How to Make a Bunny Easter Basket

My mother is an amazing seamstress and crafter.  She made us handmade stockings for Christmas, costumes for Halloween, and baskets for Easter.  For me, these were special parts of celebrating the holidays.  Nothing is more special than having your own, personalized holiday keepsake.  So, of course I am always looking for ways I can do the same for my kids.

For Easter I have made each of my children a fabric Bunny Easter Bucket.

And because I know they are FAB-U-LOUS,

I know that you will want to make your own, right?

So I've created a tutorial to teach you how to make a fabric Easter Basket yourself!

My inspiration came from here...

Homemade By Jill
Fabric Easter Buckets


Who got her inspiration from here...

Fabric Bucket Tutorial

Created by Jodie at Ric-Rac

  

Supplies Needed:

-  10 1/2 x 20 1/2 inch strips of outer fabric, lining fabric, light wadding, and iron-on interfacing.

-  Circles measuring 7 1/4 inches across in outer fabric, lining fabric, light wadding, and iron-on interfacing.

-  8 1/2 x 4 inch strips of each outer fabric, lining fabric, and light wadding (x2 - one set for each ear)

-  4 x 22 inch strip of outer fabric (for handle)

-  2 buttons for eyes

-  Thread

-  Embroidery floss for nose and whiskers

-  Large pom pom for tail

My changes to the original Ric-Rac measurements.

Directions:

Step 1

Make your templates for the ears and circle (for bottom of bucket).

For the bunny ear, I took a 4" x 8 1/2" paper, folding it in half, and cut a rounded edge to get my ear.  You don't want to cut away too much!

For the circle, it would have been nice to have a compass, but I did not.  So I was on a hunt for a plate that was close to the 7 1/4" I needed.

  

I traced the plate... cut out the circle, and measured out the 7 1/4" along the fold... sketched the circle, and cut it out.  Yeah, I know... seems more complicated than it needed to be.  That's just how my brain works.

Step 2

Cut out your pieces, as outlined in the supplies.  You should have everything you see in the image below. 

 I am using the blue as the lining, the white with dots as the outer fabric, the creamy color is my wadding (some scrap warm and natural quilt batting), and the white is my interfacing.

Step 3

Sew your ears!

Layer each ear with the wadding down first, outer fabric - face up, then lining fabric - face down.  Pin around the ears, and sew with about 3/8" seam, leaving the bottom open.

I just lined the edge of the fabric up with the edge of my foot.

Trim off some of the extra fabric around the end of each ear.

Turn you ears right-side out.

Make sure your seams are all turned out nicely, and press each ear flat.

Turn the sides of the open end (bottom of ear) in towards the center.  Make sure you are folding into the center of the lining fabric (inside of your ear).

Stitch in place, using about 3/8" seam (along the edge of your foot).

Set your ears aside.

Step 4

Make your handle!

Fold your strip in half, right-sides together.

Sew a 3/8" or a 1/2" seam down the length of your handle, leaving each end open.

I like to use a safety pin on the end to help me turn the fabric right-side out.  Pin the end of your handle, and tuck the safety pin inside and work it through.

Viola!

I turned my seam to one side, and pressed the handle flat.

Set your handle aside.

Step 5

Sew your bucket!

Iron your interfacing to your wadding for each each bucket pieces, as shown below.

Place your large wadding strip, interfacing-side up, down in front of you.  Lay your outer fabric, right-side up on top, lining them up together.

Next you are going to pin your handle and ears into place.  I have noted the measurements to the center point of each in the image below.

Measuring from the left side, the middle of one handle side is pinned at 5 3/8", the first ear at 8 3/8", next ear at 12 1/4", and other side of the handle at 15 1/8"

Pin the handle and ears in place, with the lining side of the ears down.  Make sure your handle is pinned without any twists.  I chose to pin my handle with the seam running towards the back (away from the ears).

Add your lining fabric on top, face-down, and pin along the top.

Sew along the top of your bucket, using a 1/2" seam.

When you've finished the seam, lift the lining fabric and it will look like this...

Now fold your bucket together as shown below, matching up your seam where the lining fabric meets the outer fabric.

Pin along the edge as shown below.  I made sure to pin/sew my extra flap of fabric behind the seam down towards the outer fabric/wadding, to get a nicer finished result.  I also added a pin right at the seam to make sure that it was matched up when I went to sew.

Sew along the edge, using a 1/2" seam.

And this is what you'll have...

Step 6

Every bucket needs a bottom!

Lay the circle of wadding down, interfacing-side up.  Lay the outer fabric circle on top, right-side up.

Fold the circle and mark each of the 4 quarters with a pin.

Now take the bucket from Step 5, and do the same with the wadding/outer fabric side of the bucket, marking the 4 quarters.  With right-sides together, match the 4 quarter points on each, and pin them together.

I found it helpful to add another 4 pins in between each of these points.

Now sew the bottom circle to the bucket, using a 1/2" seam.  I sewed on the under-side of the bucket.  I'm not sure if it would have been easier to sew from the side of the bucket instead.  hmmm..... something I may try next time.

And there you have it!

Now do the same with the lining fabric circle, matching right-sides together with the lining of the bucket.

I again added some extra pins you don't see in the photo above.

Then sew with a 1/2" seam.  ONLY THIS TIME, leave a hole large enough to pull your bucket right-side out!

See my hole?  This is where I stopped sewing.

Pull your bucket right-side out!

Tuck the lining down into your bucket, and pin along the top making sure you have a nice fold at the seam.

Sew along the top edge (making sure to keep the ears and handle out of the way) with about a 3/8" seam.

Stitch up the hole in your lining.  You could hand sew this to make it invisible.  However... that is too much work for me.  I find that pinning and a quick stitch works... and no one yet has told me how awful it looks.

I got pretty close to the edge.

And I'm guessing no one has even noticed.  Can you really tell???

Tuck your lining back in your bucket.  You're almost done!

Step 7

The finishing touches!

I found some buttons I loved for the eyes, and sewed them on.

Next I drew on a triangle for the nose with a pencil.

Then I grabbed my pink embroidery floss (three strands) and a needle and made stitches along my lines from top to bottom, keeping them close together.  I started it by knotting the end of my floss and pulling the knot underneath the fabric by gently tugging it through.  I was also careful not to stitch through to the lining of my bucket.

Isn't that sweet?!

I then tied a knot near the end of the floss, and pulled it through underneath, gently tugging until the knot was pulled into the back-side of the fabric.  Snip off the extra floss and it's done.

Next, I used a green embroidery floss (3 strands) for the whiskers.  I pulled the needle through, and knotted each end at the fabric about 3 times to keep it from slipping out of place.

Repeat until you are happy with your number of whiskers.

And don't forget to stitch (or hot glue) on your fluffy tail!!!

That's it!  Your bunny bucket is done!

  

And... to make it even more special... I added a special label inside each of my children's buckets, using a fabric pen and a piece of muslin.

Feeling inspired!  I'd love to see the buckets you make for this Easter!