Rabbits for Alex

Renaissance Ribbons from France first caught my attention while visiting the 2018 Road2CA show. Besides designer ribbons, Renaissance Ribbons offer kits for adorable animals made from a soft polyester velvet and I have made two before. Paulette and Gaston are well decked out kittens with reverse night and day sides, described in my post dated 4/28/18. I bought two Le Lapin d'Alice kits, one on each color of course, for these two white rabbits from Renaissance Ribbons' website to make for my son Alex, who is a true fan of real bunnies and Alice in Wonderland. I finished the two rabbits tonight and will give them to him on Easter Sunday.

These rabbits only have three pieces each and are much simpler than the Stacy Hsu bunny panels I made in my previous post dated 4/8/20. The instructions say to cut around each design and to cut the base 5mm in from the line. I questioned 5mm (0.2") inside the line. Won't that make it too small? If that's where I am supposed to cut, then why isn't the line drawn there? I tried measuring across the base of the rabbit and curling a tape measure around the curved base to see if the dimensions matched. It was close and unclear what to do. Ever doubtful I cut on the line, figuring I could trim later but putting the fabric back would not be possible.

When I attached the base I had to work hard to ease it to the top. In fact, in the last two inches of the base I had to trim some off of it. The 5mm inside must have been right and I was wrong to second guess. When I did the second rabbit I cut about ⅛" inside the line and it worked out perfectly. Then the instructions said after stuffing the rabbit, to trace around the base to make a cardboard insert. Instead I used the base of the rabbit panel I had not started as a template for the base stiffener.  When  a situation like this calls for cardboard instead I use plastic mesh. It can go through the wash without having to be removed. I also use this same mesh at the bottom of my reusable grocery bags. I placed it right over the base and traced with a permanent marker along the line. At first I used blue but it did not show up enough. Since the mesh has holes, you only get a dotted line to cut on so there had better be good contrast between the mesh color and the pen color. Blue ink did not quite hack it for me so I switched to red and even then went over it with black.

Finally I had two bases after I had cut ½" inside the marker lines. Another benefit of the mesh over cardboard is that you can bend and curl it to fit in without introducing folds as you would with cardboard.

So just what does this base say? My hand Google translator helped me out. If there are any people from France reading this post, please stop laughing at me.

The base insert does help them to stand upright unassisted. Here is the finished rabbit with the red coat and his partner with the black coat. I love the little detail of that each of them is clutching a pocket watch in his paw. I also love the feel of these stuffed toys; the velvet surface is so soft and appealing.

Of course with every project there are scraps. I do not know what I am going to do with these but at this point I could not throw them out. Those vignette silhouettes are precious. So what do the other words say? I amused myself once more with Google translator. At least, yes, I do recognize the words for red and black. But I do not know the words around rose-toned the oval image.

The letter sequence odile bailloeul is the signature of a designer for Free Spirt Fabrics. 

Odile Bailloeul also has her own boutique on line where she sells fabric kits. These two rabbits from Alice in Wonderland may be worried that they will be late. But I for once am not late. I finished my project in time to give it to Alex Easter Sunday.