Queen Phoebe of Wonderland

I'm so excited to be helping Melissa from Polka Dot Chair kick off her Wonderland Fabric blog hop with my newest creation, Queen Phoebe (Queen of the Wonderland Bunnies).

Queen Phoebe clearly loves stripes and lots of ruffles. She is a good leader in her colony and loves taking care of all the bunnies by reading to them and giving them lots of cuddles. Queen Phoebe's staff is the same one her mum used and passed down to her, as is her golden crown. She reminds all of her bunnies to be good examples and to always be kind, helpful and of course, cuddly.

My family has had a bit of a bunny obsession since Christmas as we have been searching for a Netherland Dwarf for our daughters. Combine that with the fact that Easter is around the corner, the obvious choice was to make a bunny. I got this "Queen of the Bunny" idea from the laurel wreaths on Melissa's bunnies and thought if she was the Queen, what would she look like. This bunny is made using a mix of my Sizzix dies - the Kid Giddy Doll (head and body), and the Kid Giddy Fox (arms and legs), adding simple bunny ears and a quick muzzle.

A lot of people have asked me how I made the Little House on the Prairie dolls from quilt market, so I decided to make this little bunny dress the same way and write up a little tutorial (photos are coming) for you. The Bubbles dress tutorial is similar but does not lift up as this one does, as it is part of the body. This Queen Phoebe dress acts like a separate piece, except at the neck where it stays attached. Neither dress is completely removable and only requires an extra piece of of fabric for the skirt (cut from a fat quarter).

To make this dress, you'll need two body pieces cut from the bunny fabric, and two body pieces cut from the dress fabric. You'll also need your rectangle panel cut for the skirt (please refer to the Bubbles tutorial for additional photos, details and the sleeves to help make your bunny/doll with a dress). 

Step 1: Cut the dress fabric body pieces across the midsection so it's 2 1/2" from top to bottom, and sew the dress body pieces right sides together. 

Step 2: Cut a piece of fabric that is 5" wide x 19 1/2" long. ((Please note: If you have a ruffler foot, PLEASE test a length of 19 1/2" fabric to see how long it is once ruffled before continuing)). Gather the top edge of the skirt panel, and pin it to the dress fabric body pieces. Sew the ends together (which will be in the center back of the doll) and sew the whole skirt to the bottom edge of the body pieces. Trim seam allowance accordingly.

Step 3: Sew Bunny fabric body pieces together. Turn the dress right side out and place the bunny fabric body piece wrong side out over the dress. Sew a zigzag stitch around the top neck edge to connect the two layers making it easier to sew the body to the head. The above pic is what it will look like after turned right side out. The bunny body is underneath.

Step 4: Adding a Collar: if you want to add a collar, you need to attach a collar to the neck edge on the head before attaching the arms to the side edge. Sew a zigzag around the neck edge on the head pieces to keep the arms and collar in place, again, to make it easier to sew the body to the head. It will be very thick and difficult, but baste stitching helps tremendously.

I decided to make her ears have pipe cleaners in them so I could bend them just the right way for her photos. If you want to use pipe cleaners too (also called chenille sticks), sew up your ears and turn them right side out. Bend a pipe cleaner in half and push it up towards the pointed top of the ears, and out to the sides. Using a zipper foot, sew around the inside of the ear to secure the pipe cleaner towards the outer edge of the ears. Using jewelry pliers, roll the very ends of the pipe cleaner and crimp, to prevent the wire spikes from poking anyone or the fabric. Continue sewing the bunny head with the ears in place, being careful as you sew over the wire. If your needle hits the wire, it will break it the wire making the ear flop a little more at the base.

To make the staff, I fussycut one bunny head and a fabric backing. Place them right sides together and sew around the outer edge, leaving the bottom open. Clip and notch around the edge accordingly, and carefully turn right side out. and gently stuff the head. Using a left over piece of ruffled fabric, sew the ends together and cinch it up tight. Sew the opening of the bunny head, to the center of the ruffle. Sew a few strands of matching ribbon to the underneath side of the ruffled fabric and then place a bamboo stick up into the center of the ruffle and into the head.

To make her crown, I used a piece of glittered acrylic felt from National NonWovens as the base and fussy cut a gold bunny from Melissa's fabric. I glue basted it to stay in place, and then stitched around the bunny. I used some gold iron-on 1/8" ribbon (not realizing it was iron-on) and stitched it down all the way around the edge of the crown, top and bottom.

Thanks so much for stopping by and reading all about Queen Phoebe. Thanks to Melissa for inviting me to be a part of her fabric blog hop, and to (Riley Blake Designs) for sending me the beautiful fabrics. If you have any questions about this tutorial, please leave me a comment below so I can answer it for all to see and benefit from as well.

