Frida-alls: Frida Kahlo Overalls with Removable Bib

Frida Kahlo was never known to wear overalls.

However, I think she'd probably consider it, if she were here today. She was known for mixing cultures and time periods in her dress... traditional huipil blouses with contemporary flowing skirts, colonial earrings and revolutionary rebozos. These overalls combine traditional workwear with contemporary fabric designs, and mixes utilitarian with the trendy in the form of a bare-shoulder top. 

The fabric is a Frida Kahlo tribute print by Alexander Henry called Frida's Garden, in cotton canvas. I was a little worried that it would be stiff for a garment, but it washed up soft and supple. My original idea was to make overalls in a dark floral, which I thought would be help make overalls evening-out appropriate and be an excellent entry for #sewfrosting. However, when I came across this Frida print I flat out fell in love. I came across it on Fabric.com, and the picture and description was for the black Frida's Garden in cotton canvas... but when it arrived, it was the cream background. Since the print was even more lovely in person, I uncharacteristically ignored this blatant breach of fabric ordering etiquette and just went with it. 

Oops, my backstrap is twisted! Didn't notice this until I uploaded my photos!

Do I think Frida would approve of this melange of her painting symbolism? Well, that's hard to say. But having painted herself into much of her oeuvre, we know she isn't shy about her imagery. The designer has filled her garden with the monkeys and parrots she famously painted portraits with, in addition to lush vegetation, ripe fruit, snakes, and eyes and arms on canvases. As well as a few of her most famous quotes:

Pies para qué las quiero, si tengo alas pa' volar.

Feet, what do I have need of you for when I have wings to fly?

Tengo ganas a vivir. Ya comencé a pintar.

I desire to live. I already have begun to paint.

I wasn't quite sure what to do with the pattern on the legs, so I mostly let chance decide. I'm not quite in love with the off-set twinning happening in the front, but oh well. I did carefully choose what would be on the pockets though. Frida with monkey on the front left with the "...fly" quote, and Friday with parrot on the right back pocket. 

The pattern is, of course, the Jenny Overalls by Closet Case Patterns. I seem to have difficulty making a pattern just once- you can see my black linen overalls here. The fit of the size 16 was nearly perfect last time, so I mostly stuck with that. The only change I made was to grade the bib from a size 16 at the waist to a size 14 at the top, since the bib on my linen overalls seems to provide a bit more coverage than the pattern pics call for. 

But the biggest change is... the bib is removable. Ta-da....!

I thought these would look cute as pants. Mia (@sewnorth) has a tutorial on Instagram. I didn't follow this to the letter. She added an extra layer to her waistband for the buttonholes... but my canvas was quite thick, so I just made the buttonholes on the inner waistband without alteration. 

Thinking about it now... wouldn't these buttonholes be better horizontal? I didn't really think about it... Mia made hers vertical, and I just followed along. However, with a horizontal buttonhole there would be less worry about the size of the buttonhole fitting on the waistband, and possibly more security against the vertical stress on the bib. Next time! 

The buttons on the front bib are about 1/2 inch, four of them, mostly because that's what I had on hand in my recycled button stash.

I also totally freak'in forgot to add extra to the bottom of the bib when cutting it out. So I added a button band at the bottom.

I did the button sides again (Closet Case Patterns has a tutorial) and realized that I could use the top button as an anchor for the sides of the bib. It is just a little tight to fit the extra thickness on the button, but very doable since jeans buttons have a good shank (is that the right word?). 

The double buttonhole on the inside of the waistband is from me not realizing I could reuse the waistband button. The horizontal buttonhole is the one that I use. 

These jeans buttons came from Wawak. They are really nice quality, and very reasonably priced, as long as you are ordering enough to get free shipping. 

The straps each have one big button in the back (1 inch?)

The overall hardware is from Amazon. I'm not sure what really nice overall hardware feels like, but this feels a little less than workforce quality, but it does the job.

This version came out a little bit tighter than my linen overalls. This is actually a good thing, since the pants need to be a bit tighter to stay up. This is probably in part because the cotton canvas has much less give than a linen fabric... but I think it is also because I was a bit more precise sewing these, for whatever reason. I'm pretty firmly in the stretch pants camp... so we'll have to see whether I find these comfortable for daily wear. 

