campus, which was beautifully lit.

Jersey. Tomorrow.

Alabama Studio Style: Ocean Circle-Spiral Appliques

Starting a new Alabama Chanin dress on genuine Alabama Chanin jersey in Turquoise. The thrift store yielded four tee shirts in toning aquas and pale blues.

I'm layering on the circle-spiral appliques generally from the hem up, dark to light, in a vague ombre reference. It's fun.

Alabama Studio Style: Relief Applique Dress

Back in the fall I made this plain jersey dress for Clara.

This week I got around to embellishing it with my hand-cut stencil (downloaded from the Alabama Chanin store, for free), and fabric paint dabbed on with a sponge.



Once the paint dried and set I cut out the appliqued petals (slightly larger than the stenciled shape) and stitched them on using the "relief applique" technique from one of the Alabama Chanin books.

Then I added some beads.


Then of course I did the back!

Alabama Chanin's Spring & Summer Collection

I've been drooling over the new Spring & Summer Collection at Alabama Chanin. I love these color combinations, that tender blue-gray and that gorgeous nude. And the nipped-in waists and fuller skirts in these new garments.

Much inspiration for future sewing! I hadn't really thought about the pale pinkish-tan she's using in this collection before--now it's at the top of my list.

And how cute are those stripey socks and boots? Cute enough for me!

(photos from Alabama Chanin)

In the Alabama Style: Two New Embellishments

Continuing to mess about with Natalie Chanin's marvelous ideas, here is some straightforward stenciling on what will be a jersey shawl. I used the "Rose" stencil from Alabama Stitch Book, and permanent fabric pen. This is just fun, like coloring. I may do some reverse applique next; the underlayer is a slightly grayer shade of lavender, which you can see in the upper corner of the photo.


And this is a gorgeous, almost-finished dress for Clara following the "Circle-Spiral Applique" directions in Alabama Studio Style. I used a natural jersey for appliques all around the hem of this navy dress.

For jersey seekers--Hancock's has been carrying a modest selection of very soft, thick all-cotton jerseys. That's where I bought the two purples and the navy. The natural came from the fabric stash of a church friend who was clearing out.

Fitting a Jersey Tee

In my forays into Alabama Chanin-style sewing I've made up several tops and dresses and have found consistently that the necklines are impractically low. "Revealing" is how the website describes them--"disappointing" for someone who wants to wear them around town.

So this time I chose to sew up a simple widely-available scoop-neck tee and see if that worked better for shape. If it was a go, then I could bring all the Alabama Chanin goodness to the finishing and embellishing.

I picked up New Look A6735 to that end, and was really happy with the neckline and shoulder fit, but just look at the horizontal wrinkles across the small of the back. What to do about my apparently terrible swayback? (The one I'd never noticed before.) At first I though I'd need to somehow take fabric out laterally, but then it occurred to me to take in the center back seam (handily placed for this fix).


Look at that--it did the trick perfectly! I transferred my changes to the paper pattern piece because I will definitely be going back to this garment for all my Alabama Chanin shirt sewing projects.

Alabama Studio Style: Circle-Spiral Applique Dress

Clara reads to the girls in her supremely comfortable, eminently wearable new Alabama Chanin dress. All stitched by hand from the pattern in Alabama Studio Style, with a few changes. I added short sleeves, raised the neckline, added an inch in length to the bodice, and two inches to the skirt. She says it is the most comfortable dress she's ever had.

Alabama Chanin Couching: Chlorophyll Splendor

This is the simple six-gore tank dress from Alabama Studio Style.  Made up in Alabama Chanin cotton jersey in a single layer.

The neckline is finished with green glass bugle beads in a parallel whipstitch pattern, and the armholes are simple thread whipstitching.

The entire skirt, front and back, is the "Bloomers" stencil pattern in a very intense green. Each leaf shape is outlined in couching. I cut a bunch of half-inch wide strips of leftover jersey and pulled them into thin "ropes". It's such a great way to use up scraps. I couched the ropes around the leaf shapes, and the little accent shapes in between I outlined in bugle and seed beads.

 If you don't like green things, you won't like this dress. But I do!

Oh, Just Hanging Out at Alabama Chanin . . .

Yes, I actually am at the Alabama Chanin store in Florence, Alabama. We drove in in time for lunch, and then took the 2:00 tour of the Factory.

No surprise, these garments are beautiful in person,

and the jersey yardage is almost irresistible.

I'll be doing my purchasing tomorrow.

I think I'm going to buy some socks, too.

So far I have looked at half of the swatch books. They are arranged by color story--but the current ones are in NYC on a trip at the moment. I'm in the archives.

Everytime I found something I really liked I had the Composer photograph it as a reference. His trigger finger got worn out.

I'm thinking about chop beads and bugle beads--the bugle beads here are so long! Much longer than the ones from the craft store.

Some stitching samples below--everywhere you look there's something handmade!

Believe me, there will be more tomorrow . . . .

