My name is Kara Lake. I was raised in a handmade home. My dolls, childhood dresses, and the meals we ate were prepared from scratch with love by my mother, Bonnie. These values have stayed with me, and are the pillars of Handmade Revival.
My rebel parents fled corporate America and city life to set up small cottage industry businesses in Vermont in 1974. My dad sketched pen and ink drawings on the side, and my mother designed, sewed, and sold handmade cloth dolls for over fifty years under the name Bonnie's Bundes Dolls.
I was always artistic; I danced, sang and acted all the way through college as a music theater major. In 1996, I met my husband, Andy - a bass player and phenomenal human - at the Weston Playhouse doing a production of Crazy for You, and we married the next summer. Together, we have raised six kids here in the little town of Brookfield, Vermont.
We made the choice early on to make do with less so I could be home with the kids. We homeschooled, and the kids ran wild and free on 250 acres of Vermont fields and woods making mud pies, riding bikes, and night skating on the pond in winter. There was an apple orchard 1/4 mile up the road in one direction, and horse, maple/dairy farms, the other. I was home all day baking, sewing, and soaking in the sweetness of these little beings that our love brought into the world. It was pretty dreamy.
One by one, our kids entered the local middle/high school, and we eventually moved onto the main road when purchasing the rented property didn’t materialize. The youngest of the bunch started high school in 2023 after homeschooling from day one, so unfettered by schooling responsibilities for the first time since 2006, I was ready to rejoin the workforce and contribute to our income. My husband and I have played music together under the name Jennings & McComber for ten years; always having more fun than making loads of money. I thought about getting a “real job,” but between caring for my elderly parents and ferrying our son back and forth to school, it didn’t seem very practical for me to work outside the home.
As I grew in my sewing skills, I tried making a pair of overalls for the first time in 2020. I fell in love with the process, and was making a pair for every day of the week. At the urging of friends and family, I developed my own design to make and sell. I named my overalls design in honor of my mother, Bonnie.
Bonnie Overalls were created to provide a design for women who need a sturdy, unrestrictive pair of overalls that are designed around the feminine silhouette.
I’m so thrilled to introduce Bonnie Overalls. Made just for women, by women.
Come join the rebellion!