Spooky Moon

When the next project on my board said “felt ornaments,” I decided to go in a slightly different direction.

I have had a kitty from Sew Many Cats on my studio wall for several years. I thought it would be fun to try feltcraft and make a Halloween kitty.

I didn’t want something huge, so I drew my kitty shape on a single sheet of paper. I decided to attach the tail at two points for extra stability.

Kitty got traced on to some high-quality black felt, and cut out twice.

Went through a pile of possibilities, deciding on off-white, red, and purple for accents.

Felt accents get planned, cut, and placed on Kitty to see how they fit. Looking good, on to the fun stuff (well, even MORE fun).

Paint! I wanted the accents mostly pre-painted. I went a little wild, doodling with acrylics. Some colors had to be gone over several times to get enough vibrancy.

Eye and belly parts, ready to be layered on.

Painted accents are attached with fabric glue. That’s right, didn’t sew ’em. I’m a very slow tailor, and it would have taken me two weeks. I like glue. Glue is my friend.

Kitty’s design was looking a little heavy on one side, so I gave her a pet spider to even things out.

More paint! The spider isn’t actually attached yet, but this is how she will look after she’s all sewn up.

To avoid tears, I did a lot of stuffing as I went along. I sewed the end of the tail, and got that stuffed first. Did I mention I’m terrible at sewing? I knew what stitch I wanted, but couldn’t remember how to do it, or even what it was called. I finally had to look it up–it’s a blanket stitch.

Here I’m making sure the ears get stuffed. I also tried to get extra stuffing in the delicate parts, like the tail and neck, so they wouldn’t flop around.

Here’s the finished Kitty. I think she’s faaaabulous.  This was the most fun project so far.

What I learned: Don’t let the sewing intimidate you.

Raffle status: Yup! Kitty will be getting a new home.