The lazy woman's guide to making wonky stars

I like efficiency. I like finding a better, quicker, easier way to do anything. And really all that boils down to the fact that I'm, at heart, a very lazy person. If I can expend less energy getting from A to B then I'm all for it. So when I read instructions for wonky stars that want me to cut out lots of squares from various fabrics for the star points then my immediate thought is "do I really have to?". And no, it's not necessary, any old scrap will do if it's big enough as many other tutorials will tell you. But then I had issues with sewing on scraps and they wouldn't fit because I'd estimated wrong - unpicking the seam is time I could spend playing on the internet or with my iPhone, so that was just unacceptable. I also didn't like the wastage involved with some methods I've seen online. Fabric is expensive here in NZ, I'm not throwing away more than I need to. Lazy and cheap - that's me! So I started doing it this way. I'm sure I'm not the only person who does it this way, nor the first to document it, but I thought if it helped just one person spend more time on Instagram I would be doing the world a favour. This isn't a proper tutorial on doing a wonky star, just on making the sections. If you'd like to try making one I really like this tutorial at Oh Fransson!, although you have to add in the extra corner squares if you aren't joining them all together like she does.

The thing I like about doing it this way is that it doesn't matter if you have a small scrap or a large one, and if it's large you can just work in from the edge as you make stars and you don't waste as much as you would if you precut bits. Admittedly, I wasn't quite as careful with the first fabric in this tutorial as I would normally be, but hopefully you get the picture!

Select your first piece of fabric and fold over the edge about 1/4". It doesn't have to be exact but it does need to be even (please excuse the out-of-focus photos, the camera decided to focus on my wrinkly old hands instead). I finger crease it slightly.

Then flip it over and figure out where you want it on your square.

Once you have it where you want it, carefully flip it over and sew along the crease line. I usually just wiggle a couple finger tips under to grab the edge and keep it in place while flipping.

I then open the fabric out and flip it over so I can see the background square. If you can't see fabric all around the background square then you'll need to unpick the seam and try again.

I trim around this to get rid of the excess, leaving a little extra just in case (I forgot and trimmed off the corner before I cut around it, don't be like me! I've Photoshopped it back together, if only we could do that in real life...). 

Then trim off the excess background square. To be honest I don't really see the point in worrying whether this is 1/4" or not - who's going to see it? As long as it's wide enough things don't fray through and it's fairly even I call it good enough.

I usually press open my seam with the iron at this point, although you certainly don't have to and can just finger press, I just think it means less distortion and the square will sit flatter in the end.

Now repeat with the second fabric. Position it on the square with the edge folded over

Flip, and sew down the crease.

Open up the fabric and trim around the corner. Oh look, cat fur is stuck in the seam! Typical.

The corner will be a bit wonky from adding the first fabric but as long as you allow a smidge extra you won't get caught short when you open it out, which I know from experience is a seriously curse-worthy moment!

And then trim off the excess corner and press open the seam

Now the square needs to be trimmed.

Why pfaff around with a cutting mat when you have a perfect square of just the right size sitting next to you - just grab one of the unused background squares, position it over the top and trim around it carefully. I find this is a great way to square things up again if they've become a bit distorted by the sewing and pressing and much easier to do with another square than to try and figure out on a cutting board.

 Et voila! A perfect little square all ready to go.

Sewing from a Japanese craft book: Step-by-step

Since I'm about to make the 'Lola Dress' for Hazel from a Japanese craft book I thought that I'd document the process for anyone out there who is wanting to give it a go themselves. I should preface this by saying that I'm not especially brave, or an incredibly experienced seamstress, or a whizz at diagrams, nor do I read a skerrick of Japanese. So if I can do it so can you!  If you click through to the pictures on Flickr you'll find lots of notes that get specific about various parts of the pattern.

Well first off you need your book. Mine is Clothes for Girls, ISBN 4529044378 / 9784529044370 and I'm making Dress O

On the page opposite it says (in English) that the instructions are on p.58

So here we have the technical drawing of the dress, as well as the pattern layout which doubles as the list of pattern pieces you need.  The two books I have come with giant fold-out pieces of paper with all the pattern pieces on them a la Burda Style or Ottobre.

