I’ve never been quite satisfied with the regular fabric and wire bunny ears (for whatever reason I’ve never been able to make them well) so I wanted to come up with a different way to make my bunny ears for Bulma.  Here’s how I did it!

Materials/Tools:

• Fabric
• Foam Board
• Hot Glue
• Headband
• X-Acto Knife
• Sewing Machine/ Needle and Thread
• Scissors
• Paper
• Pencil/Pen/Marker
• Worbla
• Super Glue

Step 1: Make pattern

First of all, draw out a pattern for the shape you want your ears to take.  I’m modeling my ears after the ones Bulma wears in Dragon Ball, so mine are fairly large.  Just draw one ear out on a piece of paper and cut it out.

Step 2: Cut foam board

You’ll need to cut out the shape in foam board for the inside of your ears.  The foam board will make your ears much more stable and rigid.  Trace your pattern onto the foam for both ears and cut them out with an X-Acto knife.  Make sure one is mirrored so you have both sides.

Step 3: Cut fabric

Next, use the pattern to cut out fabric for your ears.  You’ll need 4 pieces, so you can cover both sides of each ear. Stretch fabrics work best.  I’m using a 4 way stretch vinyl.  I simply traced the pattern onto the back side of the fabric and cut them out with scissors, leaving lots of extra fabric on all sides.

Step 4: Sew fabric

Once you have them cut out, pin the pieces right sides together, and sew along the pattern lines.  Be sure to leave the bottom of the ears not sewn so you have an opening to fit the foam board through.  When you’re done, cut the excess fabric off, leaving only about 1/4 of an inch.

Step 5: Insert foam board

In order to fit the foam board inside the fabric ears, I needed to cut a slit down the middle and fold the foam board in half.  If you must do this to make your ear design work, DO NOT cut all the way through.  If you only cut halfway, you’ll be able to fold the foam board over without breaking it in half.  The paper covering on the foam board will stay in tact, keeping the foam board in one piece.

Now stuff the foam board inside each fabric ear pocket.  Once the foam board was inside, I was able to flatten it back out to the full ear shape.  I also found that once the foam board was inside, having the slit cut down the center didn’t compromise the structure of the ears at all.

Step 6: Attach ears to headband

Close up the bottom of the ears with a quick stitch.

Then, add a line of hot glue along the bottom where the extra fabric is and stick it to the headband. Hold it there while it dries.

Step 7: Reinforce connection

To reinforce the connection between the ears and the headband, I added a strip of Worbla for stability.  I used Black Worbla because it already matched my ears.  Just cut a piece of Worbla to size, heat it up (away from your ears) and then stick it over the connection point and wrap it around the headband onto the back of the ear.  Press tight and allow to cool.  If you need to, you can also use super glue to glue the Worbla to the fabric of the ears.  Since I was using vinyl, it didn’t stick well for me on its own, so I had to use glue to help out.

Repeat for the second ear and you’re done!  

Don’t be limited to just bun buns.  You can use this method for all kinds of ears!