Tutorial – Sock Rabbit (aka Sock Bunny)

Happy Easter everyone! This tutorial might be a bit late, since you can’t make these for an Easter Basket, but I really wanted to post this cute little rabbit I made from some socks bought at Target for a dollar! My plan was to make up my own directions, but I figured someone had already done something like this and a quick Google search turned up a free sock rabbit pattern at Clubhouseb.com. Download the pattern and cut out the sock pieces per the directions listed. This tutorial assumes you have the pattern handy for reference.

As you can imagine, you start with a plain sock. Turn the sock inside out and arrange the heel so that it is facing you. Following the directions on the downloaded pattern, draw lines on the socks for the ears and legs. Stitch around the lines (per the pattern) and cut the ears and legs apart.

03_InitialStitch — Step 2 - Stitch along lines for ears and legs

Turn the whole thing inside out (there will be a opening in the crotch for this). Use a point turner to poke out the tips of the ears and the corners of the feet.

Stuff with fiberfill. The socks I used were children’s size, so the rabbit will be about 7″ high (the ears add about 4″ more height). Be careful when stuffing – you don’t want to overstuff and you don’t want the sock to run near the raw edges between the legs. Whipstitch the opening shut with matching thread.

05_StitchedStuffed — Step 4 - Stuff and stitch

Next, make a running stitch around the base of each ear, pull to gather, and tie off (the pattern indicates doing the running stitch across the ear, but I did it around in order to make it easier to gather and tie off). Figure out where the neck is going to be and make a running stitch around the neck, pull to gather, and tie off.

For the face, take two buttons with shanks and sew on according to the directions. If you try to use buttons with holes you will find that the eye indentations will not look correct. Rabbit eyes are positioned more to the side instead of the front, so using the shank buttons makes the indentations appear on the sides of the face, instead of the front. Create the mouth and nose per the directions. I didn’t statin stitch a nose since the pink diamond from the argyle pattern is positions perfectly for a nose – what a happy accident!

Take the other sock and create two arms. For my arms, I cut off the toe of the sock and stitched down the middle (like I did with the ears) so that the arms would be pointed on the end like paws.

07_Final_Rabbit — Step 7 - Sew on arms and add bow

Stuff the arms lightly and whipstitch them into place at the neck. Tie a bow around the neck to complete the look and you have an Easter Bunny! If you have the inclination, you can also embellish him (or her) further by adding a hat, shirt, dress, basket, etc. If you want to get really fancy you can sew a running stitch at the wrists and ankles to make the paws more defined.

Keep it Thimble!

Party Favors

My son is at that age where he gets invited to lots of birthday parties, so I am always on the look-out for fun little things to make for party favors and little gifts.

This first favor is one I made for my son’s Pirate themed party. The pattern is the Child’s Coloring Bag from Clothesline Quilts. What’s great about these bags is they don’t take up a lot of fabric and you can easily make 8 in about 90 minutes (which includes the time to quilt the fabric). Next, go to the Dollar Tree and pick out some crayons and other little things to go inside!

43_PartyFavor — Pirate's Booty Party Favor

The next favor is a Zipper Critter by Indygo Junction. The pattern comes with three different sizes and three different types of of animals (dog, cat, pig). It’s great for using up scraps and any old zippers you have laying aroud. What’s nice is that you can personalize the fabric choice for each child, or do it all based around a theme. These critters also make nice package decorations – especially the smaller one that is attached to a lanyard. One of these takes about 30 minutes to make (although you can speed things up if you want to make several by cutting them all out at once and sewing them assembly line style).

Keep it thimble!

For the Birds!

My friend wanted to make some little peace doves to give as gifts this year, and asked me to help her since she knows I love to sew! She emailed me a few pictures of some stuff birds she liked, and I was able to find a great FREE pattern at Spool Sewing for these birds (the free pattern is available for download in the right hand sidebar).