Eeep! I hear you say. Oh yeah, I still feel that way when I open them out. Nothing like lots of lines and Japanese characters to freak your brain out :)  If you'd like to understand the characters better I highly recommend the .pdf from Batty Chan which explains heaps.  But do not panic!  The little legend at the top of sheet B tells me that the pieces for O are in here somewhere

so I look for the English characters and eventually I see them.  It seems that patterns G, I and O are fairly similar and on on the same pieces so that's what I focus in on.   They're circled in red.  Often they'll be roughly grouped together and in a slightly different colour than other pieces.  It still takes some looking though!  You know what pieces you need from the pattern layout diagram, and how many.

Here are the front and back a bit closer up. You can see that it's really quite easy to distinguish the various pieces once you know where they are. If you use Burda or Ottobre you'll be a pro at this already!  In this picture I've noted some of the common symbols. Click over to Flickr to see them and more in note form.

Here are my pattern pieces, minus the collar, front band and cuffs because I misplaced them!  You can see I've done them with newsprint. Not ideal but I could just see the lines through it.  I used to have a big roll of Swedish tracing paper and if I'd known that Spotlight was going to stop carrying it I'd have bought 10!  Anyways, newsprint was what I had at the time and it did the job.

Like Burda and Ottobre, there aren't seam allowances included on these patterns so you'll need to leave space around the pieces to add that.  We'll cover that in the next post but generally it's 1 to 1.5cm and up to 3cm for hems.  You can see it added in on mine.  Remember to include all the little markings from the pattern, sometimes there can be quite a few depending on what you're making.  I've also marked on the grain and where the pieces are cut on the fold (using more standard notation). I also include the letter and the size its for.

Custom-sized mug cosy tutorial

I finally got around to documenting the very simple process for coming up with a custom-sized cosy for my mug which I wrote about here. I feel a bit silly putting this up in a way because it's so deadly easy but it actually took me a bit of thinking about the first time around, so in case there's anyone out there whose brain works like mine here we go:

Materials

You'll need your mug (this one from Szilasi Keramik), a piece of paper and a pencil or pen. I apologise for the extensive materials list but you need to be really prepared for this.

Put the mug in the middle of the paper, nice and straight. For this mug a piece of A4 paper wasn't quite long enough, but once I'd cut it down to the cosy size rather than the whole mug, the narrower shape actually did fit on, just. So if you've got a really huge mug you might need to tape a couple pieces together or use a larger bit of paper. Newspaper would be ideal.

Carefully roll the mug over to one side (I went to the left because it was easier to roll to the right and draw with my right hand at the same time). Don't allow it to wobble or skew, just roll in a smooth arc. If your mug has a handle you'll want to start it from one side of the handle and roll it along to the other side.

Start rolling the mug back to the right, tracing the top and bottom edges as you roll. I traced a bit of the top, then rolled it back and did the bottom and then back to the top and so-on. You can see if you're producing a smooth curve and can realign the mug if you need to. Roll the mug all the way over to the other side of the paper, tracing as you go. When you're done you should have something that looks like this (sorry the pencil line doesn't show so well):

Cut it out along top and bottom curves from the edge of the paper. I folded the pattern in half, matching the ends, and cut it out like that so both sides matched.

Now the step that I forgot to photograph is how you determine how long it should be around your mug. I put the cut pattern on the mug and just pinched the two edges together to get a line that I then cut along. I wanted to have a small gap between the edges so I left it like that, but if you want overlap this is the time to figure that out. In hindsight I should have added maybe .5cm to each edge to compensate for the thickness of the fabric, the gap ended up being a bit wide in the linen version (see below). Obviously if you have a handle on your mug then this gap is where it would go.

I decided that the fabric should be the width of my palm plus thumb, which is about 9cm, so I added 1cm on either side and measured in from the edges of the cup-sized pattern to get the right size. I didn't add seam allowance on the ends, it depends on how much of a gap you want.

