I do like the traditional collective nouns, a charm of goldfinches, a peep of chickens, a parliament of owls…and a fluffle of bunnies. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been stitching my own fluffle of Luna Lapins.

Luna Lapin is a rabbit designed by Sara Peel of Cool Crafting in Kendal. I think she’s published about four books now, branching out to other animals such as deer, sheep, a mouse, otter to name but a few. They are all designed to be hand-stitched but can be machine stitched too. I tend to hand-stitch the rabbit and machine stitch the clothes

Over the last few years I think I’ve made three rabbits and one mouse…

This Christmas I decided to make one for my new grandson and also my daughter asked for one for Christmas, so two to make.

For Hugo, my grandson, I decided to make one in a creamy felt with the inside of the ears and the feet in a quilting cotton left over from a quilt which has hearts all over it. As Hugo is only a few months old I bought some safety eyes rather than use buttons and I’ve omitted the buttons at the top of the arms. I used blanket stitch for all the seams, the face didn’t shape quite as nicely with the safety eyes so I hand-stitched a little to pull them in.

Helen wanted a white Liberty rabbit and even sent up two fat quarters of tana lawn for me to use, both very flowery. I chose the pretty pink one for the ears and feet. I used buttons for the eyes and also ‘Handmade with love’ wooden buttons for the arm joint. She’s got little eye lashes too. They are both made with the 100% wool felt from Cool Crafting, it’s a lovely quality and doesn’t give way when you’re stuffing them!

‘All’ I’ve got to do now is make their clothes, a dress, coat and knickers for Helens and shirt, trousers and waistcoat for Hugo’s