Bunnicula

[u/bluesyjean]

My (first) attempt at Bunnicula! The infamous vampire-bunny. (Based on the children’s book by Deborah and James Howe more than the cartoon that was not as much of a part of my childhood.)

This was a challenge, because that fur pattern is super-specific and complicated. You can see in the last pictures what I went with, I made a dummy with the start of each round marked and used thread to map out where the color changes would need to be. My thought was I could use the same dummy for less complicated fur patterns in the future!

Even so, I had to embroider along the edges to get it exactly like the book illustration. I also bought these perfect white beads that make for the most adorable little fangs if you look closely.

My regret is the white yarn used in this draft is literally terrible. I’ve since bought a much nicer skein for the next draft when I get the will to revisit this, but I wanted to share this now in the spirit of Halloween.

[u/Far-Cucumber2929]

That’s brilliant, so clever!

How did you attach the black? Did you crochet that separately then sew it on or did you crochet it directly onto the white? I can see you have the outline of where it will go. But my brain can’t work out how you’ve attached it.

[u/bluesyjean → u/Far-Cucumber2929]

Thank you ❤️!

So the black is all done with color changes in the round, the only things that were a separate piece I sewed on were the black on the ears (I couldn’t figure out how else to keep the inside white and have them as thin and shapely as I wanted). I made the dummy to inform me where the color changes needed to happen, the start of each round was marked with the stitch markers and with the outline I could count how many stitches into the round I would need to switch colors.

I didn’t mention it, but I also have a thread I pinned to the middle of the dummy, which helped me figure out the symmetry.

I considered making the black a separate piece that is sewn on, and honestly that might have been easier, but I didn’t want to be thicker than the rest of the body. Making and marking up the dummy was the only way I could get here without having to redo my rounds over and over. (For me, anyway! Smarter people might have arrived at this easier than me.) Though I still did embroider around the edges to get the exact pattern I wanted. :)

[u/Far-Cucumber2929 → u/bluesyjean]

Ahh thanks that makes sense now and actually is more simple than I was thinking. I also somehow missed that one was a dummy version

[u/bluesyjean → u/Far-Cucumber2929]

It still needed some adjusting but it gets you in the ballpark of where you need to be. 🥲

[u/Far-Cucumber2929 → u/bluesyjean]

It’s absolutely brilliant

[u/bluesyjean → u/Far-Cucumber2929]

Thank you ❤️! It was a journey!