Now the bit I have trouble getting my head around is that even though the edge is curved it will look straight on the mug. However, any obvious grain in the fabric will look to be on an angle. You also need to make sure any decorating you do takes this into account.

I made the first one for the red mug in linen with cotton batting sandwiched between and a simple running stitch in red. It's held on with elastic loops and buttons. Love it! It lives in at University on my desk.

For the other mug I thought I'd try a brighter cosy in orange felt. Same pattern but no seam allowances.

Again the running stitch and buttons with elastic loops, and this time you can see how the lines need to be curved but look straight when it's done up. That concept still ties my brain up in knots. I mean, I understand it on the level of that's obviously what you have to do, but any more thinking about how it then translates to straight-looking lines makes my head hurt for some reason. Which is weird because I'm actually pretty good spatially and with maps etc.

This cosy really sticks to the mug - felt and a matt surface work well together! I've used three layers of felt as I only have thin wool-blend felt, and it could almost be reversible with a hot pink on the other side, but the elastic and buttons are for the orange side. I figure it's a bit like sexy underwear - I know the pink's there :) I may add a third button/loop to try and stop that gaping. Or I may not. I can be reckless like that.

Patterns and sewing not for you? How about this one made from a felted sweater sleeve?  I might blanket-stitch around the top edge, just to get rid of the raw edge, but otherwise making it couldn't have been quicker or more satisfying - just push the mug down into the sleeve and cut.  If you have a handle all you'd need to do is cut a slit and pop the handle through.

Last minute felt Valentine's pins

Somehow Valentine's crept up on me like a small creeping thing and it pounced me when I wasn't expecting it. I decided I would make something for Hazel and her two best friends Alex and Suzie, and maybe something for Hazel on the day - she's certainly expecting it! I love these little wrapped matchboxes over at Inchmark, so maybe one of those.

Last year I made a bunch of felt heart-shaped 'cookies' and I really enjoyed the process so I went with something similar, but did them as pins instead. It was really simple and I made the lot while watching the new Flash Forward and Lost last night.

I started by cutting out a large heart (6cm at widest point) from red felt for the back, and for the front one large heart from dark pink and one smaller heart from the lighter pink. I sewed the lighter pink onto the darker pink heart with a running stitch in a silky embroidery floss, and then embroidered the initial on using red floss and stem stitch. I just drew the initial on with water-soluble pen the best I could. Then I cut out a tiny little red heart and attached it to the edge of the light pink with a single red bead in the middle. I think cutting out that darned heart was the hardest part!

Then I sewed the pin thingy on the back of the red felt, with a scrap of felt on the other side to provide a bit more stability. I initially sewed it on more in the middle, but discovered that the heart flopped downwards when worn, so I moved it up as far as I could and now it sits nicely.

The last step was to sew both sides together with a simple running stitch and push in a little fibrefill to give it some shape. A Valentine's heart should be a bit squishy right? :) I did the running stitch in a similar dark pink to the felt so that it didn't stand out and make the heart too fussy.

So that was easy-peasy lemon-squeezy and I love how they turned out. Hazel loves hers, and so does Alex so they're obviously a successful 4-5 year old gift. Since I like them too they'd probably be good for adults too. Maybe just the ladies though, can't quite see my husband sporting one at work somehow...

Christmas tea towels

In the last couple years I've become a great fan of the souvenir tea towel (dish towel to some), especially stylish ones. This first started when I visited Sweden and brought back a few and just treasured them so much I realised I was on to something and wanted to share my revelation with everyone! I've been planning on making tea towels for Christmas since about...January. I even bought a bunch of fabric so I could started in July and beat the rush. Haaaahahahaha... (ahem) I've tossed around various methods of doing it, ranging from full-on screen printing to freezer paper or contact paper on a screen. The simplicity of the designs changed accordingly too. Basically what it came down to was that the images I wanted to do were too complicated for freezer paper which seems to be a one-use-only kind of thing; but I didn't want to spend lots of money setting up a screen, or have to figure it all out at a very rushed time of year. In the end I decided to go with fabric pens and I'm really delighted with the result! The images I've decided to use are drawings by Hazel and this is how I did it:

First I scanned in the drawing and made them really contrasty black and white images with Photoshop. This made them easier to see through the fabric. I taped it onto a piece of glass and leant it in front of the window. If I do lots of these I'll definitely make up some sort of light table (or this one) so I don't have to work on a nearly vertical surface.



