Turtoial: How to Make a Fleece Bunny Beanie

Last night I started preparing for my big day of sculpting. I thought since I was making a hat for Munny that I could run you through how to make one. Funny thing about this hat is that you can apply it to anyone, no matter how small or big. Your baby or even yourself. So here's how to make a fleece bunny beanie:

This is what you will need, plus some sort of fabric paint which I forgot to include in the picture:
2 Different Colours of fleece (or more if you feel like it)
Cotton Thread
Bobby Pins

Stuffing Tool (or anything pointy that will do the job)
Hand Sewing Needle
Tape Measure
Marking Pen
Fabric Paint

To begin with, take the measurements around your models head and split that in half. Munny's head was 20cm around. Also measure the height of the head from the forehead to the crown. Munny's head was 4.5cm high. I also add an extra 1cm to the height. Make a pattern on a separate paper so that you can use it over and over again. This is how I do it...

Fold the pattern in half and cut along the drawn line to make both sides equal...

Use the same technique to make the pattern for the ears. The ears can be any size you want. I wanted mine to be quite big and made them 14cm long and 7 cm wide. Yet again add and extra 1cm around...

You will also need a band for the head piece. This needs to be as wide as the head bit and as high as you want it. Mine is 3cm high... Once you got all the patterns sorted you can start drawing them on to the fleece you want to use and then get cutting...

Fold the head piece in half and cut a little nodge at the top to round the hat off a bit. Sew along the nodge...

Attach the band to the bottom bit of the head piece and sew along the edge. Then fold the band in half and try to sew along the same seam...

Then move on to the ears. Make sure when you work with fleece to use allot of pins, as fleece tend to twist a bit when you sew it on the machine. Sew along the edge and use a pointy tool to turn them the right side out...

Since the ears were going to be quite small I needed something to weigh them down. When you work with larger hats the fabric will do the job itself. But in this case I had to make little sand bags so that the ears would hang nicely. It is very simple. Just take a bit of any fabric you've got handy. Make sure that it is dense enough so no sand falls out. Draw a ring on the fabric and fold it in half. Sew along the line and use the pinking shears (zig-zag scissors as I like to call them) to cut around the stitches. Leave a little hole at the end, big enough to get a funnel end into it.

Use a teaspoon to fill the funnel with sand and slowly let it sink in to the little bag. Once filled, close the hole carefully. You don't want to get sand into your sewing machine. Then place the bag in the ear as you turn the ear inside out and try to place it nicely at the bottom of the ear...

I used this chinchilla sand which I get from work. I always keep it handy as you never know when you'll need it for your models. It is really handy!

Ones you got all the pieces sewn and ready it is time to finish things of. Pin the ears to one of the head piece halves. Ones these are positioned right, pin the two head pieces together and sew along the edge.

Tada! Finished! Super Cute! And super simple!

I also wanted cross eyes on my little beanie. Start out with a marking pen so you know exactly where to paint. You don't want to mess up the hat at this point... ;) I use DYLON fabric paint for more or less anything fabricy that needs painting on. And a clay shaper in this case, rather than a paint brush. You just have more control with the clay shaper I think.

Once painted, let the paint dry for a few hours and when dry, fixate the colour with an iron. The paint has got the directions on the back. It also softens the paint so that it feels like part of the fabric... And that's it! Your Bunny Beanie is finished! It only took me about and hour to get this done, so not long at all!

I also prepared the eyes I plan to use, the night before. It is important that the acrylics are dry before you put them on to your sculpture and they can take some time to dry properly as I use so many layers. This is tricky as hell and I really don't like painting eyes. I have OCD when it comes to painting things round. They just have to be perfect, and that is more or less impossible. This time I only messed up one though, so not to bad. I would like to get some air-brush tools for the future as this would help majorly during this process...

I am making a hat for Trikky as well but that will be a later tutorial. For now I am ready to start sculpting and ready for a new day of creativity!!!