Cats Archives - Simple Crafts

Fabric Bag with Cat Motif

October 22, 2013 by Merry Leave a Comment

Over the Summer, Maddy wanted to experiment with using our new sewing machine and decided to have another go at a bag she had tried once before and hadn’t been so pleased with. This time she put a little more thought into how to build up her pattern and layer the seams so it worked as she wanted and the result was really rather good.

Here’s how it went… in fairly general terms!

1. Cut out two rectangles of fabric, the outer and the inner. In this case it was yellow spotty fabric and some calico inside. Put them right sides together and pin.

2. Stitch down each long side about 5mm from edge and turn through.

3. Fold the tops inwards so ragged edges are inside and pin flat. Ironing at this point is a good idea.

4. When you are happy the tops are level and the inside doesn’t show above the outside, stitch as neatly as possible, about 5mm from the edge.

5. Fold it in half so you have an accurate idea of the size of each panel.

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When Maddy did her version she actually attached the cat motif before the lining and sewing. On reflection this made it stressy and if you are neat, attaching the motif all the way through the inner and outer layer of fabric is probably no big deal. Who sees the inside anyway? It’s up to you but if you want it all contained inside the lining, you need to do this bit first and be careful you place it correctly, bearing in mind seam allowances).

6. Use the cat outline to cut out a version of the motif in fabric and also in felt. (Click on the picture, right click and view and you’ll get a full sized version). Top tip, cut a mm or so outside the line to make you fabric version and a mm or so inside for your felt version.

7. Put the felt version on top of one side of the bag on the outside. Put the fabric version on top. The felt adds body and makes it more like applique. Pin it carefully and then very slowly stitch the cat to the bag. Maddy did zigzag stitch and straight stitch for the paw outlines. You could just as easily hand sew it. Maddy used yellow to match the body of the bag.

8. Fold the bag, lining sides together, in half. Stitch neatly down the left and right side (Not the top….!!!)

9. Next you need some wide ribbon. Cut a piece long enough to cover the length of each side of the bag and made a shoulder strap. It has to be attached to the sides so it folds equally over the front and back edge. Start at the bottom of one side (turning the ribbon under if it will fray) and pin it up one side. Then do the same with the other side, starting at the bottom again and making sure there are no twists it the strap.

10. Machine it in place, near to the edge of the ribbon to make it neat.

All done!

Scruffy Cats in Pom Poms & Felt.

October 21, 2013 by Merry Leave a Comment

We love pom poms here but they’ve not been out for a while. Long autumn nights and evenings watching Strictly are here though, which means some winding of pom poms can happen and some cute crafts too. I’m still busy experimenting with making realistic patterns from different wool winding techniques but here are our first two scruffy cats. One has wool pom pom ears and a tail made of strands of wool tied together (Maddy did that one) while Amelie made one with a flat felt tail and felt ears.

On the left is Top Hat Cat. He’s made from two colours of yarn (Sirdar Hayfield Double Knit Acrylic which is easy to use and nice and cheap!) which are wound simultaneously to give a speckled look. Amelie glued an extra large and large medium pom pom together to make the body and added tail, eyes and nose with felt pieces.

It’s always handy to have plenty of felt on hand (I like to keep wool blend felt in my cupboard as it is good for lots of types of crafts but the Dovecraft Acrylic Felt packs are brilliant value for decent felt too). The green scarf was a ‘not quite rectangle’ strip – it had a slight kink in it to make bending round the neck easier. After that we made the hat, which went like this:-

1. Cut out a rectangle of felt to the desired size and overstitch the two short edges together.

2. Place the cylinder on some felt and draw round it to make a top circle.

3. Overstitch that on to one end. Turn it through. The result is suitably scruffy and banged up – perfect for an alley cat.

4. Place the cylinder on felt, draw around it once close to the edge and again with a wide margin (inner circle and brim). Cut out the bigger circle first, then cut out the smaller circle so you have a ‘doughnut’ shape.

5. From underneath, overstitch brim to hat.

6. Cut two slits for ears. Cut out some felt ear shapes in cat colour, poke them through the slits and glue the whole thing to the cats head, making sure you also attach the ears so they don’t float free!

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Maddy’s cat was inspired by an Aristocat and is wearing a beret. She made it with a circle of felt all glued and tucked under into the right shape, with a tiny matching pom pom made from yarn on top. He has pom pom ears (very cute) and a yarn tail.

We’ve got more Cat Crafts on Pinterest and more Pom Pom crafts too.

Hama Bead Cat Pattern

October 20, 2013 by Merry Leave a Comment

Continuing on a cheerful theme of cat related crafts (I’ve not quite got to grips with Halloween yet this year, so I thought cats might be better!) Maddy has produced her signature cat in Hama Beads. Many years ago, though she doesn’t remember, they used to have a Willo the Wisp video and I think she is secretly channeling Carwash with this design.

