Bare Rabbit

 Time for a new challenge! 

This autumn, I'm having a go at improving  my sewing skills. Mostly, the machine only gets used to zigzag round applique, and, in fact, is working overtime on the Fairy Tale Quilt at the moment. But I found this book on the second hand market, and decided it would be a good project to make the rabbit and all her clothes. Some of the outfits are quite advanced (for me), featuring sleeves, buttonholes, pintucks and gathering, all on a small scale. The advantages are that I won't waste a lot of precious time and fabric if it goes wrong.

 

The book seems perfect for me - very clear instructions with lots of diagrams, full size pattern pieces and some handy sewing tips. 

The first job was to make the rabbit. She is mostly felt, with scraps of fabric for the ears and feet. I aim not to buy anything new for this project, so she is a patchwork of grey scraps. The eyes are tiny black pompoms and the nose is pink knitting wool, which was thick enough to give a good coverage. Her arms are held on by buttons, sewn right through the body so that they move. In fact, most of the sewing was by hand, with the felt seams whip stitched together. With ears up, she is about 48 cm tall, a bit larger than I expected, and which might lead to some strange coloured clothes as I attempt to use only fabrics I have. 

Hopefully the rabbit won't be bare for too long!

Part of the challenge of making the clothes will be following instructions and being precise. My natural inclination is to cut scraps freehand and sew haphazardly together. So I've got a lazy evening project on the go, making a tiny book. As usual, I've gone for a fairy tale theme. This cottage in the woods is one of the double page spreads, measuring about 13cm by 6cm. All the scraps are raw edged, and held on by seed stitching. I find old, worn clothing is lovely to stitch through, and the frayed edges fit the theme. This page features scraps from a shirt, a skirt, offcuts from someone's wedding dress and an ill-advised garment from a trip to Disneyland, which I never wore, but has provided a wealth of cloth to use. I've used a single strand of embroidery thread and metallic machine thread for the stitching.