Stuffed Bunny Tutorial

The bunnies in this Stuffed Bunny Tutorial have a special place in my heart because I have many fond memories of bunnies from my childhood. When I was a child, we visited my grandparents every summer. I have more amazing memories of the time we spent with them than I can count. One particular summer, ‘the summer of the bunnies,’ they had this giant floppy eared lop bunny named, Puppy. She was black with white spots, or maybe white with black spots, I’m not really sure. She was the biggest bunny I’ve ever known and sweet like a puppy just as her named implied. This summer, Puppy had bunnies! Lots of little bunnies! My grandpa made a little pen out of chicken wire to help keep track of them. It was just a little fence he built that backed up against the permanent fence. The morning we were packing up to leave, I went out to the back yard to squeeze a few more bunny moments in before heading to Wyoming. I remembering watching the little ones taking a run at the fence, and if they didn’t trip over their ears before they reached it, they somehow half climbed, half hopped right over that fence. I’m not sure how long I spent catching them and putting them back only to repeat the process over and over. As a girl, it felt like forever. I was so worried they would get hurt outside of the safe zone Papa had made them. I ran inside to tell the grown ups, only to find they thought I was crazy. They didn’t think the bunnies could make it over the fence on their own. I went back out to check on the bunnies and fell back into the game of catching them and putting them back. I remember hearing my grandma exclaim, “I’ll be darned,” when she looked out the window to check on me. She couldn’t believe it when she saw the bunnies actually were making it over the fence. It was quite a thing to see them sailing over the top of the fence. As they came down their floppy little lop ears looked like helicopters blades helping them take flight. Those silly little bunnies. Grandma came out laughing and assured me that she’d make sure Papa would fix the fence so the bunnies would be safe and I wouldn’t have to worry about them. These stuffed bunnies don’t have floppy ears, but I love them just the same. I might even have to create a floppy eared pattern too, but these are cute and whimsical and remind me of summers past with my grandparents even so.

This Stuffed Bunny Tutorial is an easy way to create a cute whimsical family of bunnies. The medium sized template is supplied for free to my email subscribers and if you’d like all three (small, medium, and large) templates, you can purchase the complete printable tutorial for a minimal price in my shop. It’s easy to give your bunnies different personalities by choosing fabric and ribbon/twine to suite the traits you are looking for. Bright and colorful, silly or sophisticated, fancy or simple -the sky’s the limit. Adding different sizes give yet another element to add variety with. We’ve had fun creating bunnies that mimic our friends and family and gifting them. They are also beautiful a beautiful addition to your home decor. They look adorable sitting on a shelf, gathered in a basket, or even displayed on a tiered tray. See how pretty they are?

Materials

Bunny Template — Subscribe here for Medium Sized Template — Click here to purchase Complete Tutorial with all three sizes —
Fabric Scissors, straight edge or pinking shears
Paper Scissors
Pins
Scraps of Material (If having material cut, 1/4 yard, 9 inches, will give you enough height for the medium bunny. You will have extra. If you plan on making more than one, you might choose several fabrics, getting 1/4 yard of each to mix and match bunnies, tails, and embellishments with.
Scraps of Coordinating Ribbon
Coordinating Thread
Polyester Fiber Fill for Stuffing Bunnies

Directions

Step One: Print template and use paper scissors to cut it out.

Step Two: Find a piece of material that is a tall as your template and twice as wide. Fold the fabric in half and pin the template to it making sure to pin both pieces to the template.

Step Three: Cut around your template using fabric scissors (pinking shears give a whimsical feel, but straight edge scissors work great too. It just depends on the look that you want.

Step Four (Optional -only if you want to add a bunny tail): Find a scrap of fabric that is slightly larger than the bunny tail template (adding a tail to your bunnies is totally optional.) Using fabric scissors, pin template to fabric and cut it out. Place fabric tail on one pretty side of one fabric bunny. Pin. Sew tail in place. I use the edge of my presser foot as a guide. (I didn’t bother using Heat N Bond, but you can if you prefer. I didn’t want to purchase any for just a few small pieces. Feel free to use it if you’d like. I didn’t have any trouble without it though.)

Step Five: Place two bunny pieces together pretty sides out. Starting at one of the bottom corners, using the presser foot as a guide, sew around the outside of the bunny stopping at the bottom corner on the other side. Leave the bottom edge open so you can stuff him.

Step Six: Use Fiber Fil to stuff your bunny. I find it helpful to use a chopstick or even the point of my scissors to help push the batting in through the neck and into the points of the ears. After the ears are filled, work your way down through the head, neck, and body until your bunny holds shape. Pay special attention to filling the neck so your the head isn’t floppy.

Step Seven: Push the batting inside the bunny and sew, using your presser foot as a guide, across the bottom where his feet would be. Make sure to back track to secure stitches at both the start and finish.

Step Eight: Cut a piece of ribbon or twine to tie around your bunny’s neck. This is such a fun way to add personality to your bunny. Experiment with different ribbon and twine. You might leave some longer to mimic flowing scarves, tie some like bow ties, or even just leave some as knot ends. Most important, have fun with them!

Don’t forget to pin it for later! I love to see your finished projects! If you make some, please post pictures and tag @jaseyscrazydaisy using the hashtag #jaseyscrazydaisy. Thank you so much! Talk soon!