I was so inspired by this artwork from photographer Levon Biss that I knew I needed to come up with a project about insect hibernation. My brain immediately went to chrysalis sleeping bags because a chrysalis is in a way a tiny sleeping bag, and the patterns on these are so beautiful I though they would be amazing inspiration. First things first, insects don’t technically hibernate. Many are inactive during the winter and undergo a state in which their growth, development, and activities are suspended temporarily, with a metabolic rate that is high enough to keep them alive. This dormant condition is termed diapause. We made our sleeping bags on a small scale for stuffies, but this would a fantastic project for an older student (or grown up…) at full scale as well!
Chrysalis Sleeping Bags for Stuffies
Materials:
- Old sweatpants
- Felt scraps
- Needle and embroidery floss
- Gold fabric paint (or whatever color you’d like, we noticed a lot of gold in the chrysalises though)
- Glue- school glue is fine, fabric glue will last longer
Cut the legs off your pants and gather the rest of the supplies. choose a stuffie that will fit in your sleeping bag and look at the different types of chrysalises for inspiration. Consider reading Not a Buzz to Be Found or another book about winter insects and diapause.
Sew one end of your pant leg shut. You can do this as simply or decoratively as you’d like.
Cut scraps of felt into shapes and sew or glue them to your sleeping bag. We noticed a lot of triangles in the chrysalis examples and let them inspire some of our patterns. Older students might want to sew on details, but a little school glue will do the job without much fuss. Just make sure you don’t glue the two sides of the sleeping bag together. (stick your hand in and separate them just in case) Add details with the fabric paint
Let your sleeping bag dry and then pop your stuffie in for a nice long hibernation (technically diapause…)
A great book to read with this project is Not a Buzz to Be Found (Insects in winter) by Linda Glaser