4/16/2014

Tutorial: Felt bunny ears for Easter! Make a pompom crown with feltears, or a sweet headband with lop ears! What kind of bunny are you?



I was invited this past Sunday to a wonderful pre-Easter brunch at my fabulous friend Alex's new little cottage home. Included in the invite was the phrase "Bonus points for bunny costumes." Now, most of you know I'm not one to pass up an opportunity to be in costume so I decided to make a smashing pair of bunny ears to wear to the fete, and they turned out so well I thought I'd write a little tutorial! These would be great to make with kids, as they could make the pom poms, and cut and color their own ears, though an adult should do the hot glue step.



And as it turns out, Alex was the only other person who wore bunny ears, and hers were so different yet uncannily similar to mine that we had to partner up! Her version of lop-ears are very quick and easy, and endlessly charming, and you can scroll down to find the tutorial. So which kind of bunny are you? (By the way, no, this is not the cover of our indie-French-pop album. Model faces for the win.)

How to Make a Pom Pom Easter Bunny Crown:
You'll need floral wire, white felt, a pink sharpie, a hot glue gun, scrap yarn, and either a cardboard or plastic pom pom maker.


First, take some nice thread wrapped floral wire and form it into a circle. One piece usually will work for a child's size, while I needed two for my crown. To close the loop, simply bend the ends back about 1/2 an inch at right angles to each other and hook together. The single link on the child's crown can be covered with long pieces of ribbon if you want it to be extra fancy!


Next, you'll need to make your pom poms. For the kid's crown you'll need 4-5 smaller diameter (1-2 inch diameter), and for the adults you'll need 6 larger diameter ones. There's lots of different methods you can use to make a pom pom, some of which you can find here, but I highly recommend getting a pom pom maker from Clover. It rules my world!
While making pom poms, experiment with different color placements and combos. This is a great way to use up pretty pastel yarn scraps!


Now take a piece of felt that's about 4x6 inches and fold it in half lengthwise, and cut out a freehand bunny ear shape. Cutting through both layers at once makes them match!


Now take your pink sharpie and draw the pink centers. Use the side of the marker with long light strokes.


Now, to attach your ears for the child's version, fold them in half at the flat bottom, set them on the interior of the ring of wire and fold about 1/2 an inch up, encasing the wire, and use hot glue to both keep the ear in place and keep it folded. It helps to mark with a pencil where you want the ears to be while you fit the wire ring to the child's head.
For the adult version, stick the fold of the ear into the hook of wire and fold over and glue for extra stability. Check out the photos above and below:



Tada! This is fun all on its own, but it gets extra magical when you add the pom poms!


Grab one of your trimmed pom poms and gently spread apart the yarn until you find the center where you tied it together...


Place a line of hot glue across the center...


And lay the wire down into the line of glue, then pinch the strands of yarn all up around it to encase it:


Keep putting pom poms along the wire using this method, working from either the ears to the center, or the center outward, with the largest pom poms at the center. Be sure to place them close together to hide the wire! 
I used a couple snap clips in my hair behind the bunny ears to make sure it would stay firmly on my head and it worked like a charm!

...Even Karol liked it. Make them for the whole family! (Photo stolen from my friend Megan's Instaram @510doitagain.)

How-To: Last-Minute Lop-Eared Bunny Headband

These ears are a lot of things: quick (10 minutes tops!), cheap, no-sew, no-glue, *and* the headband stays intact for everyday wear!

I've always been a fan of lops - lop-eared rabbits that is.  Their droopiness and floppiness (and perceived mopiness) contrasts so precisely with their pert and alert erect-eared brethren, and appeals to my sensibilities very much.



You'll need...
Felt (just one little 9" x 12" rectangle of craft felt will do!), headband, scissors, blush + blush brush


First, you'll need to cut out your ears.  Now don't get thrown for a loop here - I used two pieces of felt to make two pairs simultaneously.  You truly don't need a template, just cut out the ears long ways utilizing as much of the felt as possible.  Leave the bottom inch and a half straight-sided; this will form the tab that loops around the headband.  


Secondly, you'll need to cut a wee slot, about 3/4 of a an inch long, centered on that straight-sided tab at the base of each ear (don't get too close to the edge or the felt may tear!).


Next comes the fun part: blushing (the idea of which comes from Miranda's sweet bunny ear DIY over at one little minute).  A warm, peachy reddish-pink works best here.  Concentrate the color at the base then drag it upwards in light strokes.


To attach the ears to the headband, simply loop them from behind, fold them in half towards the front (blush side in), and gently pull them through the slot until they're snugly secure.  A headband with little teeth or at least some texture works best to hold the ears in place (but once it's on, your hair will do that just fine).  You can also move them around as you see fit - lop ears tend to be wider set than their pert counterparts.


Snip the corners off the little tabs (rounded if you can manage it) to make them less noticeable from behind...


...and there you have it!  A nice little pair of lopped ears, for you or your smalls!  Furthermore, it just occurred to me that should you prefer upright bunny ears, a once-over with spray starch should do the trick!


1 comment:

  1. I just pinned these a few days ago , really fun :)

    ReplyDelete