I posted about Alabama Chanin about a month ago when I went to a ‘fabric tasting’ held at A Verb for Keeping Warm, a store filled to the brim with delicious yarn, fabric, patterns, classes, and samples.  Organic cotton jersey knit fabric from Alabama Chanin is available by the yard there, so I couldn’t resist buying a yard of two colors and a yard of  1″ foldover elastic.The skirt pattern, the stencil for the leaf pattern, and instructions are in the Alabama Studio Style book.

I wasn’t sure I’d like the process of all that hand stitching but the fabric tasting had intrigued me.  (Handsewing binding to quilts is my least favorite part of quilt making.)  ALL of the Alabama Chanin clothes are completely hand stitched – embellishments, seams, topstitching, elastic – everything that’s sewn.

It turns out that stitching away at the skirt pieces was completely fun and therapeutic. Cutting out the reverse applique was a little nerve wracking at first, but it was also fun once I got the hang of it and used a pair of nice sharp scissors.  I didn’t stencil the pattern on with fabric paint as Natalie Chanin does, but instead tailor chalked the ‘Bloomers’ leaf design on to the fabric to follow as an applique pattern. The fabric paint adds a different dimension to the fabric, but I didn’t want to deal with the mess of painting on this round.

This is a portable quiet project along the lines of knitting and crocheting.   I’m starting on skirt number two because I found I missed stitching after I finished this one.  And it’s a fun versatile comfortable skirt that I’d be happy to have more than one of.