New Bunny - "Cottontail"

This is another little project my daughter worked on this winter.  It is the "Cottontail" bunny from the  gorgeous book Storybook Toys by Jill Hamor.  We originally purchased this book because it has great directions for sewing beautiful doll faces and hair.  But there are other nice projects tucked within the book as well, and Cottontail was one of them.

My daughter has just begun a collection of china teacups (three so far) and we placed the bunny on a shelf next to one to give you an idea of his size.  He is about 9 inches tall.  He is made out of "fur" from Joann Fabrics.  This fur was very difficult to wrangle under the sewing machine, so my daughter resorted to hand sewing the whole thing. However, she was nervous about how durable he would be, so we stuffed him in a pillowcase and washed him in the washing machine on delicate cycle, then tumbled him in the dryer, also on delicate cycle.  Happily, he came out unscathed, which is good.

He needs to be sturdy and washable because he is a gift to a teacher's not-yet-arrived baby boy (her fourth boy, no less!).  Although the fur was tricky to sew, it gives him such a soft, squishy feel it was worth it.  Also, his eyes were made out of embroidered felt pieces, so you don't have to worry about little ones playing with him.

From the back you can get a tiny glimpse of his cottontail.

I also love his floppy ears.  My daughter has made quite a few stuffed toys before (you can see some by looking under the label 'toys' on my sidebar), but each one has its own personality.  This one reminds me just a little of the Velveteen Rabbit.  I hope he gets loved that much:)