How-Tuesday: Picture Perfect Bunny Patch

julieincharge

Story by julieincharge

Published on Mar 30, 2010 in Make

Photo by Hand-Stitched Felt

I’ve had the great pleasure of working with Kata Golda, artist and author of the book, Hand-Stitched Felt, during Craft Nights at the Etsy Labs in Brooklyn. At each event, participants went home with the sweetest hand-sewn projects stitched with thread and beautiful wool felt (from OhMaFelt). In fact, as I type these words, there is a partly completed bespectacled kitty felt puppet waiting to be stitched together from the last Craft Night. I’ll finish it one of these days and save it from the fate of my unfinished craft projects purgatory! Kata’s book is brimming with dear projects from felt puppets to messenger bags to the Picture Perfect Bunny Patch project detailed in this week’s How-Tuesday post!

 

Kata Golda, a.k.a katagolda, creates handmade gifts for children and adults using a combination of wool felt, hand stitching, and letterpress printing out of her home in Port Townsend, WA.

As she says, “I always enjoy creating an appliquéd patch to show off in one of the old frames I collect. I often hang groups of them in various sizes on a wall and admire the collection as a whole.”

 

 

 

You can purchase Hand-Stitched Felt from Amazon or an independent bookseller.


Now, let’s get hoppin’ and make a bunny patch!

Materials:

5″ x 7″ frame

5″ x 7″ felt for background

3.5″ x 3″ white felt for rabbit head/arms

2.5″ x 2″ sky blue felt, for overalls (yellow felt for dress)

2″ x 1″ brown felt, for boy shoes (green felt for girl shoes)

Embroidery floss in white (for head and arms), orange (for stripes on overalls), purple (for stripes in dress), red (for mouth, nose, and girl shoes), aqua blue (for eyes and boy shoes)

Download templates

  • Stitches Used: Satin Stitch, Straight Stitch, Double Running Stitch, Whipstitch
  • Finished Project Dimensions: 5″ x 7″
  • Custom Sizing: To make a patch for a different frame size, cut the background felt to the same size as your frame backing, making sure the edges of the patch will be concealed by the frame. Reduce or enlarge the appliqué design on a photocopier to suit the patch size.

 

Directions:

1. Cut Appliqué Pieces
With paper scissors, cut out the rabbit head/arms and overalls or dress from the Rabbit Patch template, and the shoe from the Elephant template. Pin the paper patterns to the felt pieces as designated in the Materials list and cut out the appliqué pieces with fabric shears. You will need to cut two shoes.

 

2. Assemble Appliqué Design
Lay out the background fabric and assemble the rabbit, placing the head/arms first. Layer the overalls or dress on top of the arms, and tuck the shoes under the overalls or dress. Once you are happy with the layout and have ensured that the design fits nicely in the frame, temporarily secure the pieces with glue stick in the background.

As you stitch the decorative details into the appliqué, always tie off knots on the backside of the patch. Sew the eyes with 3-ply aqua blue floss using satin stitches. Sew the mouth and nose with 2-ply red floss, using satin stitches for the nose and straight stitches for the mouth. Using double running stitch and single-ply floss, stitch stripes in the overalls or dress. Using whipstitch and single-ply red floss, stitch the shoes. Whipstitch the head and arms with single-ply white floss.

 

3. Assemble Frame
Apply glue stick to the backing of the frame and press the patch in place. Assemble the frame.

Thank you to Kata Golda and the good folks at STC Craft for sharing this project with us. For more  hand-stitched felt projects, check out Hand-Stitched Felt.

 

Bunny Bowling | More How-Tuesday Posts | Appliqué on Etsy | Wool Felt on Etsy

Discuss: 104 comments

Seller's Items

Related Items

104 comments

Sign in to add your own