Here he is, in all his glory. A nice easy cat on a rectangle (or two interconnected square boards) in Midi Hama Beads. Maddy chose to do him in blue with black, white and pink details and I think you should be able to follow him from the photo. We will get round to doing a printable version of him too!

It was an accident but we quite like the little angle to his head. If you want to copy it, just gently stretch the beads and mould it while it is still warm from ironing the pattern.

There are more ideas on BeadMerrily.

Halloween Fimo Cat Tutorial.

October 6, 2013 by Merry Leave a Comment

It’s been such a long time since I did any polymer clay work that all my talent seemed to have deserted me when I sat down to make a start on this little chap. In fact it took nearly a week and endless prototypes before I started to feel like I was finding my fingers with it again. In the end though, I’m rather pleased with this little chap. He’s a great Halloween Cat and easy to make with some patience too.

I started with the orange one (who I think I probably like the character of the best really) and made the brown one to photograph a tutorial. We had a lot of fun together and hopefully these fairly brief photo instructions will help you too.

As usual, all my Fimo came from our shop CraftMerrily. We are always very pleased to welcome new customers and grateful for their purchases!

1. First, whizz up your chosen colours into a blend that feel furry to you and divide into balls for head, body, neck, legs and tail. I made my leg balls roughly twice the size I needed them here, so scale back a bit there!

2. Make the body a bit egg shaped and then put a flattened neck ball on top. I added a flat disk of cream to his tummy for a splash of colour.

3. Mould the ear points out a bit (and they need to go through a hat so make them slightly too large. I use a pointy tool to make ear dimples; if you fancy it you can fill them with a small pear drop shape of a different colour. Push your thumbs into the sides to make eye sockets and then press a round tool in to those sockets to make the eye ball hole.

(Note: at this point the head can get a bit flat; you get a better cat face if you pause to round it up again a little, especially under the nose. My tutorial attempt went a bit flat and teddy like.)

4. Two flat pancakes of colour go into the eye sockets. I like translucent Fimo for this. I use a knitting need to make hole in that and then push two beads in for pupils.

5. Create the small pieces shown in the middle right picture and attach them to the face. How these are placed gives character and expression, so experiment.

6. I use a knitting needle to give furry blending detail now. Blend the eye lids, soften the ears, add fur to his face and blend the triple nose piece to the face. Add whisker dots to the cream and nostrils to the black nose.

7. Attach him to his neck and blend those 3 pieces together. I know cats don’t have very obvious necks but it just lengthens his figure a bit. Add furry detail across the body front, especially blending the tummy patch if you’ve made one.

8. Getting the arms and legs right is tricky. Remember to give elbows (no one has joint free limbs, it just looks wrong) and experiment with paws. Chunky is good, delicate gives a different look (more female). Add three dents to the paws for claws/footpads.

9. With the back legs, a change in angle helps the feet look real. Model the shape in the bottom right picture and add a detail by scoring a line around the ‘ankle’ and then pressing the leg and foot together again. It makes it look more defined. Add creases at the next joint. Make the side attaching to the body flat and the outer side more rounded. You can see this better in the top picture below.

10. Attach the limbs and position to give the attitude you like. Once the look and feel right, blend the hips and shoulders on to the main body so the join isn’t obvious. Don’t blend too far down or he will look as if his legs are stuck to his body in a weird body lock spell. Add furry detail to his limbs and his back.

11. Mould a tail in a shape that suits him. Make one end thick and flat and then sit him on it and blend as before. Looks better than being stuck to the back and is stronger too.

12. His wizard hat is just moulded from a ball of black Fimo. It needs two holes in the brim for his ears but otherwise can be a floppy or perky as you like. This one has a beaten up hat but I think he’s a fairly old wizard cat 🙂

As usual, I created a Pinterest board to inspire me. You might like some of these Cat Crafts too.

Crafty Bottle Cat

October 11, 2012 by Merry Leave a Comment

This gorgeous creature was made by Maddy after she was inspired by the shape of a beer bottle left on the side one morning. He reminds me of Carwash from Willow the Wisp, but Maddy didn’t know the character so I think it is co-incidence.

This cat would make a great Halloween cat, though you might want to make him black in that case, and was lovely and easy to do.

First Maddy balanced a polystyrene ball on top of the beer bottle and glued it down on the neck. Once that was dry, she used PVA glue to stick pieces of red tissue to cover the bottle and the ball until all of it was covered. Then it was left to dry for a day or two, with a covering of PVA glue painted on top of all the paper bits to give it a glossy finish.

Maddy made some body parts from polymer clay; a nose, tail, paws, front legs and ears. Once the main body was dry, these were glued on to him with tacky glue and his features added with permanent black marker.

I think he’s purrrrrrrr….fect! 😉