Bunny Bentos

I don’t know whether you remember my post about making something from a Japanese craft book but, if you don’t, and you care , here  it is

Anyway, I have a Japanese speaking reader who not only offered to help me with the translation but also has now told me that these little rabbits can be used as bento which is an idea from Japan where lunch is packed into a divided box and is both nutritionally balanced and visually appealing.  I know these rabbits are not boxes but, apparently that is what they are being marketed as in the book and, because my Japanese is limited to what I hear coming out of the computer when Madamoiselle Tialys the younger is watching her interminable Manga, I hadn’t realised and thought they were just for storage.  Hoorah for helpful blog readers (thanks Jenn!).

I know that the Japanese are keen on ingeniously wrapping things in beautiful fabric so those long ears tied into a knotted handle for little children (or big ones with small lunches) to carry to school is a great idea.

Of course, bunnies being bunnies, they are multiplying and I am going to need to replenish my linen and Liberty cotton stocks soon.  I got some coloured linen last time I was in the U.K. and, as I am going to visit my family next month, I will stock up on some like this lavender colour which I matched up with some Liberty cotton in the Strawberry Thief design to make this one.

Now that I know they can be lunch bags for tinies, I might well replace the buttons with stitches – just in case.

Also, I can’t wait for the little Easter eggs to come in to the shops here in France (where they don’t jump the gun as much as they do in the U.K.) so that I can pose the buns with some eggs inside.

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Must Learn Japanese

Seduced by the gorgeous designs and beautiful photographs, I allowed myself to be persuaded that using Japanese craft books would be a piece of cake. Hah!

Not only is almost everything apart from, bizarrely, the titles,  in Japanese  but you start from the back and work to the front and that goes for the instructions too.   Of course I was prepared for the Japanese and even, thanks to my younger daughter’s Manga obsession, with the fact that you read back to front but I wasn’t prepared for the teeny tiny print at which you must stare in the vain hope of gleaning some information that might help you make the beautiful item you crave.

Nothing daunted, I managed (by using a magnifying glass) to pick out some measurements from in amongst the symbols and, with the aid of the excellent diagrams, to actually make something – hoorah!  I was chuffed to bits and have been showing off  because Mr. Tialys and the two Miss Ts couldn’t believe I’d actually bought a craft book in Japanese and hoped to make sense of it.  So, yah boo  sucks to them and here is my creation which I decided to make using French linen and Liberty of London – my two favourite fabrics.

 

Still, I like a bit of a challenge now and then – I’m hoping it keeps the brain active although have no evidence so far –  so this may be a new obsession.