The top I'm wearing with the pants is a Liesl Classic Shirt in tencel twill, made about a year ago. 

The top I'm wearing with the overalls is brand new, made to wear with my growing overall collection- the Closet Case Nettie. The original pattern is for a bodysuit and a dress, but I just cut it off at a hip length and then did Heather's tutorial to make it off the shoulder. The fabric is a rayon jersey from the stash. It was a super quick sew!

So what do you think, should I take these overalls dancing?

Flower Print Eggs: A Natural Egg Dyeing Tutorial

Flower Print Eggs with Easy Natural Dye

using ingredients you'll find in the kitchen and pantry

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Dyeing Eggs in Rome, Italy, Spring 2018

When I was growing up, we always used those supermarket kits with little tablets that dissolve in water and give brilliant colors. But after having kids, trying to do things in a way more inspired by natural materials and processes became really important to me, and dying eggs with chemical dyes just wasn't appealing. 

So, I first made nature print eggs using natural dyes two years ago, when my daughter Lily was 4. She's now 6, and I have a son who is 3... and we're still using natural dyes to do our annual egg coloring! 

This year we're in spending the spring in Rome, Italy... and we dyed eggs using our favorite methods here! It worked beautifully.

The cheapest pantyhose I could find was 2 euros a pair. I could only find brown eggs at the supermarket! After the fact I've seen white eggs in other stores, but the brown eggs came out quite lovely. 

Unwrapping is the best part.

The original post from 2016 follows... read on for the photo tutorial!

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I've been a bit obsessed with decorating eggs with natural materials and dyes this year. It's great to do with my four year old daughter. I also love how they capture some of the ephemeral beauty of spring!

The most beautiful results have been with flowers. I had no idea they would turn out so beautifully!

Here's how you do it. It's very easy, a great project for kids or adults.

You need:
--Nylon pantyhose
--String
--Eggs (You can use blown eggs or raw eggs)
--Flowers
--Natural dye plants-- this year I used red cabbage (1/2 head), yellow onion skins (from 3 lbs of onions), and powdered tumeric (about 2 tablespoons).
--White vinegar

Where to get flowers in early spring? This year in the Finger Lakes we found hellebores, crocuses, and snowdrops in the garden and in the nearby woods. If you are gathering wild flowers, make sure to only pick a few so that there are lots left to make seeds. You can also use store bought flowers-- supermarket bouquets that are a bit past their prime (and on sale) would be perfect.

Position a flower on your egg. Use water to moisten the petals and help them to stay in place.

Wrap the egg with a piece of nylon pantyhose. Pull it tight around your egg, holding the flower flat against the surface. Tie with a piece of string.

Prepare your natural materials. For the onions, peel off the outer papery layer. For the cabbage, tear the leaves into chunks, or roughly chop.

Purple cabbage and the nylon wrapped eggs in the stock pot. Those blown eggs want to float!

Place the dye material in a large stock pot, and fill with cold water so that the eggs are covered. Bring to a boil. Allow to simmer for at least 1 hour. After one hour, turn off the heat, add 2 tbsp of vinegar per pot and allow the eggs to sit in the colored water until the desired color is reached. If you want a dark color, you might need to let it sit overnight.

The added benefit of this method is that your raw eggs will be hard boiled without an extra step. If you are dying blown eggs, you might need to put something on top to keep the eggs submerged-- a lid from a smaller pot might work.

Then, cut the nylon and peel off the flower to see your beautiful results!

Alternate method (or a method to keep the dying fun going): Boil the dye materials in the stockpot until reduced to about 1 quart of liquid. Strain and reserve the liquid. To dye your eggs, submerge for a couple hours or overnight, depending on how concentrated the liquid is and how dark you want your eggs.

Dying eggs in canning jars with the strained liquid. Left to right: onion peels, tumeric, purple cabbage.

Here are some results to give you an idea of how your eggs will turn out.

Above: Crocuses with purple cabbage, Crocus on an egg dipped in the onion skin dye then soaked in tumeric, snowdrows on an egg soaked in onion skin dye, hellebores on a egg simmered in onion skin dye. 

