In July, I will be having a show with 2 other ladies at our local gallery. I’m now in the process of making my dolls for that show, and there will be lots of other things coming from my worktable. In February, and for one week, anyone who has reserved space at the gallery for 2018, will have this one week to advertise the theme of their show. I have this rabbit and a couple of other pieces to show, as will the other ladies, so it should be a great display. Here we go….
The base pattern of the rabbit is an Edna Bridges pattern, CLICK HERE. In the pattern, she encourages you to use the basic pattern and go from there to make it in your own way.
I designed this whole costume and I have to say, each time I do this I gain so much more confidence and creative license to play and explore.
Here he is with his trousers and vest. The pants are made from the lower part of a flannel pant leg, the vest is made and lined with 2 batik prints. The ears are fitted with pipe cleaners but I went the extra step by coating the front and back with Mod Podge to make them stiffer as they might want to bend over time.
I bought some pieces of sweater knit fabric for Santa’s and used a little bit for this. Around the inside, I’ve sewn ribbon around the inside edge to prevent the fabric from stretching. The yellow/orange faux leather ended up being his shoes, the blue a headdress I’ll explain next. All the colouring on the rabbit is done with Prisma pencils.
Mr. Wonderland bunny’s hat, just kind of popped into my head without warning. I saw an image in my mind of those desert movies, where the actors running around, and were wearing those hats with the flap in the back. In this case of course, I had to make space for his ears. I simply stitched a band to fit in front of his ears and a flap to go down the back. After that the top is filled in with a silk flower for appeal but also to fill in the open space behind the ears. I’m so fussy about finishing things off, it just makes all the difference in the end product. His neck scarf is silk. More after the next couple of pictures.
I gave him glasses because anyone who goes to wonderland, must have perfect vision to see what they’re walking (hopping) into at all times. ;o)
The only change to the basic pattern, was the tail. Instead of how it is, I made a tail for the outside. A dressed bunny still needs his tail after all.
I love how the sweater turned out. It fits him just right. I had the silver buttons in my (apparently), never ending stash. I really try to whittle it down, but it’s hard when everything you see needs to come home with you, but i do try…. ;o)
When it came to his shoes, that was an experiment in seeing what I could do to dress those long feet. I spent the better part of a day fussing around, pinning it this way and that, until finally the light shone brightly in my head. I stitched a line around the front of the foot to close up the toe area. I have tiny eyelets and decided to insert those, thread a silk ribbon through and that resolved the main part of the foot.
The heel was a bit of a question, what to do.. It ended being a simple fold toward the center of the heel, then attach a button to the back to make it look more intentional and finished.
The final step, was to attach the whiskers. I have to ensure that I say this each time, but the whiskers are from cats. I don’t pull whiskers off kittens, I promise… These whiskers are all black and came from the cat that visits us daily. He’s been coming for years, so his whiskers have been collected over time, each time I find one that’s dropped out. So that’s it.
My Wonderland Rabbit is done and now I’m off to get the next project done. It’s halfway there, so hopefully only a few more days to finish that. I hope you like my rabbit. I may make a one page little sheet of information about the hat, I can’t promise when, but hopefully soon. Enjoy ;o)
He is adorable!
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