Handmade Easter bunny

Stuff it with wool to make a toy, or fill with dried lavender to scent a room
- a great way of recycling old jumpers.

YOU WILL NEED

To make your own Easter cloth fabric bunny:

paper bunny pattern - download from internet
paper, pen, pins and sewing scissors
old wool blanket or jumper
tailors’ chalk or water-soluble fabric pen
sewing machine and cotton thread
wooden spoon
sheep’s wool or dried lavender and millet
needle, embroidery needle and thread
ribbon for a bow
orange felt and green ribbon for carrot
coloured felt or wool fabric for clothes

How to Make Easter Bunny Cloth Rag Doll

1 Cut out the template and draw around it with chalk onto the wrong side of the wool - this is your sewing line. Leaving an extra 2cm around the edge, cut out the shape Draw around this onto the wrong side of more wool to make the back of the bunny.

2 Place your two wool pieces right sides together and pin. Start at the right shoulder and machine-sew around the chalk line using a small straight stitch until you reach the base of its right ear. Over-sew the first and last couple of stitches for added strength.

3 Remove your pins and turn the bunny the right way out. using the handle of a wooden spoon to push out the ears, arms and legs.

4 Stuff your shape - using the spoon handle to poke the filling in. Hand-sew the opening closed. Define the arms by stitching through the body, from shoulder to underarm.

5 For the face, push an embroidery needle and thread through the back of the head and add two eyes, a mouth and nose. Secure the thread with a couple of stitches, then push the needle out through the back of the head. Cut off the loose ends.

6 For the carrot, cut a triangle of orange felt. Place strips of green ribbon along the short edge and sew them in place. Roll up the triangle to form a cone, with the ribbon at the top. then hand-stitch along its length.

7 For the jacket, create a template using the bunny pattern: draw a line across the neck, waist and wrists. Cut this out. then draw round it onto your fabric. Cut this shape out and repeat so you have the front and back of a jacket. Snip a V out of the neck on the front piece, then hand-sew the jacket onto
the bunny round the seams and under the arms, joining the materials as you sew down the arms. Hand-stitch the paws together.