Miss Maggie Rabbit

Oh JOY! Miss Maggie Rabbit, you are my most recent delightful distraction!

This beautiful felt/fabric kit comes from Posie: Rosy Little Things. If you haven't seen her work you MUST visit her shop. Then, if you like what you see there, you MUST subscribe to her blog, Posie Gets Cozy. Such lovely things! Oh that baby girl, Amelia! 

The garden, the home, the colors, the PICTURES! You will love it!

But I digress...back to Maggie.

The kit comes with full pattern instructions, your choice of fabric/yarn, some amazing wool felt, and a generous packet of embroidery thread. The fabric is Liberty Tana Lawn cotton all the way from London. I had to do some research to learn about "lawn cotton" and it's pretty fancy stuff. Here's a link to Wikipedia if you'd like to be on the up and up. 

That Liberty Tana is pretty fancy stuff. The softest, smoothest fabric I've ever felt. It's a joy to work with. The yarn is a lovely wool yarn in Posie's traditional chalky, muted color. It's an interesting feel. A little rough, but buttery. I enjoyed knitting with it. The wool felt is SUPER nice. I've always worked with the acrylic felts. They are inexpensive and easy to find where I live. But, this wool stuff is where I'll go from now on! It cuts like a knife through butter, doesn't fray or pill while you're working with it, and stays in place when you sew it. LOVE! The embroidery floss is DMC floss which I already work with and love, so I stayed happy.

The pattern is so well written. Posie is quite meticulous in her writing and pictures. They reach a broad audience of beginners to well-versed felt crafters. I have done enough projects using felt and blanket stitching so I would count myself as a well-versed crafter, but I still benefited from her thoroughness. If you are shying away from purchasing this kit because you have never done this type of thing before, you are in good hands. You WILL be able to do this one!

In this version, Maggie comes with a pattern to make the doll, her little dress, two darling boots, and a small capelet. The capelet is quite easy knitting. It is knitted entirely in garter stitch (knitting every row) and short rows (turning mid-row). As a more experienced knitter, it was very easy for me, but quite accessible for the beginning knitter. You may just need a few YouTube videos to learn the basics and you're set. Posie does offer some other patterns for more knitted clothes as well. The tiny knitted dress and hoodie was purchased for me this time. I have completed the dress and am half-way through the hoodie. Both are beginning-intermediate patterns. They will take a few more YouTube videos, but you can do it! I'll have pictures of them very soon.

Below is a picture of the completed pieces before stuffing:  

I prefer to keep my stitches close and tight. You can see them in the photo. That way the stuffing will not pop out of the seams when it's done. I agree with Posie about her stuffing. Nice and firm.

Here's Maggie after stuffing, embroidery, and ears on:

I haven't made her dresses yet so she wears her capelet to maintain decorum. =)

Here's a picture of the boots:

These are my FAVORITE part, next to the knitting! So amazingly cute! I did use size 10 crochet thread for the laces. The DMC floss just separates terribly. For little fingers, this would be incredibly frustrating to tie. I also left the laces long for easy tying. Since her feet are just long tubes, her toes only drop down inside the boot's upper part. She doesn't have any toes in the "toe area", so the boots can be a little flat up there. But, the wool felt supports itself and keeps it looking nice. 

Here's some close-ups of the capelet:

You can see the "short rows" near the top of the capelet.

Next comes the dress. In the picture below, the Liberty Tana lawn cotton is the third from the left. But, every girl needs more than one dress. So, I went to my LFS (local fabric store) and purchased some quilt quarters to use for more dresses. The quilt quarters are the perfect size! I haven't started on these yet, but wanted to show the colors "before" so I could do an "after". There are 6 dresses in all. 

Then I went to my LYS (local yarn store) and got some yummy Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light yarn (sport weight). It's a delightfully frothy mixture of alpaca and peruvian wool. It's even more delightful to knit with.

Here's how the colors break down:

One: Pink yarn, capelet/ purple yarn, dress/ blue yarn, hoodie

Two: Pink yarn, capelet/ purple yarn, dress/ green yarn (from kit), caplet

Three: Pink yarn, capelet/ purple yarn, dress/ blue yarn, hoodie, green yarn (from kit), capelet

Four: Blue yarn, hoodie/ green yarn (from kit), capelet

Five: Pink yarn, capelet

Six: Green yarn (from kit), capelet

Each dress has its coordinating yarn. Each yarn cake will be made into either a hoodie, capelet, or knitted dress. If I have the time (before the birthday deadline) I will make one in every color! I love it THAT much!

Here's a couple of pictures of the knitted dress in purple.

 It's perfect for layering. So Maggie can wear her fancy Liberty cotton lawn dress 

with her darling knitted dress over it. 

See:

Courtesy of Posie: Rosy Little Things

More pictures coming soon. I've got knitting to finish and dresses to sew.
 This is gonna be one finely dressed rabbit!

~ Amimommy