Then I placed the fabric over the top and traced the image with a fabric pen. Hazel calls these her "Cherry blossom branches", although I must admit I've cobbled together a bunch of different examples here so it's not exactly an original, nor are they particularly branchy-looking! The red just seemed like the only colour choice on the white, although a nice sage green would be good too I think.



The finished tea towel - well not hemmed yet!



The rough texture of the cotton I've used gives the lines a real silk screened appearance, which doesn't come across well in the photos but it's very effective. Mat couldn't figure out how I'd done it when I showed him.



I also did a straight copy of one of Hazel's family portraits, in this case all of us out in the garden. After I took the photo I duplicated a few more of the flowers to fill the width a bit better and got her to sign it as well.



These are so quick and easy and, dare I say it, really effective! They'd make great presents for grandparents or aunts and uncles and all your many friends and relations.

Fabric notes upon further experimentation

I did a second lot of tea towels using a different, lighter fabric and have the following to say about fabric choice:

Heavy cotton used above
Pros:
It held its shape well, no stretching and
Took the fabric pen well as it had a dense weave.
Easy to draw on due to dense weave.
Cons:
Possibly too heavy for tea towels but time will tell
Harder to see through to trace - need light source behind fabric.

Lighter cotton with looser weave
Pros:
Very easy to see through, can do on flat surface with no light behind.
Probably a better tea towel fabric, softer and more flexible.
Cons:
Very stretchy, doesn't hold shape well.
Shifts under pen point
Looser weave doesn't show pen as clearly
Much harder to draw on.

The search continues for the ideal fabric on this end, but it illustrates the importance of considering what result you want and what fabric will be both a good tea towel and easy to draw on.

How to make a waterproof mattress protector for toilet training

I made up a couple of these for Hazel when we took her out of night nappies just over a year ago and they've been brilliant. Instead of having to change the whole bed you can usually just take off the wet sheet and put on another. So much faster than pulling apart the whole bed at 2am!



I gave away one of them not long ago because she just wasn't having any accidents, and wouldn't you know it she went through a 'phase' so I made up another one (and now the phase seems to be over!). I thought it might be useful to document the process because they're really very simple to make and doing it yourself is not only cheaper but you have your choice of fabulous fabrics! Essentially what you have is a cotton top and a waterproof PUL bottom (which rolls around the edges to the top and stops moisture leaking off the edges), with a slightly absorbant inner layer. It's held onto the bed by long flaps which tuck well under the mattress and hold it firm.

What you'll need:

1 x top fabric in 100% cotton
1 x inner absorbent fabric
1 x PUL fabric
2 x fabric for side flaps

A note on the fabrics: Choose good quality 100% cotton for the top, if the fabric has a synthetic component it won't absorb the liquid as quickly, if at all, meaning it's more likely to run off the top and onto the bed. I've used quilting cotton for my sheets. You could use a variety of absorbent fabrics for the inner, in this case I used an old piece of flannel. It doesn't need to hold the moisture for long, just enough time for you to get the sheet off the bed. Finally, the PUL - this is the polyurethane laminated woven fabric that is used in modern nappies/diapers, it's waterproof, thin and flexible and easily washed. It's readily available online from nappy making supply stores and it comes in a rainbow of colours and patterns. I've gone for boring old white because I like the clean edges it gives on the finished sheet. It might be a functional item but they can be aesthetically pleasing! My flaps are made from old polycotton sheets I had hanging around - whatever you've got that is big enough will suit!

