Anzac Bunny

I’m so sleepy today! I had another work shift yesterday evening, and I always seem to sleep badly afterwards. I’m very much an introvert, so I really make a huge effort to be a jolly, chatty, outgoing person for the girl I support. Then I struggle to switch my brain off again when I get home in the evening, so I struggle to sleep until very late. This was compounded this morning as my husband had to get up at 5am for work!!

I’m excited though to share with you my third amigurumi instalment, this one being the first time I have tried to follow a pattern. It looked like a mushroom when I showed it to you yesterday, but it’s actually a bunny! I made him for my friend’s baby (the same friend + baby with whom I do circuits on The Strand) as this will be his first Easter. Well, that and I wanted an excuse to make something… I have no idea what Bunny’s new family will call him, but until I hand him over later, he’s called Anzac Bunny.

Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign, the first campaign that led to major casualties for Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. It is commemorated on April 25^th, the anniversary of the ANZAC's (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) landings at Gallipoli, Turkey, and this year is the 100^th Anniversary of these landings. 

Anzac Day  is important to Australians and New Zealanders, not only in their military history but in their cultural history too, as it seems to mark a coming of age as nations as they made their own contributions and sacrifices to the 'War to End All Wars'.

Baby’s Daddy used to serve in the New Zealand Army, and is now in the Australian Army, so making an Anzac Bunny for the baby seemed quite appropriate.

I used a pattern that I found via Pinterest (isn’t Pinterest awesome??) on the website www.amigurumitogo.com  It’s called the Dress Me Bunny, and the pattern was published in March 2015 – so for once I’m not years behind the curve with my pattern choosing! The patterns also have links to video tutorials if you need them, and there are links to little outfits for the bunnies – cute dresses and a pair of little dungarees.

As I know the (very) basics of making amigurumi, I found the pattern pretty easy to follow, so I would recommend this pattern even for someone new to amigurumi. The one thing that is a real must is to use stitch markers: as you continue in a spiral and don’t join rounds when doing amigurumi properly, you have no ‘landmarks’ to keep count from. This causes real problems if you lose count, and if you realise you’ve gone wrong and you need to rip back then it’s a disaster! The stitch marker provides a landmark so you can avoid these problems; you have somewhere to count from to check all is correct, and a landmark to rip back to you if you do go wrong. Don’t worry if you don’t have actual stitch markers as you can improvise. You can simply use a spare piece of yarn and pull it through the stitch you are marking, or I used a safety pin and that worked pretty well.

Excuse PJs!

I finished Anzac Bunny last night after work. In fact, I finished the amigurumi pattern before work, and then made my own additions after work.

When I showed you the first piece of this project last time, it looked kind of like a mushroom:

Then there were arms and legs and ears to make as well:

Eyes and a nose to embroider (I don’t have safety eyes, so as this is for a baby I went for embroidered eyes. One went really well, but the second eye came out a bit wonky. I hope the baby doesn’t mind!)

Put them all together, and you have a lovely floppy bunny! 

The construction of his legs means you can sit him up as well

He has a cute little tail – you can make a pompom tail which is even cuter, but again I was thinking of making the bunny baby-safe.

Some more pictures, just to show off!

So what makes this bunny an Anzac Bunny? Well, I made him some little trousers:

With a little hole for his little tail:

He has a shirt too, with a smart collar and a badge on his sleeve:

And he has a hat (you’ll just have to trust me that this weird object is a hat!)

So that’s his little Anzac uniform :)

And here he is, all dressed up!  I made up all of his uniform with no patterns, and I’m ridiculously pleased with how the pieces turned out (although the hat is a little wonky).

Here’s his badge on his sleeve – it should be the Australian flag, but there was no way I could manage that on this scale!

Here’s the back view, so you can see his little tail poking out. I love that bit!

I hope you enjoyed meeting Anzac Bunny as much as I enjoyed making him! I'm off now to share my link with Sharon and to thank her for writing this awesome pattern FOR FREE!!!

Edit to add: baby has now received his Anzac Bunny - he's too small to actually say thank you, but there were smiles aplenty, and he reached for bunny and gave it little cuddles, it was so so sweet! Baby's mum was impressed with the uniform too, and thinks baby's dad will be equally impressed when he sees the bunny dressed in his honour :)   I think Anzac will be a happy bunny in his new home!