Sometimes one comes across the oddest things... recently, I came across leftover felt pieces for making catnip mice cat toys. I can't make them for my cats; you might see why if you look closely at this pic...
Mousies are just about the easiest sewing project I know of. You cut three ovals out of felt and sew them together with embroidery floss, using a blanket stitch. I evidently had gotten fancy here and tried to cut a snout--trust me, it didn't work the way I wanted it to.
I twisted a length of embroidery floss into a tail and sewed it into the mousie as I put the first two ovals together, then immediately joined the third oval in, starting where the tail joined. The open side is at the top in the pic above, but it didn't stay the top of the mousie. That's the beauty of the oval shape--you can flip it over if it looks better the other way, and no one will ever know that you're not a genius. *grin*
Ready for stuffing.
All stuffed now, with catnip tucked into the middle of the mousie and polyester fiberfill all round. The mousie is stitched completely shut, the "nose" is given critical inspection--and by that point I was certainly feeling critical! lol--and here you can see the first ear, ready to be sewn on. The slit is to make it easy to pull into mousie-ear shape.
....one to go. You can see that one doesn't even have to cut the thread (floss); just go through the mousie to the other side.
After the second ear was on, only the whiskers and nose were left. Again, no need to cut the floss. Tis one continuous piece from seam to ear to ear to nose to whiskers.
They always come out a little different. Wonder what this one's listening to?
Yes, yes indeed... Self-Installing Canine Application, Module One, running on the DogMyFootsteps Platform.
Mousies are just about the easiest sewing project I know of. You cut three ovals out of felt and sew them together with embroidery floss, using a blanket stitch. I evidently had gotten fancy here and tried to cut a snout--trust me, it didn't work the way I wanted it to.
Ready for stuffing. All stuffed now, with catnip tucked into the middle of the mousie and polyester fiberfill all round. The mousie is stitched completely shut, the "nose" is given critical inspection--and by that point I was certainly feeling critical! lol--and here you can see the first ear, ready to be sewn on. The slit is to make it easy to pull into mousie-ear shape.One down...
....one to go. You can see that one doesn't even have to cut the thread (floss); just go through the mousie to the other side. After the second ear was on, only the whiskers and nose were left. Again, no need to cut the floss. Tis one continuous piece from seam to ear to ear to nose to whiskers.They always come out a little different. Wonder what this one's listening to?
THis looks like a terrific idea. My son just brought a stray cat in the house (well, sort of in the house until he goes to the vet next week). I'll have to try to make "Midnight" a couple of these - Tyler's been saying he needs his own toys.
ReplyDeleteKris
These are the cutest EVER! You did such a terrific job and I'll need about 3 of them for our cats...although I also have 3 kids (and mom, too) that would probably need a few to hold...*grin*
ReplyDeleteWell hi there!! {{{{{{{{{{{{Kris, Dawn}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Glad you liked the mousie! They were a hit with the cats too. *grin*
ReplyDeleteThe original mouse was a refrigerator magnet, MUCH smaller. I scaled them up for the catnip.
Funny how I keep going back to the crafts I learned first. My next project is glue-burned ornaments. Can't find the instructions anywhere so I'll have to try them out before I decide whether I remember how well enough to blog them.
After that I'll be doing the eightpoint German stars. *grin*