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'Tis the Season....

So it's monday night and I never had time to post my Busy Monday post - because I was too busy.

Today: I shipped out orders today (yeah!!!) and a bunny for the facebook fan giveaway (yeah!!!) and a christmas owl to my dear friend (yeah!!!)! Along with all that I went to karate, then the grocery store, to the post office twice, changed my little girls bed sheets (after making them dinner and giving them a bath)...and then discovered we had a can of frozen orange juice down in our basement in a bag with some jars and cans for our food storage that needed to be put away...only the frozen orange juice wasn't supposed to be there. Slowly but surely it has leaked out everywhere, creating a nasty mess I now have to go clean up.

So instead of sitting here, and trying to catch up, I am going to go clean, and then finish some sachets while hanging out with my hubby and resume my normal schedule next week. With Christmas coming quickly - I have presents for my own family I need to start and finish!

Wednesday I will be helping out at an American Red Cross Blood Drive at my church and anticipate that being all day! But I am happy to serve and for such a great cause. So I hope you all have a great week, and will feel free to browse my blog for some other really great posts!!! See you next Monday!

Kerry

Giddy-Up Friday: Don't Forget to Eat your Fishies....

Good Morning! Well it looks sort of dreary outside - but that makes for a great Halloween tomorrow - right?

This morning I wanted to share a little fun snack time with you. Both of my daughters went to a Montessori school and learned so many things in such and easier way that I never learned at their age. I was blessed to be able to volunteer at their school often and decided some of the things they learned in school, I could do at home to keep that easier way of learning in our minds.

I hopped on my computer one day and made these little Fish & Bunny "It's Snack Time" pages. I even sent the Bunny page to Annie's Homegrown to see if they wanted to share it with their consumers (as my twin sister recommended). I haven't seen it on the website yet or on their emails, but they did send me a ton of Annie's products to say Thanks! That was cool!!!

Here's the Instructions: Place 1 cracker on each space in the top row (5), ask your child to move 1 cracker after the minus sign and then count how many are left. Then have your child write the number in the box. Then slide the remaining crackers (4) to the next row and continue until all crackers are gone. For fun: have your child color the Fish or Bunnies before using and then laminate the page in order to reduce excess waste as your child may want to do this more than once! Enjoy!

I am happy to have you share these with friends and family, but instead of placing the files on your own blog, instead please provide a link back to this post. Thank you for your cooperation.

Copyright 2009 2 is Beautiful, LLC

Have a great day! Kerry

Kid Giddy's Amy Butler MWM Fabric Contest Entry

Hey everyone.

It's been a REALLY long summer with my girls and that's a good thing! But on the flip side - I've spent a tremendous amount of time away from my craft room! And that is not so fun! It's a great source of stress relief for me and I miss being in there and creating when life takes me elsewhere!

When I received an email back in May, for the Amy Butler Fabrics contest using any of her Midwest Modern Fabrics, I knew I had to enter something! I know I'm not the only person in the world that can sew, so I knew I'd have to make something that would stand out from the crowd. A hard task for sure, but I was hopeful and got to work with some ideas! Quilting is not huge on my list of things I do often and I haven't gone too far into the "apparel" side of sewing. What I do best - at least for now, is come up with my "own" patterns. I dream of them. I think about them while driving and just hunker down and make it. I guess my brain works in different ways and I tend to enjoy every minute of it! What I love even more, is when my girls come into the "craft room" and craft their own shoes and clothes for their dollies with fabric and tape and we keep each other company!

I had quite a few ideas but with 2 kids home for the summer wasn't able to sit down often enough to work on them. The ideas kept coming and finally school rolled around giving me plenty of time to start and finish the projects. I am finding myself grateful to say today - I'm done! So this is what I came up with....or shall I say - this is "who" I came up with (sorry for the sunshine - it was a beautiful day!)....Turtle Crossing...Made with love.....of course!!!And these fine funny friends...I called the "3 Quarter Friends"...1 Qtr friend has not been made yet...Each "friend" was made with less than a Fat Quarter worth of fabric and is approximately 11" long!Then I made these handbags with Oval Wooden Handles that I purchased at Joann Fabrics. I've been working on my Kid Giddy Etsy site and should have some items up for sale before the end of the month...hopefully sooner! Please check back soon to see what else I've been up to! I promise it won't be 9 months before I post again!!! Thanks Amy Butler for awesome and inspiring fabrics!!!! Click here to see all the entries...including mine!

Please note that all photos, designs, and patterns are owned and copyright protected by 2 is Beautiful, LLC, 2009. They may not be used without permission. Thank you.