My First Sewing Project

Whoever said to start simple and move your way up doesn't know me.  I always live by go big or go home.  So, I started sewing with making my boyfriends niece a bunny stuffed animal.  I got the idea from none other than Martha Stewart, and I just tried it.

Maybe I should have rotated it before uploading...

The Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts, by Martha Stewart actually comes with an interactive CD that has patterns.  Unfortunately I don't own a working printer... ok thats a lie, I haven't gone and bought more ink. To adapt I made my own patterns using crayon paper I've had since I was a kid. For the fabric I used the reminants that I bought at Joanns on Saturday. Luckily, I found a nice cotton grey fabric, a pink polyester, for the ears, then I also had picked up some pink tulle.  At this point in time I didn't know what I would use the tulle for but I did come in handy.

I made the pattern a little chubbier to give me the opportunity to fail...
miserably :)

So I created a body, cut two bodies out with the grey.  Then I made a pattern for the arms and ears.  For each cut out four.  For the ears I cut out 2 from the pink so I could make the inside of the ears look real (?).

I guess I forgot to take a picture of the pink ears...

Let it be known that I have NEVER sewed before in my life... I understand the general idea but I had to learn while I was going with this project.  I knew that the bunny would look cool if I used thread that matched the ears along the body so when it got turned inside out it had a cool stitching.  I started with the body and it took me three tires to get the tension and speed right. HAHAHA

I didn't take a picture of the other side for a reason. Bad News.

Can you see that my practice happened a lot.  Three to be exact.

Apparently I did take a picture of the other side.  Ugh, don't judge me.

I moved on to the ears and arms and flipped everything back to the front, and surprisingly the bunny started looking similar to the ones Martha made. :) I attached the ears and now it was time to stuff and hand sew the rest. Score 1 for me.

bunny

Handsewing at 3 in the morning.

I decided the rabbit needed an accessory. So I pulled out the tulle that I picked up with the other fabric and it was the perfect amount for a ballerina tutu. I put snaps so the bunny could really wear it.  Also, if she wanted to put it on a doll, it was an easy transfer. Yay!

Time for the final look -

My boyfriends niece liked it!

It was a lot of work.  A total of 5 hours.  However, it was my first time and I bet I could easily drop that number in half.  Its amazing how rewarding making something from hand is!