A note on sewing with PUL: PUL can sometimes be tricky to sew as it is slippery on one side and has a tendency to stretch. Making sure the shiny side is down when sewing makes a huge difference, the presser foot just doesn't seem to move over it well. If you need to pin, make sure you pin within the seam allowance as any holes outside that will compromise the waterproofness. Use a nice sharp needle too. It's not too bad on this project as it's all straight lines. Overlockers/sergers are handle it brilliantly, although again, make sure it's shiny side down.

*All photos can be viewed in a larger size by clicking through to Flickr and selecting the original size from the 'all sizes' option.

1. First off measure your bed to determine fabric amounts. The cotton, inner and PUL need to be as wide as the bed top plus 2cm (1") for seam allowances. The depth (top-to-bottom measurement) is up to you, the one I made is 70 cm (28") largely because that's the size of the piece of PUL I had left over. Slightly narrower is fine, although you begin to run the risk of the child being off the sheet when the accident occurs. The PUL needs to be 5-6cm (approx. 2-2 1/2") deeper than the cotton and inner fabrics in order to be able to roll up and over the edge. In order to figure out the flap size, measure from the top edge of the bed, down the side and to about half way across the bottom of the mattress. Then add 3cm (1 1/4") for seam allowance and a hem on the far edge. This is your width. For the depth you need to figure out what the finished measurement of the cotton/inner plus the PUL edging will be and add 4cm (1 1/2") for hems. The seam allowances are up to you - I've allowed 1cm (1/2"), and for hemming 2cm (3/4").

The measurements for my single bed sheet are as follows:
Cotton and flannel: 99cm wide and 71 cm deep
PUL: 99cm wide and 76 cm deep
Flaps (x2): 72 cm wide and 73 cm deep

2. Putting it together. Layer the cotton, inner and PUL in this order: PUL shiny side (waterproof) down, then cotton right side down, then inner (in this case right side down because I had to sew two bits together and wanted the seam away from the top). Align the fabrics down one edge - there will be excess PUL sticking out the opposite side. Pin, taking care that they stay within the seam allowance. Shift top fabrics over and align edges with other PUL edge. You will have loose PUL in the middle (see photo below). Sew both edges with a 1cm (1/2") seam to form a tube.




3. Turn right side out so that the fabric side of the PUL is facing down and the cotton is right side up. Edge stitch with the seam allowance on the PUL side. This is one time when you shouldn't iron as you go - it's not good for the PUL! Just pull the seam flat from either side as you stitch.



4. Get the tube sitting nice and flat and then square off the edges. You can see in the photo below how the PUL is wrapped around the edges.



5. Hem up the side flaps making sure they match the finished depth of the tube. I fold the edge and then fold again to give a neat appearance.

6. Pin the flaps to either end of the tube, right sides together, and sew with a 1cm (1/2”) seam. If the PUL is shifting around too much you may want to tack the tube closed within the seam allowance first. Finish the seam by zigzagging if you haven't used an overlocker.



7. Edge stitch with the seam allowance on the flap side.



8. And you're done! This sheet had been on Hazel's bed for 2 days and hasn't shifted at all.



As the sheet is used and laundered you may notice the top fabrics shrinking a bit, making the PUL slightly looser. I find that just tugging them back into shape takes care of that to a large extent. Ironing PUL isn't recommended (it can melt), but you can safely put them through a dryer as long as it doesn't get too hot.

ETA: I forget that people don't know what PUL is because I lived and breathed PUL nappies for a couple years while Hazel was wearing them, it seems second nature! I found this good link to a more comprehensive explanation of what PUL is than mine, and the lady sells it by yard too. I'm afraid I'm pretty out of the loop with the best places to buy it these days, so if anyone has some good links pop 'em in the comments! In New Zealand Greenbeans is probably your best bet, although heck, that might have changed in the last couple years too!

The Hazelnuts Felt Bunny Tutorial

Periodically, people have trouble printing the pattern off from Scribd. Scribd told me a couple of years ago "This was a known issue that our development team has recently resolved. If you continue to encounter this issue, please let [us] know. " It appears that a few people are still not able to print so they have asked me to say that if you do have trouble please contact them directly so they can help you and/or email me at the address listed in my contact details, specify if you want A4 or US letter, and I'll send you the file asap.



