Natalie Chanin

Designer Natalie Chanin blends embroidery and hand-sewing techniques with her own personal story in this empowering guide for all who love stitching and handcraft Embroidery: Threads and Stories from Alabama Chanin and The School of Making mixes lessons in sewing, design, and embroidery with Natalie Chanin's engaging, personal story of the evolution of Alabama Chanin and the indelible mark the techniques she pioneered and the company she founded have made on the sewing and fashion industry. Chapters explore design-related themes—craft, technique, relationship, repeat, and color—through images, instruction, and stories from Chanin about her life, Alabama Chanin, and the evolving view of craft and hand-sewing in the modern world. The book also explores how sewing and embroidery relate to wider concerns of sustainability, community, and women’s empowerment. As makers, we tend to learn different stitches over time without thinking much about how they relate to one another. Embroidery not only makes understanding complex stitches and techniques easy, it also challenges us to go deeper by examining the history of a beloved company and cherished pastime.

As makers, we tend to learn different stitches over time without thinking much about how they relate to one another. But when Natalie Chanin and her Alabama Chanin and The School of Making teams began to look at needlework closely, they realized all stitches are based on geometric grid systems—and by using grids as guides, they could make learning stitches, even seemingly elaborate ones, as easy as child’s play. In The Geometry of Hand-Sewing Chanin presents their breakthrough method, featuring illustrated instructions (for both right- and left-handed stitchers) for more than 100 stitches—from the most basic straight and chain to the more fanciful feather and herringbone; photos of both right and wrong sides; and guidelines for modifying stitches to increase one’s repertoire further. To simplify learning, the book also includes two plastic stitching cards die-cut with the grids on which every stitch in the book is based. These reusable cards can be stitched through for practicing (just as children use lacing cards to learn to tie shoes) or used as stencils for transferring grids to fabric.

Alabama Studio Sewing + Design is a follow up to Alabama Stitch book and Alabama Studio Style by Natalie Chanin. In this invaluable reference, Chanin presents all of the stenciling and hand-stitching techniques her company uses to create an award-winning Alabama Chanin line of organic cotton clothing, plus variations that lead to infinite design possibilities. Crafters are provided with patterns and instructions for dresses, skirts, tops, a wrap, a poncho, a bolero, fingerless gloves and a hat. Each piece is featured in both its basic un-embellished form and with varying combinations of embellishments. By mixing and matching the pieces and embellishments, a stunning unique and versatile wardrobe can be built.

Tasia's Table is a collection of recipes and stories from the award-winning cheesemaker at Belle Chevre. Tasia's circuitous life and career journey led her to a small fromagerie in rural Alabama where she now shares her passion and philosophy on food with home cooks across the country. In this beautiful book, Tasia shares the recipes from her cultural influences—both Southern and Greek—that shape the setting of her table for friends and family daily. From goat cheese frittatas to goat cheese ice-cream to saganaki and buttermilk biscuits, she gives an inviting glimpse into diverse and rich culinary traditions that readers can embrace in their own kitchens.

“Haute homespun out of the Deep South.” That’s how Vogue magazine has described the fashion of Natalie Chanin. Alabama Stitch Book brings us a collection of projects and stories from her clothing and lifestyle company, Alabama Chanin, known for the cutting-edge twist it puts on tried-and-true sewing, quilting, and embroidery techniques, applied mostly by hand to recycled cotton jersey.This long-awaited book from Chanin begins with her story. After living in New York and Vienna for over 20 years, she began to transform cotton T-shirts into high fashion using the needlework skills she learned as a child in Florence, Alabama. When she moved home, Chanin hired local women (many of whom had worked in the state’s now defunct textile factories) to stitch her couture collections with her.What follows is a step-by-step guide to the stitching, stenciling, and beading techniques used in the 20 projects showcased in the book: T-shirts, skirts, and corsets that are sold at chic shops around the world, plus a journal cover, sampler quilt, and tablecloth, among others. Also included are a pullout stencil, perforated postcard for bead-embroidery, and reusable patterns. Throughout are Robert Rausch’s beautiful photographs set against the back roads, farms, and homesteads of the rural South.