Saturday 7 January 2012

How to make your own Bob the Bunny!



As I may have mentioned before I am rubbish at knitting, I can do knit and pearl (or is it purl) and I make squares or rectangles. This may be about to change, she said hopefully, as I have made enquiries about going on a beginners knitting course at Me & Mrs Fisher cafe in York next Saturday.... fingers crossed!

With my limited knitting skills it gets a bit boring doing scarves or squares for blankets, so with that in mind I thought about sculpting or shaping a square into something and the result was the birth of Bob the Bunny.

So here in all it's glory is a little tutorial to make your very own bunny like Bob.

You need a small quantity of wool, appropriate size needles, stuffing, black embroidery thread, felt.

1. Have fun choosing some pretty wool and then knit a simple square or rectangle, mine was a rectangle & measured approx. 9cm high x 11cm wide.
When you've cast off leave a longish tail for stitching up later. Decide which is the front and with some embroidery thread or black wool stitch his eyes and a cross for his mouth at about a third of the way down from top.



That is the main body done.

2. Now for his ears, knit 2 more smaller rectangles, mine were approx. 3.5cm high x 3cm wide. Again cast off and leave a tail on each to stitch up.


3. Now we stitch up Bob's body. We start at the top, if you've got a tail of thread at the top great (if not thread up some of the wool) and with a darning needle do a running stitch along the top edge. When you get to the end pull to draw it up as you can see in the photo, make sure it's drawn up fairly tight so that there's no hole for the stuffing to escape. 


Next stitch the 2 sides together down the back of Bob and finish by stitching in your thread or if you have a loose tail push it into the body.


4. Now do similar with the 2 ear pieces. Do a running stitch along the top edge and draw up to form a slightly pointed ear shape and stitch the sides of the ear leaving the bottoms open. 


We are ready to start stuffing!


5. First push a bit of stuffing into each ear to give them a bit of strength.


Stitch the ears onto the top of Bob's head.


6. Now stuff Bob's body, hiding any loose tails of wool if you hid them inside earlier.


7. Nearly done, cut a small circle of felt at whatever width the base is and stitch that in place to keep the stuffing inside.


Voila! Bob is done.


Up to you if you want to add a little bunny tail or perhaps dress your bunny up like the cuties below.
Have fun and if you get cracking now you can make a whole family of these for Easter Bunnies!



7 comments:

Anne said...

The bunnies are all so cute. Good luck with the knitting club at me and mrs fisher.I loved their cafe and shop when I visited and will get back there when I can.

Rustic Vintage Country said...

They are cute, thanks for the tutorial, may be doing this soon! x

greenrabbitdesigns said...

So cute Sally, thanks for sharing!
I just love the sweet little face in the middle of the square. :)
V x

Rebecca said...

This is so cute, what a great tutorial. Now I can actually have my own bunny! I need to learn some knitting skills though!

Just to let you know you have one the giveaway over at my blog, congratulations.
-Becky x

patty said...

THanks all for the lovely comments about the bunny family!
I hope I can secure a place on the knitting course, I've never been to the cafe before but it sounds fab.
Becky how exciting, I will pop over to your blog regards the giveaway.

grace said...

This is perfect for me as I am teaching my ten year old how to knit and this will make it so much more interesting for her! It is purl but I like the thought of "pearling away"!

lavender attic said...

Hi Sally, the last phot of the dressed bunnies is best of all. You are clever, and once you've had a bit of help, you will fly with the knitting too. Let me know how you geton, and say hello to Liz & Hannah at Me and Mrs Fisher, from me x