Cuddly Rabbit for Babies / Children / Grown-ups

This is a stuffed animal I made for the birth of my boyfriends niece. It's made of baby-friendly material and has no dangerous pieces that could be swallowed or harm the baby in any way.

Step 1:

First, I made a cardboard template for the different pieces of the rabbit. Then I cut out the pieces of two types of fabric. For the belly and the inner ears I took a striped fabric with a strong contrast. I was told that babies like strong contrasts when they are very young, since their eyes are not yet capable of seeing tiny details. For the rest of the rabbit I chose toweling. The woman who sold me the toweling explained to me that this fabric is especially good for babies, because it shouldn't form lints, and you can wash it.

Step 2:

Now I made the ears. First, I sewed each of the inner ears onto one of the outer ears. I chose a zig-zag stitch which looks quite decorative I think. (First image in this step). Then i turned it around and sewed these ears to the other outer ears, so the seam would not be visible. I left one part of the ears open, so I would be able to reverse again. After that, I reversed the ears. For this step you might want to use a pencil or something, otherwise it's very hard to get the whole ears through that tiny opening at the bottom.

I first planned to fill the ears with pipe-cleaners, to be able to bend them in a funny way. But then i decided that it could be harmful for tha baby if its putting the ears in its mouth. If you like you can still do that.

Step 3:

Then I made the tail, the "hands" and the feet of the rabbit. For the tail, i cut out a circle of the striped fabric and filled it with cotton. Then i sewed it together by hand.

The "hands" of the rabbit were easy: Simply sewing two pieces together and reversed afterwards.

Before I sewed the feet toghether, I sewed the typical "toes" of a rabbit paw onto two of the foot pieces. After that, i turned it around, sewed it to the other foot piece and reversed the feet after that.

Step 4:

In the last step, I attached the tail to the back and sewed the belly to the front. The eyes and the nose of the rabbit are made of felt and i sewed them by hand onto the front. I was told that its better not to take plasti eyes, since the baby could swallow it.

Afterwards, I put the back and the front whith the "nice side" on the inside on top of each other and positioned the ears, the "hands" and feet of the rabbit. Make sure the ears, the hands as well as the feet are also on the inside of the rabbit, because after that, you want to reverse the rabbit and its hands and feet should not be inside the body :). Leave a part open when you sew everything together. Then reverse the rabbit, fill it with cotton and sew the open part together by hand.