I stitched together a quick prototype on my sewing machine so we had a better idea of the finished product. It took no time at all and you could easily create a dozen of these in an evening. You can embroider little eyes using french knots, or you can attach a beads (be sure to do all these embellishments before stitching and stuffing it). Another idea is to embroider designs on the body, or create little wings in a contrasting color and sewing them on.

I don’t have a picture of my friend’s, but she used white felt for all her pieces, and then hand sewed them together with a blanket stitch (in white). It would have also been cute to sew around in contrasting color like red or blue. I plan to make some of these as well, but wanted to get this posted in so you can get the pattern and start making some yourself.

We used the pattern as is, and then used copper jewelry wire to make little feet. I pocked a hole in the bird body with a little awl, stuck in a dab of hot glue, then pushed the feet inside. Since the birds are pretty light, they stand up pretty well on the feet. You can adjust the feet after you get them glued in.

Halloween!

I was hoping to get this posted yesterday, but I think today is fine – the sugar high has finally worn off! My son wanted to be a spider for Halloween this year. I was so proud of myself because we picked out the pattern and bought all the supplies in early September! I was going to get it down early, but of course I was sewing it at the last minute :). The costume is from McCall’s 6180, but with a few modifications.

I made legs longer and didn’t put the ruffle at the bottom. The ruffles were cute, but since he is a “big boy” now they didn’t suit him. I had a lot of trouble turning the tubes to make the legs (the fabric was very thick and it was a struggle), so I used black socks for the tubes instead. Since we wanted to have some bend in the legs, my husband taped up florist wire to create a frame, wrapped batting around it, and then we put the sock over it. It yield nice long and fat spider legs – but the costume was very heavy! My son was a real trooper and wore it to a party on Friday night, but we figured we could do something better for the legs for the BIG night.

For Spider 2.0, my husband taped together 6 dowels, and covered them with electrical wire. We then cut the legs off of Spider 1.0 and used the socks to cover the dowels. More electrical tape was used to tape around parts of the socks (which created a nice jointed leg effect). The legs were much lighter, but since they stuck out it was a bit harder to navigate. My husband rigged up a harness so the legs would slip over my son’s arms, and then we tied them down with a piece of ribbon. All in all, Spider 2.0 was a great success and he got a lot of compliments while trick or treating.

Hope you all had a great Halloween!

Dee Dee aka Big Mama Whale

After I finished making the sea creatures for my son, I saw this cute little Dolphin pattern by Melly and Me. I ordered it online (but it is also featured in a recent issue of the Australian Homespun magazine (issue #79)). I was able to get it cut out and sewn together in less than 2 hours.

I used some left over Fourth of July fabric since my son’s favorite color is blue and his favorite shape is stars. I introduced this as Dee Dee Dolphin, but my son re-named her “Big Mama Whale” since she takes care of his other sea creatures. Too cute!

Free Pattern – Trick or Treat Bag

I am pleased to present the first project for KIT Sewing Club – a trick or treat bag I designed for my son! Please see the “Sewing Club” tab at the top of the page for more information on the club. You don’t have to join in order to enjoy this pattern.

Click here to view pattern.

Please send in a picture of your bag when it is completed and I will post it on the blog. I look forward to seeing what everyone makes! Please add a comment if you have any questions about the pattern.

Pumpkin Costume

My three year old is going to be a pumpkin for Halloween this year. He has been talking about it for several months, even after I explained that his costume could be anything he wanted it to be. After briefly considering a bumblebee costume for a day, he finally decided that he indeed wanted to be a pumpkin.

We headed down to Joann’s to get the pattern. The Butterick patterns were on sale for 99 cents, so of course that’s the only book we looked in. He was very pleased with the pumpkin costume they had:

I need to get an early start to get his costume finished in time. He has several opportunities to wear his costume in the last part of October, and I definitely want him to get the most out of it! I will post a picture when I am done.

Also, be sure to check back at the beginning of October for the first pattern in sewing club! It’s something you will need for Halloween :).