Ever since I first saw the style of Alabama Chanin incorporated in the T shirt 'uniform' of Bar Pitti (a lovely, though wildly over popular (read-hard to get in) Italian café here in Greenwich Village) I had been fascinated. How do you do that? I thought to myself. My sewing chops had been dormant for so long, I couldn't even begin to figure it out. I think that was 5+ years ago. I had acquired a T-shirt with 'Alabama' appliqued (actually reverse applique, but I just learned that a week ago), from 'Architecture for Humanity' as a donation (great org, check 'em out), because I really wanted to feel good about wanting a T shirt. (I am embarrassed to say), and see if I could understand the technique.
Well. Last week, my favorite knitting, now craft store, Purl (actually just my favorite store period) held a workshop with Natalie Chanin, the source of my fascination.
I am learning how to do it. Reverse applique, and there are other things to learn as well.
I can hardly wait. I am obsessed, I pour over the Alabama Chanin books (and website) wondering how I can take this stuff and make it mine! So far, I've embroidered 2 Purl totes and started to learn how to do this reverse applique on a tote bag kit (see photo).
All the sewing I use to do comes welling up inside me. My Mom taught me how to sew at a young age. 6 or 7, maybe sooner? I had a girl's Singer sewing machine in a bright shiny patent blue with tulips in pink and orange box. I made actual clothes on it. Really, jumpers, wrap around skirts, smocks. I still have the Singer (that weighs minimum 50 lbs) from 1977, when my Mom bought a 'real' one on a monthly payment plan. I used it for years and I haven't used in probably as many since. My Mom did my hand sewing (hems, zippers sometimes, snaps) for me back then. I had no patience. "Not yet," she would say, "later you'll enjoy it, it will be relaxing." Mom's do know.
Well, the feed and tension on the old Singer is a bit wonky, and to lug it to mid-town to get it fixed? Well, not yet. I do like the sewing by hand. All that knitting has prepared me. The sewing by hand does bring me back to a happier warm golden aspect of my childhood where my Mom and I related. I can clearly say that my Mom taught me how to sew. We didn't have Home Economics by the time I got to school age (I was robbed!), but my craftiness definitely comes from my mother's side as well as the southern part. My grandmother was amazing, whipping up evening gowns for my Mom for all the social butterfly things she attended, so my Mom told me. It was a long time ago, and the south; middle class people had events that required evening gowns. Mother Cain taught me how to crochet, by my time she had stopped sewing. She made beautiful afghans. I have a couple and treasure them. Alabama Canin taps into that part of my life. Perhaps superficially (I am a 212 person born and raised), but this is the part of the south that is really wonderful, magical, human. It's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' not Faulkner.
So, sew, I am inspired, excited. All this possibility!
I don't want to sound dire or be made to eat my words, but I think this is my oil spill, but in a good way. It just makes me gush with no end in sight
(not to be tasteless)
(no worries Ganesh making is going at a nice clip too)
