Frida Kahlo’s birthday on 6th July is always a cause for celebration, and you know how much we love her here at Fabrics Galore. And to be fair it does seem like her influence and popularity is only growing year on year, with the continued interest evident in the number of exhibitions and a TV documentary about her and her extraordinary life.
We are lucky enough to have such a wide variety of fabric inspired by her, that whatever you fancy making inspired by the iconic Frida, we have the perfect fabric.
And so, to celebrate Frida Kahlo’s birthday we thought we would have a good look at some of the amazing things that you, our customers have made from the Frida Inspired fabrics. Here are some of our favourite Frida Kahlo makes with links to the fabrics and the patterns in case you're inspired....
A Frida Kahlo T-Shirt
Closet Core T shirt pattern in our Pink Jersey Frida Panel
You may have seen this beautiful Frida panel on our social media, well we just had to sew up a sample with it. Isn't it beautiful? We used the free @closetcorepatterns #ClosetCoreTshirt pattern and added ribbing to the sleeve cuff for some fun details.
A Frida Kahlo Dress
We start off with this great dress made from our Frida's Garden in Black cotton fabric by Alexander Henry made by @lottejamiesoncrafts using the Emporia Penelope Dress Pattern.
Doesn’t it look great? We thought that it was a great pattern for making a trans-seasonal dress because it can easily be worn with either sandals or tights depending on the season.
Most of the Alexander Henry fabrics are a medium weight cotton which works brilliantly for dresses because it’s light but equally can take some structure too. And as we all know, cotton is one of the easiest fabrics to work with making a great material for beginner dressmakers.
We were very much inspired by this one…
Our Best-Selling Frida's Garden
Now you probably know as well as we do that Frida’s Garden is an all time classic and real customer favourite. In fact, as we said during our 30th Birthday Quiz, it is the best seller Frida fabric we stock. But sometimes with such a great print it can be difficult to know what to make with it, as you want the print to be shown at its best, but you might also want to show off your new skills. Well, @zestandlavender has found the answer with this version of the Friday Pattern Company's Sagebrush Top which she adapted because she didn’t quite have enough fabric.
Again, it’s a real winner which looks great with the frill in a plain back poplin, and shows that even a simple, yet we imagine very handy little top is a great way of showing your love for Frida.
And tops like this would be super handy if you are working towards a capsule wardrobe because you can’t have a capsule wardrobe without Frida, imagine?
A Bit Less Frida?
Were you thinking that a dress covered in Frida Kahlo’s face might be a bit much? Well, have no fear as we at FG have some other options which are slightly more subtle but still pledge your alliance to this great lady. Just take a look at this dress made by @lottejamiesoncrafts from our Viva Frida Cotton by Alexander Henry. This one is slightly different from some of the other Frida Prints because it doesn’t have as many Frida faces on, but draws a lot on her Mexican heritage.
This dress is a hacked version of the Paper Theory Zadie Jumpsuit making it a wrap dress, which is so hot right now it’s unbelievable. Again, it can be worn in various seasons looking just as great with black tights as with sandals.
And although we love what Lotte has done with the fabric, we can’t help but think a jumpsuit in this would also look very very Kool indeed.
A Frida Border Print Dress
Now this next make is a really inspiring one because this particular print is a little more intimidating than the others because it is a border print. Again it's from Alexander Henry but the Frida La Cantrina can be slightly head-scratching as to what to make from it because the pattern goes across from top to bottom along the width of the fabric. But we LOVE what this clever dressmaker has done with it - doesn’t this Frida Fringe dress look amazing? It really shows the pattern off and allows you to see all the details of this particular print.
The pattern for this dress comes from Chalk and Notch Patterns and is called the Fringe Dress pattern. If you're not yet fully convinced, we must add that it has pockets, which is really all women want in life - a dress with pockets.
Frida Kahlo Bags
A Frida Kahlo Tote Bag
We used the Tapestry Mexican Princess Panel Fabric to make this lovely tote bag adding some of our webbing and striped fabric lining.
A Frida Kahlo Canvas Backpack
Not been inspired by these makes but still want to get a bit of Frida in your life? Well, we have some other ideas you might be more taken with.
Starting with a backpack, we now stock some great Frida Kahlo prints on a heavier weight cotton canvas which is a really great fabric to make a backpack from because it has the added strength. Although we do have Frida’s Garden in a heavier weight canvas in both the black and the cream, our personal favourite especially for the summer is the pinky hued Si Te Llore. With a bit of clever pattern matching, this could be the perfect bag for all your summer adventures maybe teamed with some natural weave straps.
And even better than all that, we have found you a free pattern for this rucksack by Sustain My Craft Habit - it looks like a great shape and like it can get all your essentials in. We are making many plans as we type.
And we couldn't not feature this fabulous Frida Bag in our Frida Con Las Plumas made by the very talented Greenjulie Originals.....
Frida Kahlo Makes for Children
Maybe you have all the Frida you need in your life, (imagine that, we can’t), but you have a smaller person in your life who might be a budding Frida Fan; well save the flower crowns for another day and think a little dress made from our super playful Ya No Estoy Solo in Pink. Perfect for all your little dress needs, although the pattern might mean that some serious thought needs to go into the pattern placement and matching…
We have been looking for an excuse to make the Portree Pinafore dress for a while and really think the dress in Ya No Estoy Solo would make the best addition to any little girl's wardrobe. Perfect for any smaller Frida fan and we have to get them while they are young to keep this lady from leaving the public consciousness…
Make Your Own Frida Kahlo Tributes
We are so inspired by your Frida creativity that we are heading to our sewing room right now. Apologies if we missed any of your own fabulous Frida makes but please send them to us so that we can feature them next time. All our favourite Frida Kahlo print fabrics and more can be found in our Alexander Henry fabric collection online.
