Toy Society Drop: Constance Bunny

In 2010, I won a Tollipop giveaway: an original painting of a bunny. At that time, I also sketched a little picture of a toy I wanted to make based on the painting.

In 2011, I cut out the pieces for the toy, hoping to make a softie for the Mirabel foundation. I missed that deadline, but in 2012 I finally got around to sewing the toy in time for an Easter drop for the Toy Society (drop #1817).


Constance was made from a smattering of linen and cotton fabrics I had picked up from freecycle. If (when!) I make another Constance bunny, I will try and make the face rounder (perhaps attach it separately instead of having the head/body as one pattern piece), the dress wider at the bottom, and I will probably not stuff the ears. I still think it ended up being pretty cute, wonky arms and all.


I bundled Constance up in a plastic sleeve to protect her during her overnight jaunt in the park. Luckily I had a stash of labels and info sheets from the last time I did a drop.


I snuck out last night and hung it from some play equipment. I hope someone visited the park and Constance found a good home on Easter Sunday!

Toy Society Drop: No llores, Lorretta #2 (with added lightning!)

Since I made the ¡no llores, Lorretta! pattern available, I thought I'd better test it. The first time I made the toy I didn't really use a pattern.


I had different colours of felt to work with, so it came out a little differently. Still pretty cute, I reckon.

After making the toy, I made a few adjustments to the pattern for next time (the right hand was a little wonky, redid the cloud bumps between the arms...). Looking at the pictures now, I probably should have also trimmed the dark felt a bit more so it didn't show up on the happy side!

I decided to leave her for someone to find, as a Toy Society Drop (#1332).

I left Lorretta attached to a tree near one of Lake Burley Griffin's walking tracks (Canberra, Australia) around midday.

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Related post: Free toy pattern: Lorretta

Free toy pattern: Lorretta

UPDATE: Pattern updated 09/10/10

UPDATE: Alternate "retro" version of pattern added 09/10/10
Please scroll down for details.

You may recall I did a Toy Society Drop (#1179) earlier this year called No llores, Lorretta!

This was the toy in question:


I've finally gotten around to making a pattern for it, which I am releasing under an attribution, share-alike creative commons license, which means you are allowed to modify and redistribute the pattern, as long as you do so under the same license and give credit.

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UPDATE: After realising that toys made from the original pattern posted here look quite different to the ones in the photos above, I made a second pattern which matched the first toy better. I'm calling it the "retro" version. I also added a lightning bolt to the original pattern.
The files below have been updated, and the old version is still available too.

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Original pattern v2.0:

• pattern PDF (A4)
• pattern PDF (US letter)

Retro pattern:

• retro pattern PDF (A4)
• retro pattern PDF (US letter)

If you want to edit the pattern directly in Inkscape or an equivalent program, here are the original design files:

Original pattern v2.0:

• pattern SVG (A4)
• pattern SVG (US letter)

Retro pattern:

• retro pattern SVG (A4)
• retro pattern SVG (US letter)

Lorretta comes in shy of 15cm (~6") but the pattern can be easily scaled to any size. The construction is very basic, hence the lack of tutorial. I used running stitch in matching colours to sew the face to the cloud and running stitch in black (for contrast) to sew the two main pieces together. I started with the arms and used a chopstick to stuff in small amounts of polyfill as I went.

Mary Corbet has a fantastic video library of stitches including running stitch and blanket stitch.

I hope you enjoy the pattern, it's fun to do a little hand sewing from time to time!

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Related posts

• Toy Society Drop: No llores, Lorretta!
• Toy Society Drop: No llores, Lorretta #2 (with added lightning!)

Toy Society Drop: No llores, Lorretta!

I wasn't in the best frame of mind when I got home from work. So I decided to make a toy for a Toy Society Drop (#1179).

Flicking through my sketch book, I found this illustration, inspired by Llorie the bipolar cloud in the plush-o-rama book.

I didn't trace the sketch or anything, I just winged it... hence the clover-shaped hands! The cheeks & tear were an afterthought. It was therapeutic hand-stitching and stuffing the toy. And trying to do a drop-off without getting spotted is always exciting!

I left Lorretta attached to a tree outside the old bus depot markets (Canberra, Australia) around 5pm. When I passed by the tree again around 9pm she was still hanging there..!

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Related post: Free toy pattern: Lorretta

Toy Society Drop: Zing the polite cat

Meet Zing, the polite cat. He comes from One Red Robin's pattern of the same name in the book Meet me at Mike's.

He is made from recycled materials including an old pair of purple jeans and a remnant of fabric my sister brought back from Nepal. I made him half-size, and the pattern was easy to follow.

I made him especially for a Toy Society drop (#945) - check out the site for more plushies!

I bundled him up and left him with a letter in an envelope explaining what the Toy Society is about, and a tag that said "Take me home - I'm yours".


I left him near a foot bridge in Telopea Park (Canberra, Australia) a few days ago (20 January 2010).

Somebody picked him up that same afternoon and sent a lovely email to the Toy Society straight away. It really made my day to see that email, and the accompanying photo.

I'm so glad I managed to get another toy out there, as I've been so distracted by Morsbags recently!

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Related post: Toy Society Drop: Greggles

Toy Society Drop: Greggles

Meet Greggles. He's adapted from a pattern of the same name in Plush-O-Rama.

He is made from some old pyjamas of mine (the stripey material) and some short red toy fur from the bargain bin at Lincraft. The long fur for the eyes came from Love and a Sandwich's etsy shop where you can buy a small bag of assorted fur offcuts. The eye-rings and mouth are made from hand-stitched felt.

I made him especially for a Toy Society drop (#295) - check out the site for more plushies!

I bundled him up and left him with a letter in an envelope explaining what the Toy Society is about, and a colourful tag that said "Take me home - I'm yours".


I left him near Manuka (Canberra, Australia) this morning (11 May 2009) and when I went past this afternoon, he was gone. I salvaged the ribbon and tag which had been left dangling.

Hope he found a good home :)

I'd like to do some more of these drops, but not before I finally get around to making up some morsbags...

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Related post: Toy Society Drop: Zing the polite cat