When I watched a video 2 or 3 years ago where Natalie Chanin made a presentation about the development of her company Alabama Chanin and her way to approach things, I was highly inspired. I have never heard of her before that and had to take a closer look at what clothes she was making.
As a passionate embroiderer the idea to sew clothes completely by hand doesn’t sound crazy at all. When staying in Japan I had no sewing machine most of the time and made everything by hand. Natalie adds her unique style of applique and beading to everything she makes. The textures that come out of her workshop are beyond gorgeous and I HAD to make something like that.
So I tried some embellishing, but the jersey-less person that I am (I seldomly buy new fabrics anymore, I have had a gianormous fabric stash at that time and did not want to feed the stashmonster any further) it wasn’t easy to make jersey appliques without that. So I made some applications on corduroy skirts with a cut up pyjama but that was it.
Lately I have stumbled over gorgeous handsewn pieces made with Alabama Chanin patterns and got infected again. I got the first book (Alabama Stitch book) and began the corset.
The fabric is elastic cotton velvet in burgundy, which was lingering in my stash since 2004 or so. This left over piece was just enough to make the corset. Then I found another burgundy left over velvet from the many pants I made for my daugther and used it for the binding.
There are some changes: Since velvet is the impersonated fluff, I choose not to leave the edges open. I left out the embellishments, because I want to see if this pattern is working for me at all.
Approximate time spend on this:
cutting the pattern and fabric: 1h
basting the pieces: 1h
sewing the pieces: 1,5h
binding the edges: 1,5h
embroidering the seams: 4h
Do you want more tips and tricks on hand embroidery?
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