August 2021 Swatch of the Month inspiration featuring: Detail of The Wrap Top Kit in Sand; Embroidery Floss; The Wrap Top Kit in Sand; Plain Cake hand-dyed yarn from Madelinetosh for August’s Swatch of the Month and DIY kits; Plain Cake Tea Towel Kit; Plain Cake yarn in Madelinetosh studio. In collaboration, Madelinetosh developed an exclusive… Read on

Reissued from our design archives, the Fernando Skirt features a hand-sewn patchwork design—a callback to Natalie’s iconic first collection, which was crafted from upcycled t-shirts using quilting techniques learned from her mother and grandmother. Shop the Fernando Skirt. Shop The Waffle Sweatshirt:Limited-edition, Naturally Dyed MORE TO LOVE

Meet Kristy – friend, caterer for our Weekend Workshops @ The Factory, and the newest contributor to this blog. I love the symbiotic relationship between the ferns and the mushrooms – along with Kristy’s recipe. Enjoy! xoNatalie On a visit to the Florence/Lauderdale County Farmers’ Market last fall, I was taken by the beautiful shiitake… Read on

Nature and flowers are often a source of inspiration for my pattern designs, which is evident in their titles: Climbing Daisy, Anna’s Garden, and Kristina’s Rose, to name a few. I simply find Mother Nature’s curvaceous forms and shapes alluring. I look for pattern inspirations everywhere I go, and most often find them when gazing… Read on

Our founder and creative director Natalie Chanin is celebrated as a pioneer of sustainable design with a legacy of innovation that spans the last twenty-one years.  The Helton Rose Skirt features a reverse appliqué Rose design that is sewn using excess cuts of fabric from our design studio, and is emblematic of our design ethos: … Read on

October’s Swatch of the Month highlights the Medium Polka Dot Stencil using the Negative Reverse Appliqué technique with the Feather Stitch. The neutral Sand on Sand color palette in 100% organic medium-weight jersey pairs well with projects created from the Studio Bundle #3.   Left: Studio Bundle #3; right: The Wrap Top Kit in Sand  Fancy Tiger Crafts, this month’s collaborator, is a beloved staple… Read on

Swatch of the Month inspiration featuring Fern Stencil artwork; Plain Cake Yarn by Madelinetosh; Grid of fabric swatches testing tonal paint with Fern Stencil, Laura Zander, CEO of Madelinetosh with Plain Cake yarn; August’s Swatch of the Month; Cake stand from Alabama Studio Style; Photograph by Robert Rausch With a focus of building community through… Read on

Swatch of the Month inspiration featuring August’s Swatch of the Month; Plain Cake Yarn by Madelinetosh; Dyeing yarn in Madelinetosh dye studio; Plain Cake from The Factory Café; The Wrap Top Kit in Black; Madelinetosh Yarn. We first met Laura Zander (now CEO of Madelinetosh) at one of our sewing workshops hosted at The Factory in… Read on

“Okra flower and okra” from Root to Leaf: A Southern Chef Cooks through the Seasons by Steven Satterfield.   “Let things taste of what they are.” —Alice Waters  August produces an abundance of fresh vegetables from the garden, at farmers markets, and on the menu at local eateries. Popular in our community this season are corn, tomatoes,… Read on

 “A word after a word after a word is power.” – Margaret Atwood  Today, National Book Lovers’ Day, celebrates a love of reading and literature. It encourages us to put down our phones and settle in with a good book. To mark this celebration, Natalie (a self-proclaimed lover of books) shares her current summer reading… Read on

Swatch of the Month Inspiration featuring: “Alternating Stitches, Alternating Double Chevron, Damask Stitch” from The Geometry of Hand-Sewing by Natalie Chanin (pages 128–129); August’s Swatch of the Month; “Fern Light Drawing” by Rinne Allen; Fabric detail of The Wrap Top Kit in Sand; Gold-Handled Embroidery Scissors; “Assorted yarns and fibers from Judith MacKenzie” by Rinne… Read on

“Deciding to give myself permission to wander — without a set outcome, destination, or expectation — has been a turning point in my creative process and in my role as a mother of young children. It is now a vital part of my seasonal rhythm.”  – Rinne Allen for The Bitter Southerner  Rinne Allen is a… Read on

“Tactile Corpuscles”, 2014 by Sanne Muiser for the Earth Matters exhibition curated by Lidewij Edelkoort and Philip Fimmano. Photograph by Studio Pluis via TLmag. …our entente with nature will be re-written and re-invented;we will try to live together in a more harmonious way,giving and taking, and caring for each other.– Lidewij Edelkoort Back in 2017,… Read on

“Where there is a woman, there is magic.” ― Ntozake Shange  International Women’s Day was celebrated yesterday, March 8th. In its honor, we invite you to reflect on this year’s theme, “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights,” and encourage you to support local and national organizations that stand behind a better and more inclusive future. We… Read on

