You know…it was going to be so easy. I’ve been watching the children’s real bunny ‘Clover W Dustbunny-Pricklepaws’ for weeks now and she is the cutest thing in the world. With her floppy ears and the way she folds like a rag doll when our daughter picks her up. She has me hooked. I wanted to make a bunny for Easter just like her…so I had a little draw…
Two minutes later I had a the little bunny face that I wanted. Sweet and chubby with just the right amount of ‘naaaaw’. It was but a moments work and there she was sketched up in front of me on a piece of throw away scrap paper. Cheap and cheerful. Quick and satisfying. The essence of Clover W Dustbunny-Pricklepaws!
Done!
Well no actually, not so done. I still had to turn her into a softie and that’s where the time taking (read that as time wasting), heart breaking, frustrating, finger stabbing part comes in. This bunny just didn’t leap (and still hasn’t!) from paper and into my arms. I so wish she had though.
I started to make her from felt. Those who stitch seem to find it easy to get their hands on good quality felt these days. There are quite a few lovely suppliers and stockists. So…felt seemed like the way to go…but it wasn’t. It was so hard to get a satisfying line to the bunny using felt. No amount of darts or breaking the pattern shapes up into more…or less pieces seemed to help.The bunny looked odd and unfinished in flat felt. Not like fluffy Clover at all. Perhaps it was because the bunny was sitting? Perhaps it was because she was jointed like a teddy bear and her limbs stuck out from the body so much? What ever the reason she was certainly going to need some fluff if she was ever going to strut her stuff.
Enter my vintage chenille collection and a pot of grey dye. My idea of time well spent! Chenille had the scruff I was looking for and it makes for lovely soft toys but would people be able to source it? ‘Of course they will!’ I told myself and plugged on…I’m sure that there’s a pile of chenille in nearly every makers stash…isn’t there?
Ta daaah!
A bunny that looks nothing like the drawing I made…with short stubby legs like a Jack Russell Terrier and a too rounded face reminiscent of one of those 1970’s lamb toys with a bow around its long neck…sigh…This is prototype number goodness knows what and I’m finding it hard to fall back and find the will to make another.
The ears are too short…what was I thinking?
In profile…its face has no profile to speak of and every time I’ve tried to stitch on a little nose it’s looked like a pug…unpick…unpick…unpickity pick.
Maybe a little bit better slightly side on?
UUUURRGHHH I don’t know…sad face.
For now this little lop eared time waster is going to have to sit off to the side while I ponder its future…maybe teddy bear fur? Can people source teddy bear fur easily? I can so surely other people can. Maybe a firmer backing and some hint at a muzzle will help…and longer back legs? Definitely longer back legs…but what about the ears? Longer? More pointed, a little tuck at the top?
It all seemed so easy when I drew that first sketch. I loved that bunny to pieces.
Maybe people would buy a rough sketch of a rabbit on scrap paper instead…?
I’m going to pop the jug on and ponder some more. Tea will make things better. It usually does.
