At Project Threadways, we believe making is more than a practice. It is a way to restore dignity, reclaim voice, and imagine new futures. One stitch, one story, one system at a time.

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ALABAMA CHANIN
Founded by Natalie Chanin, Alabama Chanin® is a 25-year experiment in circular design: artisan-led clothing and textiles, transparent supply chains, and ethical labor systems.

THE SCHOOL OF MAKING
Founded on the ideas of cultural preservation and education, The School of Making® forms a community-powered platform for sewing, storytelling, and thinking: practices that build skill, restore dignity, and unlock creative agency.

EDUCATION AND ORAL HISTORIES
Project Threadways' collection of 35+ oral history interviews began in 2000 and expands today through the support of the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area, the Alabama Humanities Alliance, and the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We are honored to collaborate with UNC-Chapel Hill and other institutions of higher learning to facilitate coursework and special projects in the arts, design, and humanities.

Oral histories coming soon.

WORKSHOPS
Inspired by the ideas of cultural preservation, education, and the enrichment of life through the living arts, we offer workshops, open-source resources, and collaborative making opportunities.

SYMPOSIA
The annual Project Threadways Symposium, and events held with partners nationwide, serve as catalysts for community, making, and dialogue about the ways that textiles have shaped the lives of individuals and communities.

FIBERSHED
Project Threadways conducts and commissions research about textile production in The Shoals and beyond. For the Southeast Fibershed affiliate, we provide a connective resource of producers and makers in the southeast region to build a better future.

 
THE FUTURE
Exciting things are unfolding for Project Threadways. Donations fund all of this work, including operating costs, programming, scholarly initiatives, and special projects.

A NEW HEADQUARTERS 
In 2026, thanks to generous donations from individuals, private foundations, and public agencies, Project Threadways will relocate its programs to a historic building in downtown Florence, AL, located in the former Cotton District and present-day Arts & Entertainment District. This represents a new era for our organization—a space to deepen engagement, expand programs, and make sustainable craft an integral part of daily life in our community.

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Our work began in 2000, when fashion designer Natalie Chanin conducted interviews for a short documentary film, titled Stitch, and created a collection of 200 one-of-a-kind T-shirts, hand-crafted by artisans in and around the Shoals community of northwest Alabama. 

Natalie’s return to the Shoals occurred six short years after the signing of NAFTA shuttered the area’s century-old, thriving textile industry. Florence, Alabama, was once known as the “T-shirt Capital of the World.” In the 1990s, local factories that had once employed thousands closed as manufacturing was outsourced overseas—representing a tremendous loss of knowledge, culture, jobs, and local industry. 

As the U.S. outsources the design and manufacture of most clothing overseas, as factories sit empty in downtowns, and as waste accumulates on shores worldwide, this work is more urgent than ever.

“Whatever direction Chanin takes, she’ll always come out in the lead. The truth is that the industry is just beginning to wake up to issues this designer, a pioneer of slow fashion, has been addressing for decades.”

– Laird Borrelli-Persson for Vogue