Market Day Bunny

After working with the art dolls for a bit I remembered that I made a rabbit head and paws about four years ago, intending to make a cloth-bodied doll from those parts.  But I never got around to it.  So I found them and constructed this little girl.

I felted the body around a pipe cleaner core.  That worked well enough everywhere except where the felting joins the polymer paws.  I glued the pipe cleaner ends into holes in the wrists and ankles, but no matter how much I compacted the felting around the joints, they just flopped around.  The only way I could think of to solve the problem was to completely encase the joints in lots of hot glue (which dried stiff).  So now those joints aren't floppy any more, but they're ugly.  Fortunately they're hidden under the clothes, but I don't like ugly details even if they are hidden away.  So no more pipe cleaners.  I'll use stiff wire from now on.

I made the hoodie from an old sock with a really cute tiny garden pattern.  The pantaloons are made from a vintage hankie with hand-crocheted lace trim.  And the skirt is made from an old shirt that I match-stick pleated then aged in a bath of strong tea. 

I made the purse from Ultrasuede and the button on it is made from polymer clay (a very handy tool for making tiny buttons in any color you want!).