Bonus points if you can comment and tell me where “here Hare, here” comes from!

I love this cushion and I loved making it even more as it combined drawing and art with sewing – win win. For the Make do and Mend evening, I was asked to donate a raffle prize, so this is what I donated, a cushion made entirely of scraps! (bar the insert; that was from ikea!) Luckily, the lady that won it was very happy with it!

I generally just love hares and I have a few models of them around the house. I also love the country tweedy type look. So my plan was to combine the two in this project. I had seen similar designs of hares made from colourful cotton scraps, but I decided to use some felt and tweed scraps for mine. I even used up thread scraps by using the half filled bobbins that had been lurking in the drawer.

The process..

I took photos as I went – here they are…

 

I used the remains of a poundland dust sheet. I often use these for toiles but being so translucent meant it was perfect to trace my sketch and cut up into little pattern pieces.

 

I wanted a base layer of felt to attach the little bits to. I attached this to a scrap of plain cotton. I used a tight zig zag stitch to sew the parts down.

Then the fun began. I used the same approach as I would use for painting with creating the hare. I saw it as layers of colour, and started with lighter tones. As the layers got thicker, it was easier to move the piece under the needle as if I was free-motioning, but I wasn’t.

In a moment of inspiration, I started to experiment with the “quilting” stitches on my machine. It has a few different programmable cross stitch designs. Again, approaching as I would if it was a painting, I looked for highlights and shadows to use these stitches for. I changed the colours of thread to build up the range.

My favourite are the little white stitches on his nose.

 

 

 

 

I could have carried on for hours! I was having so much fun as it felt like I was painting with thread. I’ll definitely make more of these!

 

 

 

 

The neck was a separate addition as I felt it needed one! Here hare here finished, with a view from the back too. I put some iron on interfacing over the back to make sure all the stitches were fastened on. Then I cut him out ready to be sewn on to the cushion.

 

 

The cushion is made from left over denim I had used for jeans.

I made a simple envelope cushion cover and simply appliqued the hare in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am hoping that I can make some more of these – contact me in the usual ways if you’d like one!