18 March 2021
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Enjoy making this gorgeous bunny wall hanging by Val Hughes, featuring a family of rabbits staring up at the night sky – perfect for Easter and beyond!
This DIY Easter bunny decoration is an easy and fun activity to share with the kids, involving sewing, painting and more – a great way to explore a range of skills! The finished piece would make an ideal gift for bunny lovers in your life, too!
Easy Easter bunny wall hanging tutorial
By Val Hughes
You will need
Materials
- Two pieces of hessian – 25x35cm & 25x20cm
- Fabric paint – deep blue & white (check it is safe to be used by children)
- A selection of lace and ribbon
- Machine threads – white, sand & navy
- White wool
- Clear glass seed beads
Equipment
- Sewing machine
- Needles – tapestry & beading
- Old newspapers or other covering to protect your surface
- Aprons for you and your helper!
- Large paint brushes
- Cardboard
- Round ended scissors
- Craft knife (not to be used by a child)
- Iron & ironing board
Method
1. Take your hessian fabric pieces and ask your helper to unravel a few of the threads on each edge to give a nice frayed look. This is quite good fun for little hands – be careful or they’ll want to unravel the lot!
2. Take your smaller piece of hessian. Ensure your surfaces are covered and aprons are worn. Using your dark blue fabric paint and the large brushes, paint this to be your ‘sky’. This is also good fun. Don’t worry if they daub it on – try to spread it out together. A bit of difference in colour can look a bit like clouds in the moonlight – if you use your imagination! Allow to dry.
Top tip! Use a hairdryer to speed up the drying process.
3. While waiting for it the hessian to dry, trace the bunny templates onto some cardboard. The next bit needs to be done by an adult – carefully cut out the bunny shapes using a craft knife.
4. Apply your template to the blue hessian surface and paint on your white paint. Once dry, remove the template and enjoy the big reveal.
Top tip! Use small strips of masking tape to hold the template still while your helper works.
5. Adult only – fix both paints by ironing (refer to the manufacturer’s instructions).
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6. Thread up your sewing machine with the sand thread. Sew a straight or zigzag stitch along the edge of your large piece of hessian so no more comes unravelled. Thread up with navy and do the same on the blue piece. This can be done by a child with adult supervision. They particularly enjoy pressing the foot pedal, but make sure fingers are kept well away from the needle!
7. Arrange your lace and ribbons as desired. Pin and then sew in place, using the sand thread, and machine or hand stitching as you prefer.
8. Decorate with your wool. The hessian makes it fairly easy for older children to sew night stars and grasses neatly.
Top tip! Put dots of chalk on the hessian showing them where to bring the thread up if they want a guide.
9. You might need to add in the tails – we used turkey stitch to make them lovely and fluffy, but you could also sew on tiny pompoms or attach flower-shaped buttons.
10. Thread up your beading needle and attach the seed beads using white thread to create small sparkles among your stars.
Now it’s time to decide where to hang your family of stargazing bunnies!
Looking for more Easter activities to make with the kids? Download your free Easter craft paper collection to use in a multitude of papercrafting projects or get busy in the kitchen with these fun Easter cake pops!
