The Gamble Life: Here Comes the Easter Bunny

March 27, 2009

Here Comes the Easter Bunny

And they are finally finished! I have never sewn any toys before and I can't say that it was the most enjoyable project ever--those skinny arms and legs were a bear to turn right side out. I learned a lot though and I am definitely in love with these five bunnies. I only hope the little ones who will get them love them too.

You can see where I used my car fabric for some of the shirts. The heart fabric was a fat quarter I had in my stash and the green pants fabric my sister in law brought from India for me! So these are some pretty special bunnies.

For anyone interested in the details, the patterns for the bunnies, clothes, and sweater all came from Purl Bee. There is a dress pattern too, but I didn't make that one.

After making one sweater exactly as proscribed in the directions I branched out a bit, making some longer, some with thicker yarns, one with stripes. It was fun and the bunnies are not very demanding!

If you decide to make these bunnies I would suggest that you make your seam allowances smaller than 1/4" on the foot and the bottom of the ears otherwise these pieces are extremely difficult to turn. Also, I think these bunnies do better lightly stuffed so they are squishy rather than firm. I also modified the way the arms were attached from the pattern. I attached them in the same way the legs were attached so there is an outside seam on the sides of the body and the bottom of the body.

Finally, the pattern directs you to cut out four torso pieces but you only need two, and the shirt pattern has an error. The shirt pattern has one sleeve about 1/2" shorter than the other! Also, the shirt pattern is designed to wrap and tie but I converted it to a pull-over style with a simple slit in the back to enable the head to fit through.

I also learned a lot about embroidery. When I first started I had knots showing, which you can see on some of the bunny feet. But then I found this wonderful tutorial on how to bury your knot! You can see on the one set of bunny feet that I did almost perfect this technique (if you look closely you can see where I pulled the knot through the fabric as it left a little tiny hole). It is so handy!