Matryoshka Bunny

Bunnies Bunny

This sweet and simple little rabbit is a project from a fab new book called Sew It, Stuff It by Rob Merrett. The book is filled with gorgeous doll and plush animal patterns. I thought I would start with a nice straightforward make as a break from the knitting and a bit of instant gratification.

As you might be able to tell from the title, the idea was in fact to make several bunnies in different sizes but I decided one was sufficient - no need to be greedy ;)

The book comes complete with pull-out full sized patterns. I photocopied the bunny and made it into a cardboard template to draw round. I used a pretty floral fat quarter from The Fent Shop in Skipton for the bunny's body. The bunny is one-sided so I added a safety eye and an embroidered nose before sewing the sides together on my sewing machine.

The book contains two excellent tips. Firstly, the ribbon around the bunny's neck is attached to the back of the body as part of the sewing process so it stays nice and secure. Secondly (and my favourite), the book recommends using pinking shears to trim the seam allowance so you can clip the curves at the same time. I hate clipping the curves with scissors and the pinking shears are an excellent shortcut.

I stuffed the bunny with toy filling and then attached the bell to the ribbon. I used a little fray check on the ends of the ribbon to prevent, erm, fraying.

The final florourish was bunny's pom pom tail. I made this from rather posh yarn (pure Shetland wool in natural fleece colour) using my trusty Clover medium sized pom pom maker. I always fasten pom poms with embroidery thread rather than yarn as it's less stretchy and you can attach the pom pom to the plushie with the same strand of thread for extra security.

I also used this project as an opportunity to buy some more bells (although in the end I used one I already had in stash). I love displaying my crafting goodies in jars and decided to create a bell jar. I like to use Hartleys jam jars for my stash because (a) I like Hartley's jam, and (b) they are a lovely light bulb shape.  I trimmed the jar using fancy felt, ribbon, felt shapes and a cute ladybird button. I'm not sure I will ever use this many bells in my lifetime, but don't they look pretty?

Melx