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April Stuffie of the Month! Boy and Girl Bunnies – Pattern Review

April 16, 2014

Stuffie of the month time!!!  For April with the Easter holiday, of course I had to make Bunnies to go into my kids’ Easter baskets!!

April stuffie of the mo - bunnies title image

I chose to go back to a designer who I have sewn before – but her bunny pattern was so adorable I just had to!  I have professed my love for Abby Glassenberg before on the blog and she is still one of my favorite softie designers.  I did a little review of her book – Stuffed Animals: From Concept to Construction, when I made bugs for the kids’ birthday party last year, check it out HERE!

The bunny is a lesson on how to create a doll like animal.  Abby wrote the pattern for a bunny, but she gives advice and tips on how you can take the same body and put a different animal head on it and have a whole new stuffie! That is the amazing thing about this book, it doesn’t only give you patterns, she teaches you how to create stuffed animal patterns!  I really recommend that anyone wanting to sew stuffed animals, you really should have this book in your library!

bunnies standing

The pattern in the book uses wool felt to make the bunnies.  I will admit that I didn’t follow Abby’s instruction to a T, mostly because I was using fleece instead of felt.  Abby’s process of using freezer paper to trace your pattern on and then ironing it to the felt before cutting out is brilliant – I will have to try a felt animal someday and do that.  But because I have SO MUCH fleece in my stash, I went with that!  I also took a shortcut by using safety eyes and noses on my bunnies, versus creating them with felt.  Both looks are great, it just depends on the look you are going for (or the time you have).

bunny girl front

The bunny girl will of course go in Miss O’s basket!  Abby includes the clothes patterns with the animal pattern.  I used cotton fabric from my stash/scraps coordinating with the purple I used for the bunny’s ears.  The dress is reversible and was definitely more complicated to sew up than the bunny boy’s outfit, but nothing a confident beginner/intermediate sewist couldn’t do.

bunny girl close up

I really like how their faces turned out using the safety eyes and nose.  They are cute and it saved me time for sure!

bunny boy front

The bunny boy, for Mr. V, has on super cute pants and vest that were pretty easy to sew up.

bunny boy close up

The green eyes look so cute with those green ears!

bunnies tails

Of course the clothes have appropriate holes for the fluffy bunny tails!

bunnies tails close up

At first I attempted to make brown pom poms from yarn but didn’t like the size.  So I searched our craft stash and found the perfect pre-made puff balls for tails!  Green and purple to match their ears!

carrots

The book even includes the pattern for the cute carrots!  Because what bunny doesn’t need a yummy carrot!!

To recap my thoughts on this pattern:

  • Super cute finished stuffie (CHECK)
  • Quick construction (CHECK)
  • Pattern layout easy to read (CHECK)
  • Full size patterns provided (CHECK, but you do need to add 1/4″ seam allowance to the patterns before cutting the fabric)
  • Stuffed Animals is a book that every stuffed animal sewist needs to own! (CHECK)

Things I learned:

  • Reconfirmed that this book, Stuffed Animals, is an invaluable resource for me as a aspiring softie designer.
  • I need to sew up more of the patterns and study the lessons again.
  • I need to try a felt animal.

Thanks for checking out my April Stuffie of the Month and make sure to pick up your own copy of Stuffed Animals: From Concept to Construction by Abby  Glassenberg.

Up next month — A baby!  Still a stuffie but not an animal this time.  NimblePhish Patterns just released this to die for Baby Mine pattern.

baby mine NimblePhish

It’s a baby doll that can wear newborn size clothing.  How awesome is that!  One of Miss O’s besties has a birthday at the end of May and she loves babies, so I think this would make the perfect gift!  Excited to get started!

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