Above Left: grass in red cabbage dye, Above Center: leaves in tumeric dye, Above Right: Crocus in red cabbage dye.

Other natural materials work well too! The left egg is myrtle, the other two are weeds in our yard. All of these eggs were simmered in onion skin dye.

It is fun to experiement! This was a very unexpected result... we soaked some eggs in cranberry juice, and they came out not at all red, but etched, looking almost like fossils. Must be some kind of reaction at work, anyone know the chemistry of this? I can't really recommend it thought... the eggs in that batch are very fragile, three have broken already!

Another lovely flower egg: Hellebores in red cabbage dye.

Have fun! I would love to see your results, post them at instagram and tag @unlikelynest, #flowerprintegg.

Bunny Loveys made by you!

It's bunny season! My sewing machine is a thousand miles away, so I'm sewing vicariously with all of you who are making the Bunny Lovey pattern this spring. There are so many lovely variations, from classic to creative!

I'm just loving these Bunny Loveys made in Sherpa, they just look so snuggly soft! These are from Cedar Bee Made and Martin N. Mae.

A post shared by Cedar Bee (@cedarbeemade) on Feb 17, 2018 at 1:31pm PST

A post shared by martin.n.mae (@martin.n.mae) on Feb 24, 2018 at 12:40pm PST

Is there anything so sweet as a white white bunny? So classic and adorable. These are by Sunday Design Studio and Bethany Wells (Mama Sew Colorful).

A post shared by Sunday Design Studio (@sunday.design.studio) on May 26, 2017 at 6:21am PDT

A post shared by Bethany Wells (@mamasewcolorful) on Sep 24, 2016 at 10:15am PDT

What fun prints! Just loving these bunnies in fun prints by Lil Things by Aimee and Lori Sapp.

And, take a look at these designs that incorporate fun colors, fabrics, and textures by Charity Sue Design and Brandi Henderson (SixThirtyStitch).

A post shared by Charity Sue Design Studio (@charity.sue.design.studio) on Sep 10, 2017 at 6:02pm PDT

A post shared by Brandi Henderson (@stitchthirtysix) on Feb 8, 2018 at 9:55am PST

Here are a few more designs by Melissa Barnett of martin.n.mae. She chooses such wonderful prints.

A post shared by martin.n.mae (@martin.n.mae) on Mar 19, 2017 at 7:29pm PDT

A post shared by martin.n.mae (@martin.n.mae) on Jun 6, 2017 at 11:21am PDT

And here are a couple of designs by Sunday Design Studio. I love how they have such a distinctive modern style.

A post shared by Sunday Design Studio (@sunday.design.studio) on Mar 27, 2018 at 9:57am PDT

A post shared by Sunday Design Studio (@sunday.design.studio) on Dec 16, 2017 at 2:42pm PST

Aren't these sets by Rainbow Hill Designs just lovely? What an incredible present for a new tiny person.

A post shared by Rainbow Hill Innovations (@rainbowhillinnovations) on Jan 8, 2017 at 3:12pm PST

A post shared by Rainbow Hill Innovations (@rainbowhillinnovations) on Sep 17, 2017 at 3:23pm PDT

Are you inspired yet? There's still time to make a Bunny Lovey, you can get the pattern here.

Velveteen Rabbit Sew Along Day 3: Assembling the Ears

The Velveteen Rabbit Sew Along is back! Today we're going to assemble the ears of the rabbit.

Before you start assembling the ears, attach the interfacing to Ear Front Inner fabric piece. If you are using hair canvas, baste the canvas to the wrong side of the fabric pieces, using a wide machine basting stitch and staying within the 1/4 inch seam allowance. If you are using a heavy fusible interfacing, follow the instructions for your interfacing to adhere it to the wrong sides of the Ear Front Inner pieces.

Then, sew the the Ear Front Inner piece to the ear front outer piece. This can be a tiny bit tricky, so you can watch me do it in a video, or just follow the pictures below.

First, sew one side, from the point of the ear to the base, right sides together. The stitching line is marked on the pattern piece at the top of the ear, it might help you to transfer this marking to your fabric pieces with a fabric marker. You can see my markings on the picture below. 

