What’s black, white, and red all-over and flies across the Atlantic?

(And is also in possession of an initial and five buttons.)

, of course.

Well, my Backtack III package finally arrived safe and sound in London. Now I can stop teasing you with images of buttons and show you the whole bunny. Mary the bunny-recipient professed a love for traditional Japanese motifs so I came up with this.



Built around a theme of sakura blossoms, here is the very originally named Sakura Bunny.

Front



Back



Here is the bottom half of the right side hidden in the above picture, with my favorite black button.


And a close-up of my free-hand "embroidery," if running stitch even counts as embroidery.



The base pattern is that of the wee bunny from Hillary of Wee Wonderfuls. While I very much enjoyed embellishing the stuffie surface with the appliqués and embroidery, I had a terrible time putting all the pieces all together. Because of the way I did the patchwork of different fabrics on the lower half of the bunny, I had quite a bit of trouble getting that portion to sew up into the proper shape. Hence, poor Sakura is a bit lopsided.
In contrast to overestimating my sewing skills, I really underestimated how long the stuffie would take to assemble. So it was that I completely ran short on time for making other goodies to include in the package. In the end, I only managed to finish a flower pincushion and a felt flower button bowl to go along with Sakura and some edibles.


I was quite happy to hear today from Mary that all contents of the package were enjoyed.
All in all, this was quite a fun exchange. It's certainly taught me a thing or two about sewing three-dimensional shapes!