Our friends at The Market at Pepper Place in Birmingham couldn’t have said it better: “In an uncertain world, our farmers ground us in what is most important: Mother Earth, our daily bread, and each other.”  Pepper Place, Alabama’s biggest and most well-known farmers market, is continuing operation as a contactless drive-through market with pick-up options,… Read on

Right now, as best we can, we are looking for ways to ease anxiety. Scientific research shows the positive and calming effects that sewing, cooking, and hands-on making has on the brain. The meditative action of sewing reduces stress. It increases dopamine, the happiness hormone; it requires creativity—which improves the brain’s ability to grow new… Read on

As we write this post our national food and beverage industry is in free-fall. Restaurants and bars, shuttered in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, have laid off an unknown number of staff and servers across the country. We feel deeply what our friend Brooks Reitz wrote yesterday, “Uncharted waters. We have been gut punched,… Read on

From our very beginnings, Alabama Chanin has approached design from a sustainable and zero-waste perspective. Our earliest Collection garments were t-shirts taken apart and pieced back together, sometimes using scraps for appliqué or decoration. We are always looking for ways to use scraps in clever or utilitarian ways. Sometimes that means building our patterns so that they… Read on

As we continue to navigate through this frightening and uneasy time, we’ve also loved to see people cooking more, sharing photos, and sending one another recipes over social media. A community of people who have long turned to fast solutions are embracing their home kitchens and finding new ways to use ingredients. This is a… Read on

As we spend more time indoors, social distancing, and getting through this time spent #TogetherApart, we can’t think of a better way to fill the time, keep our hands busy, and allow our minds a bit of rest, than making.   2020 is The Year of Color at The School of Making, and we have been exploring new… Read on