A Jersey Cardigan with Some Alabama Style

And then it occurred to me that I could use Alabama Studio techniques on a commercial sewing pattern designed for jersey. Simplicity 2206 is a simple kimono-sleeve cardigan with very few pieces. I ran up the seams on the machine, then picked out some to fell by hand with a running stitch.

I just love handwork on jersey. It is such a comfortable way to sew, and so beautiful.


Not sure about the fit through the shoulders for Bella, though. I think maybe a size up next time.

Some Easy Jersey Dress Patterns

Here are a couple of Big Four patterns I've been working with lately, with cotton jersey. I love the Alabama Chanin patterns but wanted something with a little more drape and these have fit the bill nicely for my recent projects. 

First up, Burda 7082. This dress has a pleated, not-too-low crossover bodice (it does benefit from a pin or a stitch to hold things together). It also has a built-in sash across the front, with an interesting twist.  I initially tried to sew it as presented in the pattern but it was just too much fabric, so I simplified it to a straight strip across the front. 

And on my second time around, I took a great portion of the center front fullness out of the skirt.

 If you carefully mark the pleats, this is an easy pattern to sew, and very flattering.

I've also enjoyed Simplicity 2369. I did a trial of this in some cotton-poly jersey blend, in the tunic length. I've never worn raglan sleeves before, but something about the drape of the sleeve, and the cut of the front was really working for me! Even in my junky fabric this felt supremely elegant, so I was excited to make it up in a longer dress form, with the same sleeves. Yes! I love the dress, although I've taken off the unnecessary tie to streamline things, and just sewn the crossover panel into the opposite side seam.

There you have it--two flattering patterns that call for knits. Make them plain or dress them up with Alabama Chanin-style handwork. That's what I'm going to do!

Alabama Chanin Gored Dress: Plum and Paisley

This is my experiment with a paisley border--the beige shapes are all appliqued on and then stitched around in two rows of running stitch.

The embellishment goes all the way around the dress. And since I lengthen the dress by ten inches, and extend the cutting lines on out at an angle, the skirt is almost a complete circle--quite a bit of border!

I used Alabama Chanin medium-weight jersey in Burgundy, with Nude scraps for my paisleys.

The neck is bound with my new favorite stitch for binding--a blanket stitch turned around backwards so that the horizontal bar sits right beside the raw edge. It makes a very firm, no-nonsense stitch and doesn't compete with the fancy frills of the embellishment.

Alabama Chanin: A Navy and Bronze Magdalena Dress for Bella

I caught Bella in her newest jersey dress. This is the Alabama Chanin six-gore favorite, tweaked for Bella's preferred fit (custom bust and waist measures, and she likes knee-length, which is perfect with her small stature).

I used the Magdalena stencil on navy jersey, on the center panel only. Used embroidery floss to stitch around all the shapes, then cut out the larger petals to reveal the bronze-colored jersey fabric I had placed underneath (which came from a thrift-store tee shirt).

Last I added some strategically-placed seed beads. I also made a matching short-sleeved bolero, but this day was cold so she wore a sweater over the dress instead.

Alabama Studio Style: Gore Skirt with Bird

Next up, this gored skirt for Clara from Alabama Studio Style. The skirt is made from the same pattern as the dress, you just cut it off in the middle. Natalie Chanin would have you using fold-over elastic to finish the top, but a casing with narrow elastic works well too, and is readily available.


I stitched these seams on the machine, and left them unfinished, devoting myself heart and soul to embellishment. Which took the form of a purchased bird stencil and my second attempt with fabric paint--sponged on this time. I bought a little $1.00 packet of paint meant for an air-brush apparatus, and squeezed it out into a saucer and sponged it on with a cheapie sponge. That worked.


After it dried I did my First Ever reverse applique using a scrap of teal jersey from a tee shirt, and then frosted the cake with a few blue bugle beads. The trick, as ever, is stopping.

Alabama Chanin's Wrap Dress

Having downloaded the pattern, I'm trying out this Alabama Chanin wrap dress. The instructions are over-optimistically sketchy, I think, especially for that bust dart. It can be hard to get the corner point to lie nice and smooth. But we shall see.

I'm on my second go-round, since my printer actually gave me a slightly shrunken version of the pattern. My usual size was a little dainty. Currently trying again.

Natalie Chanin's New Book

Everyone knows about this, right? Natalie Chanin's new book, Alabama Studio Sewing Patterns. It's a nice addition to the Alabama Chanin library, focusing on how to alter patterns to fit you better. Very helpful if you've been intimidated by that process! It also contains a CD with every pattern from all the other books--including my favorite six-gore dress and bolero.

If you're new to the process of altering knit garments to suit yourself, it can be very helpful to use cheap jersey, not the real thing, to practice on. I've had good luck lately finding jersey sheets at the thrift store for a dollar--they may be a little worn or a little pilled, but they are great for a practice run at a new pattern. 

In fact, I used a jersey sheet today while setting a personal record--I cut out a skirt, sewed it up, and put it on in less than fifteen minutes, using Kwik Sew 3513 (though my pattern says 639). I needed a second-tier skirt to garden in, immediately. It worked.

(edited to the correct Kwik Sew number)