Review on 🧵 Sewing + Design for Alabama Studio: Hand-Sewing an Alabama Chanin Wardrobe by Heather Shaw

I received my pre-order for Alabama Studio Sewing + Design this afternoon and I have to say I'm amazed by both Natalie Chanin's creativity and her generosity - because she there is so much involved in this book! I have her previous two books and love them very much, but I think this new one will be my favorite. The first two books are more technical tutorials: how to sew knitwear by hand, how to embroider with beads, how to apply a template with several templates and templates. Alabama Studio Sewing doesn't delve into methods; the focus is on finished fabric design and tailoring. There are patterns for hats, fingerless gloves, skirts, T-shirts, dresses and capes with instructions on how to use ruffles or surface elements for creative diversity. Then there are stencils. 6 or 7 of these can be copied or downloaded for use. Along with them is a designer picture "library" that shows the fabrics made with each template and various combinations of beading, appliqué, reverse appliqué, and prints (all techniques covered in books 1 and 2). became. There are also photos and instructions for decorative and beading stitches, ruffles, eyelets and even "fur". There is an index at the back of the book showing all the photographs of the garments in the main body and listing exactly what they are made of: fabric and thread colour, patterns and templates used, fabric treatment, beading style etc theoretically any of them can be recreated. This is an amazing, inspirational book and I'm really looking forward to trying my hand at designing my own Alabama-Chanin wardrobe. Thank you Natalie and the team at Alabama Chanin for providing such great work to all of us!