Alabama Chanin Suede Colored Jersey

There was an Alabama Chanin collection featuring Suede colored jersey a few years ago. It was the perfect basic color, going with almost everything, yet beautiful enough to stand on its own. When it finally became available for purchase, I splurged and bought six yards. I had dreamed of making up a "capsule" wardrobe of basics in this lovely color. 

Time ticked by, and last December I finally dusted off my Suede stash and began a bit of a basic stitching marathon. My first garment was a pair of Alabama Chanin pants. You can read more about those here.

I had joined the Alabama Chanin Build a Wardrobe 2017 program (more about that here), and had some really great patterns to try out. The pants fit perfectly, so my next pattern to try was the car coat. Because I'm rather short, I was a little apprehensive about the fit of the car coat, but I just had to try it out. 

I ended up sizing down, but should have cut it even smaller. The back fits really nicely, but the front has too much fabric for me. One day, I'll get in there and re-work the pattern, but for now, I'll just wear it as-is, more like a housecoat. I would usually just roll up the sleeves, but it added to the excess of fabric in this case, so I cut off about five inches. Being a double layered garment makes it warm and cozy.

My next item was a mid-length fitted skirt. This garment is so quick to cut and stitch. I was wearing it within a day. I like that I'll be able to layer this under a few of my shorter skirts and dresses.  Here it is with an indigo T-shirt top (full story here.)

Sorry for the not-so-great selfie shot, but I liked this outfit ~ printed top, Suede skirt, with my Alabama Chanin indigo blazer. I wore it with a super cute pair of brown Fiorentini+Baker ankle boots. 

Next up was the wrap top! I love wrap tops, wrap tunics, wrap dresses, wrap cardigans, wrap sweaters....you get the picture. 

The Alabama Chanin wrap pattern did not disappoint! I really like the fit of this top. I can foresee making quite a few versions of this top (and eventually tunics and dresses). Since this was a single layered garment, I felt it could use a little extra weight at the hem, so I added binding

It's easiest to pin, then baste the binding on, take out the pins, then secure your binding with a stretch stitch. 

If you can imagine how much easier it is to do the Cretan stitch without all those pins!

Here it is layered with my white Alabama Chanin fitted t-shirt (full story here.)

I like the detail of extra panels in back.

 Here's the inside tie. You can see the rosebud stitch on the skirt waistband.

I've dressed it up with an ochre bolero with burgundy stitching (more here). 

I think I have enough fabric left for one more garment. I'd like to try to make a pattern from my favorite slouchy, warm up top. Fingers crossed it turns out!!

I feel I've only touched on the versatility of these garments in Suede. Unfortunately, the color has been retired. But you never know, sometimes Alabama Chanin brings things out again.