My Alabama Chanin Dress
June 10, 2009 | Melanie Last July I was one of the very lucky participants at an Alabama Chanin workshop in Florence, Alabama, led by company founder and creative director Natalie Chanin (also the author of the STC Craft book Alabama Stitch Book and the upcoming Alabama Studio Style). When the workshop started, after I had tried on an assortment of beautiful Alabama Chanin dresses and skirts in different sizes, I decided that I would make the Camisole Dress in size medium. Next I chose my fabric colors, my stencil design, and my textile paint color. Then Natalie's staff cut out my 6 pattern pieces, stenciled my design onto the fabric, and handed me their work so I could start mine: working reverse applique around all of the shapes in the stencil design and beading around or inside of some of them. While I was there (Friday night - Sunday morning), I happily stitched for hours and hours and came close to finishing the reverse applique and some of the beading on 11/2 panels (with a little help from Alabama Chanin stitcher Diane Hall, who very kindly offered to work on one panel while I worked on another when she didn't have other responsibilities to attend to). After I returned home to my "real" world, where I didn't have the luxury of stitching for hours on end, I worked on the dress when I could, on the train, during long car trips, at a couple of my son's soccer tournaments, and sometimes while watching movies on television on Sunday afternoons. After all of the panels were finished, I stitched the seams and added binding around the neckline and armholes. All in all, it took me about 10 months (and I have no idea how many hundreds of hours) to finish. And I loved every bit of it. The process of making my dress by hand was soul-enriching. Wearing the dress, which is comfortable, feminine, and subtly sparkly--is wonderful. I especially enjoy looking at the seams and feeling how strong they are, knowing that they are that way because of the stitches I made with my hands. I am so grateful to Natalie and Diane and everyone else at the Alabama Chanin studio who helped me that weekend, to the other participants in the workshop, who made the beginning of this experience so much fun, and to Lori Adams, a local photographer who saw me working on the dress last Fall and promised that when I finished it, she would take my picture in it. Below are Lori's photos of me wearing the dress that makes me feel so capable and happy.
Reader Comments (14)
Wow! That is a GREAT dress! An original Alabama Chanin. You lucky, talented girl!
Photos are lovely.
Oh wow, that's stunning. I've seen a few pics of projects from this book, but this is the one that made me decide to buy it.
Thank you.
Dear Nic,
All of the techniques I used for this dress are in Alabama Stitch Book. And Alabama Stitch Book includes patterns for a skirt and a corset. The dress pattern will appear in Alabama Studio Style, which comes out next spring.
Melanie
oh melanie! what a joy to see this at its beginning and now finished! it looks so, so beautiful. and i know how good it must feel to wear. it is going to bring you a lifetime of joy!
xo
Melanie, it's gorgeous! Nice work.
Your dress makes me smile. Beautiful. And all the more special for knowing it came from your own hands.
Beautiful!
Wow! Looks fantastic and I am so excited to read that the dress pattern will be available in the new book. My twin sister just made a skirt for me for my birthday and I bought a skirt kit for her. We had some awesome twin ESP going on there or something. (Maybe we both just love the Alabama Stitch Book!)
Dear Katie,
Thanks. I hope you and your sister will post photos of your skirts on the STC Craft Flickr site so we can all see them.
Oh, how beautiful! I have the book and have practiced the stitches in hopes of making a lovely outfit for myself. Your work is gorgeous and I hope it brings you great joy to wear it.
Do you have any tips on how to source enough appropriate material for a similar project? I don't have enough unprinted cotton t shirts in my home to make it work:)
Raye Ann,
You can buy cotton jersey yardage from fabric stores or directly from alabamachanin.com.
Melanie
Melanie, we have the same name. The dress is beautiful. You look lovely. Great job.
Ha- we have the same name too (my parent's just spelled my wrong...err, different). Anyway - LOVE the dress. Can't believe you did it all be hand. I'm not sure that I have the patience - but what a neat thing to be able to wear and say that you did!
Love Florence, AL - my mom lives in Athens just down the road. ;)
Oh my, that dress is stunning! Good job!
that is stunning! congratulations on finishing this masterpiece!
Love that dress. Just found this in a magazine, (think it was Southern Living) and remembered the site address. I would love to be a prt of this workshop crew. Just my style. Annie
Hi Melanie, Your dress is beautiful and you look fabulous in it. I was wondering what colors you used.
My friend Julie of cocoknits first told me about Natalie Chanin and you. I'm so glad she did.
Dear Luana,
Thank you for the compliments. I just checked the color card on the Alabama Chanin website. I believe I used navy and denim fabric. The beads are definitely black.