kids craft

How-to make a pop-up rabbit doll for the Chinese New Year

^{Abra kadabra}

For the year of the rabbit we have been making rabbit pop up dolls. Mika is thrilled with the reappearing disappearing rabbit in the hat. And the girls are exited to pop it and hear her giggle. 


It is a sewing project, but a very easy one. You may choose to replace the sewing with the glue gun but I hope you won’t. 


Lets hop hop to work…..


You will need:

• Toilette paper tube
• Fabric scraps
• Thread and needle
• A long dowel (about 15 inches long)
• 1” wooden bead for the head (you may use a foam ball or some crunched up fabric instead).
• Glue gun
• Construction paper or colorful felt
• Masking tape
• A rabbit template printout

For the hat:

• Cardboard (an empty cereal box is perfect)
• Black construction paper or black felt (I didn’t have either, so I used sharpies)

How to:  

1. Cut out 2 pieces of the rabbit (front and back) and 2 hands 
2. Embroider the eyes and nose
3. Stitch the 2 sides together, right side facing out. Go around the head ignoring the ears. Make sure you leave the bottom part open. 
4. Stitch arms and tail
   
5. Insert the dowel into the bead, if the hole is too small, shave the tip of the dowel with a utility knife to make it fit. If you are using foam, just puncture the foam to insert the dowel. Apply some hot glue so the dowel stays in place.
6. Insert the dowel with a bead into the rabbit, if your head is too large for the bead, tie a bow tie around the neck or stitch the neck a little.
7. Tape the rabbit over the paper roll tube

Now you got your basic pop up doll.  This is when you can choose what you want your rabbit to pop out from. If you choose to have a hat:

1. trace a CD on your card board, trace the toilette paper tube onto the center of the circle and cut out the center about ¼” smaller than the toilette paper tube line. Make small cuts around the inner circle, creating little tabs. Fold the tabs to one direction.
2. Put some tape around the tabs to hold in place.
3. Cover/ paint with black paper or paint.
4. Slip circle on the tube with the tabs facing down. 
5. Cover the toilette paper tube with a black material of your choice. 
   ^TADA....

Make sure you bookmark this for Easter….