The Hazelnuts Felt Bunny

This pattern is my attempt to recreate two felt bunnies my brother and I were given back in the early 1970s. Apparently my grandmother also used to make similar bunnies in the 1950s in New Zealand, so I was keen to resurrect this pattern and make it available to others. The pattern and this tutorial are protected by an Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand License, details can be found at the end of this tutorial.

A4 paper: Tutorial and pattern 464KB
US letter: Tutorial and pattern 470KB

MATERIALS

• One piece of darker felt approximately 25cm (10”) wide and 23cm (9”) high for main body.
• One piece of lighter felt approximately 15cm (6”) by 18cm (7¼“) for tummy and inner ears.
• Embroidery thread
• Stuffing
• Thick yarn for pompom tail
CONSTRUCTION STEPS

1. Print out the pattern. Make sure your printer isn’t scaling it to fit the paper and that the square on the pattern measures 1cm square (just over 3/8”)

2. Cut out the following pieces (I find it easiest to trace around the pattern pieces and then cut):
Darker felt
2x Body
1x Head gusset
2x Ears
Lighter felt
1x Tummy cut on fold (or retrace with two halves together to form new pattern piece)
2x Ears


The more accurate you are at cutting, the better the bunny will fit together. If the pieces deviate during stitching, just trim any excess away to get a good match between pieces.

If you want extra embellishments on the bunny (see last step for one idea), do this now before sewing it up.

3. The cross stitch will hold the two pieces together securely, although the distance you set it back from the edges will depend on how sturdy your felt is. Pure wool felt is less likely to rip out than a blended or purely synthetic felt, so judge accordingly. For this demo rabbit, I’ve used pure wool felt and the stitches are generally 2mm from the edge (just over 1/16”) and 3-4mm wide (approx. 1/8”). I do half the cross all the way up one side…

…and then complete it by stitching back the way I’ve come. I find this helps me keep the stitches evenly spaced. Use three strands of standard six strand embroidery floss. I try and select a colour that is a shade or two off the lighter tummy colour and that also tones well with the darker body, in this case a peachy pink.


4. Begin by stitching the darker body pieces to the lighter tummy, one side at a time.


5. Stitch the two body pieces together at centre back from the bottom, ending at the point marked on the pattern for the stuffing gap (see photo on right below).

6. Then attach the head gusset beginning at the insertion point (A) marked on the pattern. In this example I started on the left side but it doesn’t really matter. Begin at Point A and stitch half crosses all the way to the end of the gusset piece and then return (steps 1 & 2). When you get back to Point A keep going down towards the top point of the tummy and then back up (steps 3 & 4). Stitch up the other side of the gusset and then back again (steps 5 & 6).

For steps 5 & 6 continue past the head gusset to the top point of the stuffing gap, sewing the two body pieces together at centre back. See photo below.


7. Place the dark and light ears together and cross-stitch around the edges, leaving the bottom free. Fold the ear in half lengthwise with light felt inside. Using sewing machine thread that matches the darker body felt, whip stitch the cross-stitched edge at the base up to the dashed line on the pattern (1cm), as well as the bottom edge. Make sure that the outer felt is level with, or slightly longer than, the inner so that it’s not sticking out when you sew the ears on. For example, I trimmed off the excess white at the bottom of the left ear.


8. With your fingers, gently pull the felt apart on either side of all the seams to flatten them out. You can also press the seams between your fingers. The seams will inevitably be ridge-like initially, but as the bunny is played with, squashed, and generally loved, they will work themselves flatter and flatter.

9. Stuff the bunny firmly with your choice of fill. Be careful not to stretch out the felt around the gap as you stuff. I’ve always used polyester fibrefill, but I suspect that wool rovings would be ideal in achieving a firm stuff. Pay particular attention to getting the paws and legs full. The initial firmness is essential because as the seams flatten out and give a bit the bunny will soften up. Sew up the stuffing gap, matching the stitches to those already there for a seamless look.


