Why not make your pets handmade gifts too! Violet and Henry love to watch our kitties open their gift each Christmas. Actually, it might be funnier watching them poke around under the tree sniffing out the catnip filled packages!
This is a simple project that I put together last year for Violet's Daisy troop. They made them either for their own pets or some of them were donated to a local animal shelter as well. The girls had so much fun making them that I thought I'd share it here as well in case some kiddos at home are looking for something special to give to their kitties!
1) Thread needle and tie a knot at the end of your embroidery floss.
2) Lay star on top of one of your felt circles.
3) Starting from the back of the felt circle bring needle up and through to the front, going through both the circle and the the star.
4) Stitch the star onto the felt circle using a straight stitch, which is a stitch that simply pushes the needle from the front to the back, making short stitches (see photo).
5) Stitch all the way around the star so that it is affixed to the felt circle.
6) Lay the felt circle with the star on it on top of your other felt circle.
7) Tie a knot at the end of your thread again and bring it up from the back of your star felt circle, sandwich the knot between your two felt circles.
8 & 9) Stitch the two felt circles together using a whipstitch, wrap the thread around from the top circle to the back of the bottom circle.
10) Continue around until you get about 1 1/2" away from where you started.
11) Grab your stuffing, wrap it around the bell.
12) Stuff bell and stuffing into your toy through the opening.
13) Pinch opening closed. Close up your opening by continuing your whipstitch until you get back where you started.
14) Tie a knot in your thread, bring needle up from the back to make a loop,
15) Feed needle through the loop and pull tightly to make a knot.
16) Push needle into and through the cat toy.
17) Pull tightly from the other side and snip your thread, the tail will sneak back inside the toy, hidden.
18) You've made a cat toy!
19) Give to cat to play with!
Oh, go ahead, make some! Maybe they can wait until after Christmas even when the rest of the making is completed and the kids are home and everyone wants something do while on winter break...Your cats will really love you for it, trust me!
