Christmas Craft 2014 : Cat Plushie


This Christmas, I decided to embark on a project making a cat plushie for a dear friend. I failed terribly with using polymer clay and decided to create a simple cat plushie. I bought all my supplies from Daiso, so it was relatively affordable but the time and effort that goes into it is taxing, however I love every minute of it. My cat plushie is not perfect, but I am pleased with it since it is my first time doing that.
A week was spent researching on the materials and fillings ( check this out ), followed by getting ideas of the cat plushies/cushions on Etsy and Pinterest.
Another 2 weeks were spent on conceptualizing to re-doing ( when it gets real bad ) to stuffing in the polyester fiberfill to finishing up the whole product.



Materials required :
Felt material cloth ( Daiso ) - I bought adhesive and non-adhesive types
Polyester Fiberfill ( Daiso )



You can actually use a sewing machine which would be faster but I hand-stitch all the way, to make it a very handmade item. The white and black felt materials on the cat plushie itself are adhesives. Some people will prefer to stitch non-adhesive types but since I already have some adhesive felt material from my last craft project, I decided to use them.

Steps :
(1) Conceptualise the drawing.
(2) Made measurements on the felt material. I use a pencil to lightly draw on the grey felt cloth and then cut out the picture of the cat.
(3) Using the cut-out, I duplicate on the grey felt cloth so that I have 2 identical pieces for a front and a back.
(4) Place both pieces together and start to hand-stitch them, leaving a small gap for your hands to go in to pull it inside out as well as to insert the polyester fiberfill in.
(5) After the hand-stitch is done, place your hands in and pull out it inside-out so that the stitches are inside instead of outside.
(6) Draw the eyes, mouth and whiskers on another felt cloth material ( I use black and white adhesives ) and paste them on.
(7) I stuff in the fiberfill in the plushie. Even though the description on the polyester packaging states that the 130g is good for 45cm by 45cm, I feel that the 130g is not enough for my almost 30cm by 30cm plushie, but its up to individual.
(8) Ladder-stitch the remaining gap, once all the stuffing goes in. Check it here.
(90 Ta-da, the end product!