Alabama Stitch Book: Projects and Stories Celebrating Hand-Sewing, Quilting, and Embroidery for Contemporary Sustainable Style

Alabama Stitch Book is a collection of projects and stories from Alabama Chanin, a clothing and lifestyle company known for the cutting-edge couture twist it puts on tried-and-true hand-sewing, quilting, and embroidery techniques, mostly worked on humble cotton jersey cloth (much of it recycled).

It begins with founder Natalie Chanin’s story: how she decided to transform cotton T-shirts into high fashion using the needlework skills she learned as a child, and then began hiring women in the economically depressed area of Alabama where she grew up (many of whom originally worked in the state’s now defunct textile factories) to handstitch them.

Next is a step-by-step guide to the techniques used in the projects, including deconstructing cotton T-shirts so the cloth can be reworked, as well as hand-quilting, stenciling, appliqué, reverse appliqué, embroidery, and beading worked the Alabama Chanin way.

Among the projects are the company's signature T-shirts, skirts, and corsets , which sell in stores around the world (in stores like Barneys and Bergdorf Goodman) for hundreds to thousands of dollars, as well as a reverse appliqué bandana, beaded-embroidered postcard, sampler quilt, and child's toy bunny.

Bound into the book are a perforated stencil sheet, a paper skirt pattern, and a postcard for bead-embroidery.