Saturday 13 June 2015

Moon rabbits for a birthday gift

I'm busy working away on some things for P's birthday next week and it prompted me to share a gift that I'd made for a friend of A's recently.

We were in the city at L'Uccello and I asked A to pick a ribbon and some fabric to make a skirt for her friend's birthday. She fixated on the ribbon part and so I got to "help" her choose the fabric!


We ended up with the Cotton & Steel Moonbunnies by Rashida Coleman-Hale. Yep, you've seen this fabric line all over the 'net, right? But it really is cute and I figured there's unlikely to be a little girl alive who wouldn't like a teal and hot pink skirt with moon bunnies on it!
 
The ribbon is a velvet ribbon which matches the pink of the skirt much better than it would appear in the photo. Anyway, once she'd found it and rubbed it on her cheek there was no dissuading my daughter. It had to be that ribbon. And the pattern? the free Lazy Days skirt pattern by Oliver + S.
 
I sized up my own kid in the shop and bought 40cm of fabric....
 
And that left me with just enough left over for a little bow on a headband.
 


Again, a free pattern from Oliver + S, the bow is usually made from felt. I added a tiny 1/4" seam allowance (all I had room for) and cut two of each part instead of one. I stitched them together then turned them right side out through little openings in the middle. That way I didn't even have to stitch the openings closed as they are covered by the centre piece.

The hairband is then covered with a bias strip that I had leftover and which happened to match perfectly! Once more, the instructions for the bias covered headband is a freebie from Oliver + S!

For a final bit of bunny birthday gifting we found a book at a wonderful local bookshop with a bunny character and one of my favourite illustrators - Maurice Sendak


It's fun to be able to make a sweet little set like this and now I'm getting requests for moonbunnies from A too. But how about these sloths, I think we just have to  have those, they're fabulous! Now, about that pledge not to buy any more quilting cottons....

I've been painting a Yoda ("a green one with a beige coat please mum") to the correct colour specifications, and with one more evening to go before the boy turns seven I need to sew it up. Stay tuned for the next birthday instalment....

13 comments:

  1. Lovely gifts! The bow head band is just perfect.

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  2. What an awesome gift. That book is one of my favourites (I still have my childhood copy and inflict it on my daughter regularly). Where did you get the moonbunnies? I've been tempted to get some since seeing it somewhere online a few months ago. Might have to copy your hairbow idea, too - it looks great!

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    1. The moonbunnies came from L'Uccello in the Nicholas building in the CBD. Do you know it? If not, that's our coffee date destination sorted!
      The bookshop is fantastic, it's called JP Junior Everlasting Books. Owned by the daughter of one of the founders of Readings. She's of "our vintage" and stocks all the great ones from when we were kids. A real nostalgia trip!

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    2. I do know L'Uccello, but if we meet for coffee in town one day I'll be happy to wander on up, and let's have a look at Kimono House while we're there, too :)

      The bookshop sounds great! On my side of town there are almost no bookshops at all, which is really sad.

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  3. This is so awesome! What an amazing and thoughtful gift! I love it!

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    1. Thanks Rachel! It's such a joy to be able to do something like this, as it's relatively easy for me, but hopefully quite impressive all the same!

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  4. What a great set. You really can't go wrong with moon bunnies :)

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    1. True! It might sound blasphemous but my husband has always told the kids that the Easter bunny lives on the moon, so moon bunnies are already popular at our house!

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  5. You are such a good 'helper' ;) I think this is a great present. Well done to the both of you ladies :)

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    1. It's always fun to fabric shop, right?! I should set up my own fabric stash in a "shop" setting and let the kids "buy" some fabric for their next clothes. Bet they like it more.... :)

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  6. A wonderful gift for a little girl and your little helper knows what she likes. I love the bunnies but those sloths look pretty cool as well.

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    1. The sloths are seriously cute aren't they. If only I didn't already have a pile of fabric intended for pyjamas.....

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