Sunday Swap: Lil Miss Bunny Tutorial and Pattern

Thanks for joining me today for my Sunday Swap!

I am so excited to have Maleah, from Little Eme. She is truly talented and so creative! Check out her blog! Her little hats are the cutest, and trust me, if you think they look good in pictures, you should see them on those sweet little babies.... SO precious. Today she is sharing her tutorial and pattern to make this cute little bunny, which, by the way, is the first corduroy thing on my blog!!! Anyway, here you go, Maleah.

Hello readers of Corduroy Dreams!!  My name is Maleah of Little Eme.  Ha!  I like that.  Kinda like Anne of Green Gables.  Ok, now that I've shown you what dork I am...<awkward pause>...moving on. 

I'm super excited to be here with you today!  I'm lucky enough to know Natalie in real life.  Yep, I know you're jealous.  She's a super cool girl that is just so much fun to hang out and play with. :)  I was excited when she announced her new venture into crafty blogging, but even more excited when she asked me to guest post!

I spend a lot of time sewing and crocheting and Little Eme is my little creative space that I share the things I make with anyone willing to look.  :) Little Eme Handmade is my little shop where I sell the things I make with anyone willing to buy. ;) 

Today, I'm going to share my Li'l Miss Bunny Pattern and Tutorial with you!  She's a sweet and soft little softie for your little one.  I've made her in "boy" colors too for my little monkey man.  He loves him (and her, cause he has a boy/girl set.  Good thing these aren't real bunnies or I might have a multiplying problem on my hands.  haha!)

Ok, are you guys ready?!  Here we goooooo!!!!!



You will need:

The Lil' Miss Bunny Pattern  (Down load her here.)

2 complementary fabrics (I use corduroy and a light weight cotton.)

1 very small piece of scrap fabric suitable for a tail (I use fleece.)

scissors

matching thread

sewing machine (You can hand sew her, but I use a machine.)

batting

hand sewing needle

chop stick (or some other long thin object.)

pins

embroidery floss in 2 colors ( I used navy for the eyes and pink for the nose.)

First print out your pattern and choose your fabrics.  The great thing is she really doesn't use a lot of fabric, I'll bet you could even make her with some larger scraps and make her all kinds of wild!)  But, if you want her to look similar to mine, cut out 2 body, 8 arm and leg and 2 ear piece in the same fabric; then in your contrasting fabric cut out 2 more ear pieces.

Here are all my pieces cut out.  (I fold the fabric in half and cut them out two at a time.)

Now it is time to embroider your bunny's face.  Cut out the eye and nose holes on your pattern, then put the pattern back on top of one body piece and use a disappearing ink fabric pen to draw yourself a guide for where to embroider.  Like this:

See?  Easy peasy.  Makes it a LOT easier to make sure her face is centered.

As soon as you have her face drawn on, get out your embroidery floss and sew over the drawn template.

Here is her face all done (sorry it's a touch grainy- it took me a bit, but I fixed it in the later pictures):

Now that her face is done, it's time to work on her arms, legs and ears.  Match together two two arm (or leg- they are interchangeable) pieces right sides together and sew with an 1/8" seam allowance around the pieces leaving the flat end open.

It will look like this when it's done:

Don't worry if your seam is not entirely perfect- mine's not and she still turns out super cute.. I say it gives character. ;)  Now do the same thing three more times 'til you have four arms/legs that look like this:

Now take your ear pieces and match one main color fabric with one contrasting fabric right sides together like this:

Sew, again using a 1/8" seam allowance around the edges also leaving the flat end open. Repeat with the other two ear pieces.  Once you have all your arm, leg and ear pieces, it's time to turn them right side out.  This is where I utilize the chop stick.  (You all thought I was crazy when you saw it in my you will need section huh?)  Pinch the ear piece in half; then stick the chop stick in the top and push the ear right side out

Pinching.

Chop sticking.

For the arms and leg pieces, I stick my finger in the end then stick the chop stick in the top and push it right side out.

Finger in.

Chop stick pushing right side out.

Now, take your ears and fold the open ends so that the two sides touch each other in the middle like this:

Then sew the end.  They will look like this when they're done:

Make sure and do both ears!

Now it's time to stuff the appendages.  Get a small amount of your batting.  (Hint: it is WAY easier to stuff several small pieces then one large piece, so go small.) 



Use your chop stick to stuff it all the way to the end.