In the late 1830s, English Botanist Anna Atkins likely was not too interested in the specifics of photography. Atkins was formally trained as a botanist and, at the time, was studying algae. Through her practice, she was looking for a way to document the delicate elements of each specimen. She learned of the process of… Read on

In July, we wrote about the book Design for Artists and Craftsmen as part of our series that explores vintage design, embroidery, and craft books.  I carried this book with me as my daughter Maggie and I headed to my residency at The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts in the mountains of North Georgia. In… Read on

The Panel Tank style made its first appearance in the Alabama Chanin collection in 2013. It has been one of our most requested patterns ever since due to its form-flattering fit and debuted as the first pattern in our 2018 Build a Wardrobe program. Find design details below for some of our favorite versions for… Read on

Featured on the Quarter 4 Design Bundle, the newly released Tartan stencil is available today through The School of Making(along with the re-released Fern). Originally released in 2012, our natured-inspired Fern stencil has been featured over the years on garments, home goods, and Swatches of the Month. This customer favorite is again available in physical and… Read on

The final quarter of our 2017 Design Bundle series is now available, filled with a bright color palette of Apple, Ruby, Burgundy, Carmine, and Plum—perfect for the holidays. The Design Bundle includes basic sample blocks as well as stenciled, in your choice of metallic or tonal paint, with our re-released Fern stencil and the newly available… Read on

Last fall, our friend (and editor) Melanie Falick reached out with the desire to design her own stencil—and use that stencil for one of our of our Custom DIY Kits. She documented her process, and we’ve named her design “Circus”. (She also likes the subtitle, “If Not Now, When.”) Seen above, the finished artwork is… Read on

If you had only seen his most recent paintings, currently on view at Workshop (Christian Berst), you might assume that Robert Tharsing’s idea of paradise resembles a lush and colorful landscape full of palms, ferns, and the occasional volcano. In reality, the artist has contented himself with simpler pleasures: a decent sized room with access… Read on

Each month, we feature a favorite Alabama Chanin embroidery technique as part of our Swatch of the Month Club. Additionally, we offer suggestions as to how you might put your completed swatches to use. Past month’s project offerings have included the DIY Clutch, DIY Book Covers, and DIY Swatch Pillows. This month – with 6… Read on

Each Thursday on the Journal we post DIY projects and ideas. On Thursdays following our highlight of the Swatch of the Month, we will be creating projects made from our completed swatches as a source of inspiration for those of you following along. At Alabama Chanin, swatches start out as a design concept for new… Read on

Each month, as part of our Swatch of the Month Club, we are demonstrating some of our most popular techniques so that you might try your hand at creating new designs and embroideries. If you join the Swatch of the Month Club, you will receive a ready-to-sew package each month with the supplies needed to… Read on

This summer’s harvest has begun to reveal its bounty. Tomatoes and cucumbers are in full-swing and soon I will have all of the squash and zucchini I can stand (and plenty for the neighbors) not to mention, beautiful Italian basil, which I love with a tomato sandwich. I recently received this book, Vintage Craft Workshop,… Read on

I think that our Beaded Fern treatment lends a holiday feel to December’s Desktop of the Month. Up close, Beaded Fern resembles a holiday tree, but the glass beads can also catch your eye across a crowded room. Perfect for your next holiday gathering… Learn more about the Fern Stencil here and flip to page 121… Read on

Apples, sweet potatoes, autumn squash, turnips, rutabagas, leeks, and greens of every shade—I await the fall garden and all of its bounty each year with as much eagerness as the changing of the leaves and the relief from blistering Alabama summers. Root vegetables are at their prime this time of year and their heartiness is… Read on

With another Studio Weekend under our belt, we are happy to begin the work week with new friends, ideas, and projects.

Our current selection of DIY Kits offers many garment styles with a variety of color and notion choices; however, we understand that often times the perfect design is a matter of personal expression. For this reason, we now offer Custom DIY. For our Studio Weekend Workshops or home use, choose from our selected Custom DIY Kits…. Read on

I am very excited to be included in this seminar and looking forward to visiting Stavanger and seeing The World of Folk exhibition: International Design Seminar – Folk Futures With: Li Edelkoort, Tord Boontje, Natalie Chanin, Dick van Hoff, Hella Jongerius, Peter Marigold, Mike Meiré, Fernando & Humberto Campana. As part of this summer’s A… Read on

I  love paint chips and the names of colors. I have lived in Cameo, Clementine, Venetian Glass, September Leaf, Cobalt, Aria Ivory, Spice Trader, Rain Mist, and Princess Passion rooms. My husband, John T, and I sleep in a Hickory bedroom trimmed with Sensitive White, and we prepare our family meals within our kitchen’s Walking… Read on