The other day I went in search of a pattern for the velveteen rabbit and couldn’t find one, so I decided to make one from scratch. But before I go on, one thing I did find was a free copy of the book The Velveteen Rabbit by Margerie Williams Bianco on Gutenberg.org (a site that is full of free public domain books). So if you don’t already have a copy, please rush over and download yours.
Anyway, back to the pattern. In order to make a pattern from scratch, I studied the original pictures in Margerie’s book and drew what I thought was the perfect pattern on a couple pieces of paper. I made one bunny out of muslin and decided it was too this and that. I made a second bunny out of felt and though it was better from the first attempt, it too was out of proportion. Taking my mistakes into account, I drew one more pattern. And that’s the pattern I used for the bunny above. As I didn’t have velveteen on hand, I made it out of felt as well, and called it my Easter bunny.
The pattern will be available for free at least until Easter, so register in the sidebar to the right to get your free pattern. To make a bunny with this pattern, simply print the three pages out on standard printer paper, cut the pieces out, and cut the quantity of felt pieces that the pattern pieces indicate. Then watch the video below to see how I put it together. This bunny was stitched together on the outside with about 1/8 seems–all by hand.
One thing I didn’t show in the video is how to make the tail. For my tail, I covered a little stone with cotton filler (from an old pillow), then wrapped that with white wool roving and wet felted it into a ball (just like I did the ping pong balls for my string lights).
At minute 6:30 in the video you can watch how the eyes on this Easter bunny were made using the needle felting technique. A tiny bit of white roving poked into the upper part of the eyes make them look extra realistic.
I hope you enjoy making a few Easter bunnies with this pattern!
You can get tons more inspiration for Easter bunny crafts on Pinterest.
Here’s a free pattern for the Easter Bunny.
You may also enjoy making folded book art with these ready-made book folding patterns.
Excellent, as always, Marty. You are so talented!