Keep stuffing until it is mostly full.  I stuff the arms and legs pretty firmly but, make sure you leave about a half inch empty at the top like this:

You will need that space to sew them to the body.  Here are all four of mine ready to go:

Now it's time to figure out where you want to place your ears.  Mess round with them until you are happy with the look.  Here are a few options:

Wide. 

 Centered.

Sideways.

I dig the sideways look, so that's what I went with.  This next part is a bit tricky, so make sure you pin like crazy!! :)  Leave the ends of your ears where they are but flip them over so that they are face down over the face of the bunny.  Arrange them so that the line where you sewed them is at the edge of the head, like this:

See?  Face down, over the face, with the sewed line at the edge of the head.

Now it's time to make a bunny sandwich.  Match the back side of the body, right side down, on top of the ears, with the front side of the body.  Pin the ears in place first then pin the rest of the head all the way around. 

Ears  pinned.

Head pinned.  You'll notice I pinned a LOT.  The more you pin, the less chance of movement while you are sewing.  You can see that the body isn't exactly lined up at this point.  Don't worry, we'll fix that in the next step.  Right now, make sure that your bunny's head is lined up and that the tips of the ears are stuffed into the center of the head.  You don't want to accidentally sew them into the seam!!

Now move on to pinning the body and placing her arms.  Pin down a half inch on both sides of her neck then pins the arms in place in the same way that you pinned on the ears.  Like this:

Once you have one arm in add the other.  Yes, she's going to be rather stuffed.  As long as you keep pinning you won't have anything to worry about when it comes time to sew her, I promise!!

Keep pinning around her body, again, like the ears, making sure that her arms stay clear of your soon to be seam.

When you get to the point on her body that starts to curve around the bottom you will pin in her legs the same way that you pinned in her ears and arms.  Here she is all pinned and ready to be sewn.  See the little gap I left?  DON'T sew there!!  Leave the bottom space between the legs open so the you can turn her right side out.

Now, sew all the way around the body with a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  You should take your pins out as you sew... but I never do.  Shame on me. ;o)

When you get to the neck, leave your needle down, lift your presser foot, turn your bunny so that her head is lined up again, put your presser foot back down and continue on your merry way until you have sewn her from leg to leg.  Then remove all your pins and get ready to turn her right side out!  You're almost done!!

Here she is all sewn up from leg to leg!!



To turn her right side out, reach in and grab a leg and pull it out.  It will be tight!  But I promise that it is doable.  Once you've got one leg out find the other one and pull it out too.  She'll look something like this:

She's giving birth to herself!! AHHHH!  haha.  Ok really, now find her arms and pull them out, then her ears...

Until........... POP!!! Here she is all right side out!

Now take your chop stick (handy little tool that chop stick huh?!) and push out the seam until she is flat and looks like a pancake bunny.   Like this:

Don't worry if she's not perfectly round or exactly symmetrical, it add character and gives life to your bunny.  Plus your little one will love her just the same, flaws and all.  (A life lesson for us perhaps?) :)

Now would be the best time to sew on your bunny's tail.  I forgot about it and waited til she was stuffed, making it harder (but still doable.)  To prepare your tail, take a very small amount of stuffing and roll it in a ball and put it in the wrong side of your fabric.

Then squish in the edges like this:

Hand stitch it so that it becomes a little ball like this:

The back side.

The front side.  See?  Little cotton tail. :)

Now trim off the excess fabric from the back.

Center the tail on the back of your bunny and hand sew the tail in place.

Now it's time to stuff her!!  I stuff her head pretty firmly and her body a little less firmly then her head. 

 

Again, your handy dandy chops stick will be a life saver here.  Use it to stuff the batting all the way up into her head.

Once she is all stuffed all you have to do it hand sew up the gap.  Tuck in the raw edges of you fabric and then sew along the edge using very small stitches so that they don't show.

Once you have sewn up the whole gap, you will have the issue of tying the end off.   I don't like to have a string hanging down, so I take the end of the string out a leg or out the side body.  That way you can hid the string.  Just pull it a little farther out, so that when you cut it it will pull back inside the bunny's leg, like this:

Snip off that string and you are done!!  She's ready to be loved and squeezed by your little one!



TA-DUH!!!  Despite how long this tutorial is, she only takes about an hour to an hour and a half for me to make.  Such a fun gift. 

I post a tutorial or pattern every Tuesday in tandem with my linky party Tute {Yourself} Tuesday.  I'd love for you to stop by, link up and have a good time! 

Until then!!

Thanks Natalie having me!  See you all later!

{HEART},

                   

         Maleah