Catnip Fish Toy Free Tutorial

Catnip Fish Toy Tutorial - source: angharad

(original post:http://angharadhandmade.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/recipe-for-happy-cat.html)

Ingredients:

fabric offcut and thread

dried catnip

rice

length of grosgrain ribbon

cat

1) Take one offcut of fabric (mine is Amy Butler furnishing weight fabric), fold in half right sides together and pin,

2) Freehand a fish shape with some tailor's chalk or a fabric marker.

3) Insert your long length of grosgrain ribbon at the mouth of the fish, long ends inside so that it will be stitched through when you sew around the fish. Sew around the fish shape leaving a couple of inches open to turn.

4) Cut away or pink the excess fabric around 5 mm from the stitching line, clipping corners.

5) Turn right side out and stuff with a mixture of dried catnip and rice - not too full as the fish is much more pleasingly floppy (and lighter to throw around if you are a cat) if you don't overfill it. Pin the opening shut.

6) Either hand sew the turning gap, or topstitch around the entire fish as close to the edge as possible, closing the turning gap in the process.

Set your camera on its fastest shutter speed then snap your kitty as she snaps at the fish.

Handmade Felt Heart Free Tutorial

Handmade Felt Heart Free Tutorial - source: Felt Sew Good

(original post: http://feltsewgood.blogspot.it/2009/12/handmade-holidays-part-1.html)

Are you making any gifts for the people on your list this year? Or, are you like me and love handmade holiday home decor? Simple to make, these cute heart shaped ornaments make wonderful gifts or gift wrap accents. Hearts are one of my favorite shapes, and I love crafting with recycled felted wool sweaters. So I combined the two to make this version of my Heart Felt Ornaments. Heart shapes are cut from a felted wool sweater, then embroidered and accented with beads and buttons. Sew two layers together and fill them with stuffing.

Here's a quick tutorial to show you how I made these ornaments.

Don’t worry if you can’t find a wool sweater to felt. Wool felt fabric will also work just as well and can be purchased at your local fabric store, craft store or ordered online.

Tools and materials needed:
Felted wool sweater or wool felt
Embroidery thread and needle
Cotton or wool thread
Assorted beads and buttons
Stuffing
Scissors, pins and tracing paper

For my Heart Felt Ornaments I used red and white as my colors.

What to do:
Step 1. Cut out hearts. To make a heart shaped paper pattern, fold a piece of paper and starting at the fold, cut out one side of the heart so that the fold is the center of the heart. This way when you open the paper you have a perfectly proportioned heart. Try several shapes and sizes until you have the desired heart shape. Then pin the paper to the wool and cut out two hearts for each ornament you want to make. I also cut out some smaller hearts to make contrasting centers for some of my ornaments.


Step 2. Embroider and embellish the hearts. I used a contrasting color embroidery thread to sew simple stitches in star and swirl patterns on some of my hearts. Then I stitched on seed beads as embellishments. On other hearts I used a blanket stitch, or buttonhole stitch, to appliqué smaller hearts to the center, then added a button for embellishment. You will be using two pieces of wool for each heart ornament. You can decorate one or both sides of the ornament.

Step 3. Sew the hearts together. With wrong sides together, use a blanket stitch to sew around the outside edge of each heart. When about a one inch opening remains, fill the heart with stuffing, then finish stitching to close the opening.


Step 4. Hang the heart. Thread a short length of wool or cotton thread through the top edge of each heart to hang on your tree or tie to a package.