Make It! Rabbit in a Snow Globe Christmas Decorations Tutorial

So although I go on about things I have made, I hardly ever do any tutorials or makes on here. So I thought that I would try to share more! I have been busy over the past months creating Christmas Decorations, and my favourites have been the various Snow Globe designs I have created.

Bunny in a Snow Globe
These are simple to make and with a little extra effort (not much) you can make any design you fancy.

You will need:
A card or paper template of the shape you want to use.
A round lid- I used the lid from a tub of Betty Crocker Icing! Washed, obv.
Three small sheets of felt - I used white, blue and faun.
2 reels of cotton, one white, one black. You might like to also use a thread which matches your central shape.
2 scraps of ribbon (each around 10cm long)
1 piece of heavy interfacing. This will give more structure to the decoration, but it will be OK without. Alternatively you could even use card board or even thin wadding.
Irridescent seed beads.

1. To Start. You need to draw around your shapes. I like a vaninshing ink pen, but you could use tailors chalk too. 

Cut 1 circle each of the front and back colours (2 circles in total)

Cut 1 rabbit shape.

Cut 1 circle of material of interfacing then cut off a strip approx 1/3 inch to make that circle smaller than the others.

2. Prepare your rabbit. Using a double strand of black cotton (or black embroidery thread if you have some) sew on a little face. I like a sweet sleepy face - you can choose whatever takes your fancy. My emboidery skills are not very sophisticated but there is scope here for embellishing the rabbit.

You can add scraps of other felt or fabric to make a range of effects, like this snowy tree:

Adding the scarf: 

Take 1 scrap of ribbon, fold it lengthways and slide it through the rabbit and background layers. Pin this against the felt, making sure one side extends no more than 2 cm. Take care to leave the ends loose when you sew........................

Using the machine or handsewing depending on your preference stitch the rabbit to the white layer only. Take care here to not sew the loose ends of the scarf, although you can sew over the scarf where it is behind the rabbits neck.

Then fold the scarf over the rabbit. Take the small end and fold it onto the neck. Then taking the longer end, take it to the middle of the neck and fold it at a right angle. To make the scarf look knotted I folded it in a sort of squash fold - I can't explain very well! Here's an origami tutorial that might help. You can see better in this photo of a different rabbit decoration that I did:

Then stitch across and down the scarf to secure it.

4. Assemble. Pin the layers together. Put a pin in the head and body of the rabbit, gathering all the layers together. Don't forget the middle of your sandwich (the interfacing).

Take the other scrap of ribbon - this will be your hanging loop. Fold it in half to make a loop and slip the raw ends between the white and blue layers at the very top of the circle. Secure with a pin or a few basting stitches.

Stitch all around the edge of the decoration, with about a 1/4 inch allowance. You might like to add an extra line of reinforcement stitches at the top where the hangng loop is. Try to keep it even and turn the felt with a firm steady hand. I find stitching the circles not to hard but the neatness is an issue!

6. Finishing touches. Any little beads or buttons you want to add can be sewn on now. I suppose you could add them to the top layer before sewing but if you are adding seed beads I find it simpler to put them on at the end. I sewed on irridescent seed beads to look like the snow in a snow globe by inserting the needle at the side to start and then ensuring as I sewed that the needle and thread were passing into the middle of the decoration not the back.

If you do make any decorations using this tutorial as inspiration why not share them on the Made by Dolly Flickr pool?

Happy Happy Making xx