Last updated on 07/28/2023
Hey everyone! Happy first day of Summer!
This is my first blog post on my site related to projects I share on my Instagram @isewmetric. Typically I’ll use this platform to elaborate on my experiences and share my personal endeavors with you in greater detail than what Instagram allows. This includes struggles, overcomings, learnings from a beginner’s sewing and quilting perspective, etc.
I was looking for a fun project to do for my wife for our upcoming anniversary and decided to try to hunt down some cat plushie/stuffed animal patterns.
Now mind you I’ve never done this before and I have a bad habit of not starting easy (more on this later).
I came across the adorable “Blooper The Cat” pattern by Fluffmonger (linked at the end).
It’s considered above a beginner-level difficulty, 3/10 difficulty per their scale. A quick aside, the tough part is the curves formed on the front, but there’s an option for solid color for the front and back that’s easier.
I had some trouble with it myself, but that’s on me for not paying close attention to the pattern and taking on the curved design without ever dealing with that before.
So my adventures with the poor orange cat:
First, I tried the small version and got stuck on the front of the cat due to not grasping how to align the curved parts and sewing it on my machine (side celebration: I have my own machine now, the Blue Janome C30), so I put that version on pause and tried the larger one hoping it’d be easier to manage. I got a bit further but got stuck again, and unfortunately had to partially ruin the surprise and seek help from my wife (although I didn’t show enough to give away the entire project) so she helped sew the difficult front part for me. I’m hoping I can finally grasp that in the future after seeing her make it look so easy.
Phew, the hard part is done. I then went to attach the ears, arms, and feet. All was going beautifully. Then I turned it inside out….and the poor thing was inside out and with backward ears. That began my relationship with my good seam ripper friend (more often than I’d like to admit). Then it was just a bit of a struggle trying to get the pieces fully locked in the seams (I had the brilliant idea of using plastic stuffing beads because I wanted to have it like a bean bag feeling instead of plushie/stuffed), the added bulk made the connection process more difficult. So a few more ripped seams and retries later and I finally got it without butchering the fabric too much.
At this point I altered the pattern a bit due to frustration and time and chose to use buttons instead of beads for the eyes, I did a poor “applique” of a nose I cut out last minute. I used the concept from the pattern for the whiskers but attempted it on my own without much review. As soon as I thought I was finished I realized I forgot the tail.
A little more tracing, cutting, sewing, and filling later I had the tail all ready. At this point, exhausted, I attached it to the body in my own way instead of doing it nicely like the pattern recommended using a ladder stitch (I was too tired to bother looking up how to do that).
Finally…the finished Cat. Despite the struggles and the almost-ruined surprise, I feel accomplished and am happy with the result.
But wait, there’s more!
The following day, I got brave and decided to try again 100% by myself. I opted for the easier solid color version this time.
I decided to give the Orange Cat a Hamster friend. This one was the small size and I made the hamster all white, later realizing my lack of attention to detail with the inner ears and hands/feet, but all good.
This one went much smoother and I only needed to seam rip once, again due to using the plastic stuffing beads, and the smaller size it made the body parts slide away from the seams when sewing the body together. I later just hand-stitched the further imperfections.
For the eyes and nose, I opted for basic stitches using black thread for the eyes and pink thread for the nose. And since a hampster tail is kind of small, I opted to not include a tail.
Overall, it went smoothly despite the small size.
I’m happy with the final outcome of both little projects and learned some valuable lessons. It was a lot of fun despite the struggles and I look forward to making more similar projects.
Thanks for reading!
-Matt
Resources
Disclaimer: I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
http://fluffmonger.net/2018/03/cat-free-sewing-pattern/