After stitching the first side, clip the tight angle of the outer ear piece just to the stitching. This will make it easier to line up the second side. 

Then, pin and sew the other side from point of the ear down to the base. 

After stitching, press your stitching flat. If you are working with a napped fabric, use a scrap of napped fabric as a press cloth, or press it from the back, to avoid crushing the fibers.

Then, sew the Ear Back to the assembled Ear Fronts, right sides together. 

Clip the point and trim the seam allowances to 1/8 inch. 

Turn the ear right side out. Use something pointy like a chopstick (or a point turner, if you have one!) to gently press the tip out. 

Repeat all steps for the second ear, then you are are ready to assemble the body!

Velveteen Rabbit Sew Along Day 2: Assembling the PDF Pattern and Cutting

Hello there! Today we will be assembling our Velveteen Rabbit PDF files and cutting our fabric.

If you've missed any previous posts, here is what has come before in the Velveteen Sewalong:

Welcome and Schedule
Day 1: Fabric and Supplies

The pattern is designed to be printed on a home printer on 8.5"x11" paper. Make sure that you print the pattern at 100% (I have to turn off "scaling" on my printer). After you print, check the test square on the first page of the pattern with a ruler-- make sure it measures exactly 1 inch or 4 cm.

Some of the pattern pieces are larger than will fit on 8.5"x11" paper, so the first 4 pages need to be taped together. Match the triangles and tape together pages, matching the triangles. For a secure and accurate join between two pages trim off the margin of one page and tape it to the side that still has the margin.

Pages 5, 6, and 7 don't need to be taped because the contain smaller pattern pieces.

Before you cut, prewash your fabrics. This helps remove any residual chemicals or contaminants from your fabrics, which is important if you are planning on making a toy that a child will play with. It also prevents shrinkage when the toy is washed... although a finished stuffed toy should only be hand washed and air-dried.

After you've taped together the pattern, cut out the paper pattern pieces. Arrange your pattern pieces on your main fabric, contrast fabric, and muslin using the cutting layouts in the instructions. When I'm working with lofty fabrics like fleece or some velvets, I prefer to trace around the pattern pieces with a fabric marker and cut them out with fabric scissors. For thinner fabrics like quilting cottons and muslin, I use a rotary blade and a cutting mat.

You can also cut out the heavy weight interfacing for your ears at this time using the Ear Front Inner pattern piece and the cotton muslin for the weight bags.

If you are using a velveteen or velour with nap, make sure to pay attention to the nap. The main thing is to always cut nap in the same direction, so that when you stroke your bunny, the fur will all lie in the same direction. You want to place the arrow on the pattern piece in the direction that the little hairs on the fabric want to lie down. Here's a short video I made to illustrate this:

If your fabric has stretch, you will want to underline or interface it. In the video above about nap I am making a bunny out of cotton velour, which is a knit fabric with stretch. To help the bunny keep it's shape, I chose to underline it with cotton muslin.

You might also want to underline or interface your fabric to provide additional strength. If you are making a bunny that you plan to give to a child who will potentially play with it for many years, the underlining or interfacing will make the toy better able to stand up to the tough life of a well-loved toy.

You can underline with any medium-light weight fabric-- I usually use cotton muslin. If you are interfacing, use a quality medium weight interfacing with minimal stretch. Don't trim the seam allowances on your interfacing: sewing the interfacing into the seam will add strength.

To underline or interface your fabric, cut the Body and Belly pattern pieces out of your underlining fabric or interfacing. If you are underlining, simply machine baste your underlining piece to the back of your fabric piece with a wide stitch. Keep your basting stitch just inside the 1/4 inch seam allowances. If you are interfacing, follow the instructions on your interfacing to adhere the interfacing to the back of your fabric piece.

Tomorrow we start assembling the bunny!

Velveteen Rabbit Sew Along: Welcome and Schedule

Welcome to the Velveteen Rabbit Sew Along!

If you have never made a stuffed animal before, the Velveteen Rabbit is a great place to start because it has a simple shape without too many curves or tight places. This sew along will help guide you through the process.