10. Attach the ears on using the same thread you sewed them with in Step 6. I position them so the ear’s folded area ends at the head side seam so I can attach them really firmly at this point. The rest of the ear is whip-stitched through the head felt and some of the stuffing if I can catch it (for added stability). The actual ear position is up to you – this is where your bunny starts to express its personality!


11. Cut out eyes from scraps of felt, I’ve used pure white and black. I used a regular hole punch for the black and cut the white slightly larger. Sew the black pupil on to the white, ad then both onto the bunny. Again, the eye placement is up to you, where you put them really gives the bunny its character so play around for awhile to get them just right.


12. Embroider on nose and whiskers. I’ve used the same embroidery floss I did to sew up the bunny. The nose is a simple satin stitch over the V formed by the head gusset and body pieces. To do the whiskers make a small knot at the end of a good length of floss and insert the needle into the seam near the nose, pushing it between the two layers of felt and out at the beginning of the first whisker. With a bit of gentle pulling the knot should pull through, get caught in the stuffing and hold firm. Sew the whiskers as desired. On the last whisker, determine the desired length and tie a small knot in the floss just fractionally past that point. Insert the needle at the whisker endpoint and down into the stuffing, emerging from the felt a distance away. Gently pull on the floss until the knot pops through the felt. Keeping tension on the floss, trim it close to the surface and it will slip back beneath the felt.

13. Make pompom for tail. I’ve included the template for the tail on this bunny, but it is a big one, so if you want a less luxurious version, adjust accordingly. If you weren’t a kid like me who made, what from memory seems to have been endless numbers of pompoms (Why? What for? Where did they go? It’s a mystery), I suggest this little tutorial over at Kid Craft Central. If you were like me don’t worry, it’s like riding a bike and it’ll come back as you go! Leave long tails on the wool you use to tie it off with so you can attach it easily to the bunny.

14. Attach the tail to the bunny butt. The tail is not only bunny’s pride and joy, it helps to keep it sitting up straight, so needs to be in the right spot to stop bunbun keeling over backwards or tipping forwards. That position will depend on your individual bunny and the pompom size. Once you’ve got that sorted thread a needle on to one of the long tails of the pompom and push it through from one side of the central seam to the other. How far out from the seam you start really depends on the size of the tail, but you want to make sure you’ve got a decent amount of felt and stuffing included, but not so much that when you pull tight the felt puckers. Do the same for the other long tail, putting it through just above or below the first one. Tighten until the pompom is firmly against the bunny and tie the two tails together with a granny knot or two, and trim the ends.

Congratulations! You’ve finished your bunny!

15. Extra embellishments

One of the original bunnies had felt flowers appliquéd on its back, reproduced here on another bunny I did.


I cut the petals and flowers freehand, you can see the various shapes and embroidery in these photos. The single flower on the right was attached all the way around with blanket stitch, with a stem stitch stem and satin stitch centre. It sits in the lower half of the left side of the back (sorry I don't have a photo of it in situ). The multi-petalled flower had petals held down at the base with a triangle of straight stitches and French knots in the centre. The leaf was done the same as the petals. The other type of flower, seen only on the top of the left photo and on the bunny above, were cut from one piece of felt and had a few straight stitches in the middle to hold them down.

If you'd like to customise your bunny eyes a bit more, see my post on it here

Final note: If you don’t feel like all this hand sewing, the pattern would also work well if you added a seam allowance to all the pieces and used a sewing machine. Use lighter fabrics than felt, and clip the curves religiously.

Please share a photo or two of your finished bunny at the Hazelnuts Felt Bunny Flickr group

I’d love to see what you come up with.

The Hazelnuts Felt Bunny by Jacqueline Craig is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.hazelnutgirl.blogspot.com/.

To paraphrase the CC explanation: This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon my work non-commercially, as long as they credit me and license their new creations under the identical terms. All new work based on mine will carry the same licence, so any derivatives will also be non-commercial in nature.