Sarah Peel - Making Luna Lapin: Sew and Dress Luna, a Quiet & Kind Rabbit with Impeccable Taste

www.sewandso.co.uk

Luna Lapin was a quiet and kind rabbit. All rabbits are quiet, so it was not this that made her exceptional. What made Luna exceptional was the way she always said hello to passers-by and, of course, her impeccable taste. Up until very recently she had lived in a warren in a sleepy little field somewhere far north. Her mamma often cooked soups in big black-bottomed pots, and her siblings hopped around laughing. Luna, however, was different. She liked to read and draw, she liked to pick flowers from the meadow, but more than anything she loved to sew, and she stashed fabric like squirrels collect nuts. Luna was never short of outfits to wear and garments flew from her sewing machine as fast as her nimble paws could make them.

This book shows you how to make a collection of Lunas lovely clothes, plus a dapper outfit for her brother Alfie.

I have always loved clothes the shapes, the colours, the textures, and how the right outfit can change the day. I can get lost thinking about how clothing has evolved and the wide-ranging influences of current trends. I recognize the memories clothes can help to create.

As a child I was encouraged to sew my own clothes. As a teenager I studied the shapes of garment pieces by unpicking vintage and second-hand finds from jumble sales, and then tracing the patterns and re-sewing the garments. As an adult I was lucky to develop my career in the fashion industry, working as a pattern cutter, then as a buyer/designer. When I set up CoolCrafting, I felt the need to reintroduce clothing development and design into my business, and an achievable way of doing this was making patterns in miniature.

However, I needed a model, a muse for this project and the idea of a very well dressed rabbittyhare was born. I knew the projects needed to be realistic and above all the rabbit needed to be loveable. With Liberty lined ears and long dangly limbs, Luna had to be achievable and easy to dress. She didnt take long to make, ending up 16in (40.6cm) tall, but it was a long time before the first sample was turned into a kit. The name came from the strange mix of features in Luna the oversized ears reflected a hare, so I chose Luna (hares being associated with the moon). The rest of Luna was definitely rabbit and as she had a little French flair about her, it seemed right to be Lapin (French for rabbit).

The clothes were easy the kind of capsule wardrobe perfect people have: a brightly coloured well-tailored wool coat, a classic, shaped dress in a ditsy floral. I enjoyed mixing textures of delicate lace with heritage tweed, styling a feminine dress with the edge and attitude of biker boots. As I introduced Luna and her wardrobe to the sewing community in the form of kits, I found everyone wanted Luna to have her own personality. Stories were formed and told, and the need for a pair of knickers became apparent as everyone lifted up her dress. As I find the right fabric, a new outfit is designed and drawn up. Alfie, Lunas brother, came along to introduce some menswear into this stylish miniature world.

Luna has been made and loved by many, many people around the world, especially in the UK. She isnt regarded as a toy; she is more of an heirloom piece, or an indulgence for all of us who are still children at heart.

Luna Lapin was a quiet and kind rabbit. All rabbits are quiet so it was not this that made her exceptional. What made Luna exceptional was the way she always said hello to passers-by and, of course, her impeccable taste. Up until very recently she had lived in a warren in a sleepy little field somewhere far north. Her mamma often cooked soups in big black-bottomed pots, and her siblings hopped around laughing. Luna, however, was different. She liked to read and draw, she liked to pick flowers from the meadow, she loved to sew and stashed fabric like squirrels collect nuts.

Luna sighed a sigh bigger than herself as she looked around her new, tiny but beautiful apartment, noting that all her lovely little things cups and saucers, tiny paintings of seascapes and meadows she had yet to visit sat in boxes waiting to be unpacked. A great armchair stood alone in the living room, surrounded by boxes of books and a suitcase. It was a shabby old thing, the arms worn away by elbows, and something like a coffee stain on the seat.

What to do, what to do, Luna muttered to herself before noticing the stack of fabric she had abandoned in the corner. A few hours and a battle to find matching thread later, Luna slumped down in her freshly covered armchair, its brand new cushion plumped to perfection. She let out a different kind of sigh and fell asleep. Sometimes home just happens, and sometimes we create it.

Luna woke up later than she had hoped, straightened her ears, fluffed up her tail and threw on her perfect for every occasion dress, her no idea what else to wear dress. Everyone should own a dress that makes them feel more like themselves. Lunas was prettily printed and ready for anything, including an interview for her first ever job. This particular dress was close to being Lunas favourite thing, but not quite. By far Lunas favourite thing was her patchwork scarf. Her grandma had given it to her for her birthday two years ago and Luna was sure that it brought her luck. Today Luna needed luck. It was her very first day in the big city. Now rabbits dont like cities at the best of time, all that noise isnt nice for such big ears, and rush hour was definitely no exception, but Luna was an illustrator, and illustrators had to work in cities for a while. She took a deep breath wrapping the scarf around her neck.

Youve got this, she whispered to herself, and with a click she walked out of the door.

Luna cycled everywhere. It was good for the environment and she liked the way the wind felt flowing past her ears. On most days it was lovely, but not when it rained and today was one of those days. The wind was blowing and Luna had to pedal twice as hard against it. But even in the rain Luna couldnt help but stop and gaze into the window of a department store. There was her perfect coat, woollen, with soft shoulders, deep pockets, and tiny buttons on the sleeve the kind of coat that told people you had places to be. It came in the colour of faded hydrangeas, the pink of Turkish delight and the prettiest red Luna had ever seen. She gazed, sighed and turned her head. And with that the wind let out one fearsome gust, and with it went her scarf.

Oooh, not today, said one very soggy rabbit. Please, please not today. But the wind doesnt listen to anyone, and Luna was too busy admiring the coat to notice her beautiful scarf had gone, and was sitting lonely in a large brown puddle.

The huge, towering building that held the La Clairire offices was just ahead. Luna could taste a mixture of cold and excitement. She got off her bike and stared up at the tower of glass and metal. In her mind it was filled to the brim with glossy magazine pages. She reached up to touch her scarf for luck, but it wasnt there. Her heart sank and a tear joined the rain rolling down her face. A clock chimed 10am. Luna only had twenty minutes to find her scarf, and she had to find her scarf.

She looked around frantically and saw a flash of patchwork fifty feet away in a puddle. At that very moment the wind let out a howl and the scarf danced into the air. Luna ran after it. The wind took the scarf down the busy street, past passers-by too lost in the humdrum of Monday morning to notice the beautiful scarf or the rabbit chasing it. The wind seemed to laugh at Luna, throwing her scarf this way and that, until eventually it cast it aside onto the back of a fox rushing past. Luna summoned up all her courage and shouted to the fox, but he could not hear her and turned down to the underground. Luna would have missed him all together if it were not for the flash of his white-tipped tail.