The holidays are coming right up and I know many of you makers are getting busy. I wanted to get this sewalong up to help those of you that might be considering making a special toy for someone special on your list!

Velveteen Rabbit in Maroon and Pink Cotton Velour

About the Pattern

The Velveteen Rabbit pattern is a PDF sewing pattern to make a nearly life-size standing rabbit toy. The bunny stands about 14 inches tall when his ears are down, and is weighted to feel like a real rabbit. The pattern is designed for woven fabrics such as quilting cottons and velveteen, but it also includes instructions for how use a stretchy fabric like cotton velour or minky.

The pattern includes downloadable step-by-step instructions with photo illustrations. The sewalong and the accompanying videos provide additional examples and information.

The pattern was first released in Love Sewing Magazine in Spring 2017. The version that is for sale on this website or Etsy includes more detailed instructions.

If you haven't gotten your pattern yet, you can get it at my Etsy store here. Use code VELVETEEN to get 10% off through November 27.

Sew Along Schedule

Welcome and Schedule
Day 1: Fabric and Supplies
Day 2: Assembling the PDF and Cutting (Video: Understanding Napped Fabrics)
Day 3: Sewing the Ears (Video: Assembling the Ears)
Day 4: Sewing the Body (Video: Attaching the Ears)
Day 5: Stuffing, Weighting, and Finishing (Videos: Introduction to Safety Eyes and Stuffing)

Materials

If you are working on assembling your materials for making your rabbit, here is what you will need:

Velveteen Rabbit Pattern
1/2 Yard Main Fabric
Fat Quarter (18”x22”) or 1/2 Yard Contrast Fabric
Matching sewing thread
1/4 yard cotton muslin or similar plain woven fabric (for weighted bags)
Sew-in Horsehair Canvas or medium/heavy fusible interfacing for ears
Two 12mm safety eyes
Embroidery floss
Stuffing (Wool or Polyfill)
Ground Walnut shells or poly pellets for weighting

Optional (suggested for stretchy fabrics or thin fabrics):
Additional cotton muslin for interlining or medium interfacing

History and Inspiration

I've always been a fan of classic toys, and the Velveteen Rabbit is one of my favorites! Most of us know about the Velveteen Rabbit from Margery Williams' 1922 book, The Velveteen Rabbit.

It was Williams' first book, and it told the story of a young boy who receives a stuffed rabbit toy for Christmas. Once the novelty of the talking and mechanical toys wears off, the rabbit becomes a favorite toy. Their relationship grows for many years, but one year the boy gets sick, and all of the toys that consoled him when he was sick are discarded. Left overnight in the garden, the rabbit cries a single real tear, then a fairy grants his wish to be a "real" rabbit. The following summer, the boy sees rabbits playing in the yard and remarks on how much one of the resembles his former toy.

Cover of the first edition of The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams, Illustrations by William Nicholson.

While the book made the idea of a Velveteen Rabbit famous, such a toy might have been commonplace in 1922. There are several stuffed rabbit toys in museum collections that date back to before Williams published her book. One of my favorites is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The Velveteen Rabbit Pattern was strongly influenced by this sweet standing rabbit.

"Toy rabbit called 'Tiny', in an upright stance, printed cream velvet with brown spots," ca 1902, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

There are also several excellent examples of "velveteen rabbits" by the famous toymaker, Steiff. The orange bunny was sold at a Christies Auction for over $2,000!

Steiff Rabbits: Left: Steiff sample, ca. 1929 | Right: Steiff jointed rabbit, ca. 1910 (ebay)

Other examples of upright stuffed rabbit toys can be found on Ebay and collector websites. 

Left: Vintage Farnell Winfred Rabbit, ca 1925 |  Right: Antique Edwardian Mohair Bunny (ebay)

The velveteen rabbit has been around for a long time, so you can be sure that it won't go out of style in a hurry.

Here are a few more that I created from the pattern. The one on the left is made from a silk/rayon velvet with a white ribbed cotton velour ears and belly. The one in the middle is made from a cotton print by Cloud 9 fabrics.

I'll be back tomorrow with the first sew along post where we'll talk about fabrics, hope to see you there!