DIY - Bunny stuffed animal

My little goddaughter had her first birthday this month and I wanted to give her something special as a gift. What better than something handmade with love?! Remembering that I wanted to learn how to sew as well and make use of that great sewing machine that I inherited from my grandma, I decided to spend Ascension Day with my mom and work on a little project.

I have seen these cute little handmade animal pillows in a local crafting store and was lucky enough to find a similar stencil online at MerMag. 

Material

Fabric for 2 sides of the pillow (different fabrics or the same)

Fabric for the mouth

Fabric or buttons for the eyes

whool for the nose and nose hairs

iron on vylene for mouth and eyes

stuffed animal wadding to fill the pillow

thread in matching colors for the fabric

Tools

Sewing Machine or thread and needle

Stencil

Iron and Ironing board

wet cloth

scissors

something to help with the stuffing - in my case a small egg beater

Cut the fabric for front and back of the pillow with some 1cm extra around the edges for the seam. Cut out a piece of fabric for the mouth and for the eyes if you want them to be out of fabric as well. I made two different pillows, one with button eyes  and one with fabric. Use the iron on vylene to attach the fabric mouth to the fron of the pillow. My mom did add some cross stitching to the border as it is a pillow for a small child. We didn't want to have loose edges at any point. With my godchild double security is the best to not have her swallow a piece of the pillow.

Please read the instructions of the vylene carefully, as we accidentally used it without a wet cloth and messed up my moms iron with the gluey vylene. It is hard to remove it from the iron once it is cold, so be careful.

Add the front to the back piece and sew them together left side out. When you turn the fabric around, you won't see the seam this way. Don't forget to keep a small hole to put in the stuffing afterwards. It was my first ever sewing experience and I had some difficulties with the small size of the pillow, but it worked out fine with a bit of help from my mother. I can definitely sew a straight line now and bunny ears seem to be fine as well :)

The next step is to stuff the pillow with wadding. Use a tool to get the material into the small tips of the ears and fill it up tightly. Try to keep the wadding in one piece so it doesn't loose  its' form during the months and years of usage.

Finally sew on the eyes and the whool nose. It was a lot of fun to prepare this little gift and my godchild was thrilled with it. Her mom is a bit nervous about the buttons, though. They are sewed on very tightly, but can be replaced with fabric eyes any time!