Done! And! Done!

Just got these guys uploaded to my Etsy shop. Do your magic, interweb tubes!

I like these guys a lot. but they're way too complicated--

Here's the pieces for just one cat:
Thank Pele I got the sewing machine working. I've got 4 more of these cut out and ready to get stitched. If only there was money in it.... Oh well.

Work in Progress

Gotta couple more cats coming down the pike. I like these two so far.

#8:
And #9:



I think I'm starting to get the hang of this! Anyway, I jumped the gun and posted #7 (Kooky Kitteh) to Etsy. My photos are terrible; I need to borrow a camera that has a working viewfinder. Oh well, it'll be interesting to see how using Etsy to sell these guys works.

Hopefully these will get done tonite, but right now I have to shower. Poor Matt, his first real day of winter holiday and here I am wasting time on the computer. Off to do some kid stuff!

Maggie's Xmas Cat

So much for publishing this blog daily!

Anyway, here's the latest kitteh. This was supposed to be a gift for my niece, but I didn't finish in time. I ended up sending her the pink cat from last month instead. My mom (and only reader-- Hi Mom!) is getting the stoner kitteh and the floppy green guy. I can just imagine the the delighted exclamations of "What the hell is this?!!" come Christmas morn. You're welcome!

Weird-looking as this guy is, he's come the closest to my concept drawings. I'm thinking he might look better with a fez... a fez and a cigar, maybe. I'll get to work on it.

The arms and legs move. So crafty.

Not so pretty from the back, are we, kitteh?


Now here's a work of art-- Matt's dog painting! I have to get a better scan of this. The colors in this photo just don't do it justice. He has a blue heart on his chest and a blue star on his belly- Matt's tribute to the Sneetches.

And here's this blog's namesake. Handsome devil, he is!
I've been working with Photoshop a lot over the last couple of weeks in my day job, so hopefully I'll have some digital stuff to post soon. I need some new portfolio pieces!

Kittehs 5 & 6 (Pinky and Greenie)

More cats!

These two shared the same pattern (at first). They were made for speed, but they're not so bad looking. Both have their seams stitched facing out, although it's more noticeable on Greenie. I made some big improvements on the head & body shapes with these guys, but those damn ears are still a problem. There's gotta be an easier way!

Greenie is sort of a mess. I tried a new, taller head shape but it didn't work. The bottom half of his head was way too wide, and he ended up with this weird, jutting chin. It was the opposite of the RedCat, but just as creepy. You can see I just gathered the extra fabric together under his chin instead of sewing darts. This left him top heavy and floppy, but I'm not going back to fix anything. I'm sick of this cat.


Ugh, tail is set up too high, and that neck is just weird.


Whatchoo gonna do with all that junk, all that junk that's in your trunk?

I like this shape. Unfortunately, the felt I used for this guy was really cheap and stretchy so his legs buckled a bit.

This one turned out better. My camera refuses to photograph him properly, as it's become skittish around the red end of the spectrum lately.

Stupid camera.


I shortened the distance from the hindquarters to the tail and straightened out & shortened the neck. For a simple 4 piece body, I think this works pretty well. I sewed 2 of these in the time it took to do one before, which probably says as much about the pattern as it does about my hand sewing skills.

I went back to the round head shape from #3.

More blanket stitch.

Ready for Etsy? Maybe...hm.
Don't look directly at the photo! It's a total eclipse of the cute!

Happy Thanksgiving (a coupla days late)

Let's talk turkey.

What, you think I'm the only crafty one around here?

I'm loving Honest Abe Chicken. I'm tellin' ya, this kid is a comedy genius. And I mean that in a Jerry Seinfeld way, not a Gilbert Gottlieb way!
Please, tell me about your turkey!
Hmmm... It's almost as if he's...hinting at something. I can't quite put my finger on it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

RedCat (Kitteh #4)

Kitteh #4 turned out surprisingly well, considering it was just supposed to be a pattern experiment. For this guy I used a heavy corduroy-ish red fabric and a thick grey felt, both from a remnant pack I found at Michael's. I really hated both fabrics at first; I used them basically to get rid of them. The red stuff was really heavy, like upholstery cloth, with fat, wiry corduroy ribbing and a stiff 'crunchy' backing. I didn't expect it to look very inviting in cat form, but the color combination with the grey and the subtle stripes gave it a nice graphic quality. The stiff fabric held its shape well too, which allowed me to use a lot less polyfill. I liked the way his head shape and ears came out, but his face... not so much. He's actually sort of disturbing in profile. The body shape was very close to what I was going for, though. Fat and springy looking, sort of like a squirrel. Overall, a pretty decent kitteh.


See what I mean about that face? Yikes!

I used a blanket stitch on the edge of his ears. I like this a lot. I'll probably keep using it on future cats.
He looks OK from the front. Well, maybe a little wall-eyed.

I like the bottom shape here. Next time I think I'll move the forelegs closer together so kitteh's booty is a little more prominent. Man, I love that grey felt.

His tail is on backwards! Oh well.

Both of these guys are living with a friend's kids now. Enjoy your new home, kittehs!

Kitteh #3

So here's kitteh #3, the most complicated kitteh yet. I'm not crazy about this one, but making it taught me some new approaches. I started with a much rounder head this time, and set the ears in a little bit.

Bix kept running off with the unfinished cat head- I guess he thought I was making him a chew toy.
My first big mistakes: I embroidered the muzzle and the eyes after I'd constructed the head. Bad idea. There was so much thread on the eyes that they didn't lie flat, and the eye shape just looked odd on the rounder face. I ended up using buttons instead. The muzzle looked really bottom heavy after I attached it; in profile it made the kitteh look like it had a mean underbite.

Kitteh's neck was a little too long.
I cribbed the shape of the body from Runo's adorable terry cloth cats. Because I'm an idiot I added feet, an entirely unnecessary addition.




Done and done!