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Felt Rabbits
These rabbits can hop around the play mat, or one can be a little gift all by itself. If you do not have time to make both a rabbit and the mat, make a rabbit first, then make the mat to give at a later date.

Materials
• 5" x 5" piece wool felt
• Thread to match felt
• Black thread, for eyes
• Tan embroidery floss
• Hand-sewing needle
• 1 small handful polyfill stuffing

Instructions
1. Print the rabbit pattern pieces (click here to view pattern pieces), resize if necessary (main rabbit piece -- body and head -- should be about 5.2 cm/2 in high) and cut them out. Use them to cut 2 body pieces, 2 ears, 1 tail, and 1 base from the wool felt.

2. To make the body, place one of the cut body pieces over the other, lining up the edges. Using the matching thread, whipstitch up one side, over the curve, and down the other side, leaving the flat bottom open.

3. Place the sewn body on one of your fingers like a finger puppet. Drench the wool with warm water and squeeze out the excess moisture with a towel while the body is still on your finger. This will give it a more three-dimensional form and make the whipstitch seam less visible.

4. Remove the body from your finger and pack it tightly with stuffing (don't worry if the wool is slightly damp; it will finish drying as you work). Take the circle of wool for the base of the rabbit and place it over the bottom hole. Holding it in place, whipstitch around its circumference to close the hole.

5. To form the neck, make one big stitch from side seam to side seam, about one-third of the way down from the rounded top of the head. Draw the stitch in tightly, stitching over it a few times before you knot off your thread.

6. To make the eyes, thread the needle with black thread and knot the end. Insert your needle into the side of the face, about halfway between the neckline (created by the stitch in Step 5) and the top of the head. Pull it through to the other side of the face to mark the second eye. Stitch back and forth through the inside of the head, making two separate eyes. Keep the thread tight as you sew to cinch the head and create facial contours. When you are finished with the eyes, hide the end of your black thread by inserting the needle one last time into one of the eyes and pulling it out somewhere on the body. Trim the thread close to the body, then pull the wool out where the thread is visible to make it disappear back into the body.

7. To make the ears, pinch and fold the base of the ear piece in half with your fingers. Using matching thread, make a few whipstitches along the folded base to secure the fold and create a contoured ear base. Repeat for the other ear piece. Whipstitch the ear bases, one at a time, to the top of the rabbit's head and knot off your thread.

8. To form the nose, thread the needle with two strands of tan embroidery floss separated from the skein. In the centre of the face and slightly below the eyes, make a few tacking stitches on top of each other to form a nose. Hide the end of the thread in the same way as for the eyes.

9. To form the tail, make a running stitch around the circumference of the wool tail as close to the edge as possible, cinching the thread so that the round piece forms a small ball. If necessary, secure the ball in place by crossing several more stitches over the gathered opening. Stitch the gathered side of the tail onto the backside of the rabbit just above the base. Use several whipstitches around the ball to attach it to the body, then knot off your thread.

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Excerpted from Last-Minute Fabric Gifts: 30 Hand-Sew, Machine-Sew and No-Sew Projects by Cynthia Treen with photographs by Karen Philippi. Text and illustrations copyright 2006 by Cynthia Treen. Photographs copyright 2006 by Karen Philippi. Excerpted with permission from Stewart, Tabori and Chang. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced without permission in writing from the publisher.