Designing an easy little cat softie pattern has been on my to-do list for awhile. I even had a few cat softies waiting to be sewn. But this little fellow took me by surprise.
Like all my zenki softies this little cat is designed from 2 pieces of felt with no arms or legs or ears to insert. The only stitch you really need to know is a running stitch. Like all zenkis this little cat is designed for kids learning to sew as well as for mums who don’t know “even know how to sew on a button!”
Zenkis are also popular with older kids because the design and creative possibilities are endless.
It’s Sew a Softie in July, 2021.
How time flies! And the very first project for this July is a zenki called Square Cat.
Now, you might, (if you have one of those super-curious natures), ask, Who on earth is Square Cat?! And that would be a very good question. And it’s the very question I put to Square Zenki when one day, out of the blue, he turned up with a new and unexpected friend.
How Square zenki and Square Cat met.
Turns out that Square Zenki had being feeling a little lonely and out-of-sorts and just happened to wander by a local animal shelter. He loves animals so he went in. It was all very unplanned. He thought they might cheer him up and he could do the same for them. Anyway, he walked around awhile and saw this little cat all by itself and curled up in a corner: “I don’t know what it was” he told me later “but as soon as we saw each other something clicked…there was this mysterious bond between us…I couldn’t work out what it was but we both felt it.”
And that was that, as they say. Square Zenki can be very stubborn and he flat refused to leave the shelter without that special little cat.
I have to admit, they really do look very happy together. The other zenkis named the little fellow, Square Cat, because he’s always following Square Zenki around and they all think the story about their mysterious bonding experience is wonderful. They’ve been asking to hear it again and again. Square Cat has certainly found a loving home.
And if you’d like to give a loving home to your very own Square Cat softie, below is a step by step tutorial on how to make one and this is a Sew Your Own Softie Cat Youtube tutorial.
How to sew your very own Square Cat softie
What You Need
Scraps of felt for markings
Thread
Pins
Glue (optional)
What to Do
Copy and cut out the templates.
Trace the template for the back of Square Cat’s body onto crimson felt and cut out. Trace the templates for the front of Square Cat’s body, tail and inside of ears onto pink felt and cut them out. Trace the template for the eyes onto white felt and cut out. Trace the nose template onto brown felt and cut out.
Position the eyes and nose and glue into place. I’ve used a replaceable hollow punch to punch out two circles of green felt for the pupils. I’ve made the mouth from three stitches of black thread.
Position and sew the tail into place as shown in the image. I’ve used three running stitches in pink thread to sew on the tail but use whatever kind of stitch you fancy. A cross stitch at the base of the tail would also work nicely.
Pin and sew the front and back of Square cat together. Remember to leave an opening for stuffing as shown on the template.
Stuff with stuffing…
…and sew the opening closed.
Finally, position and glue the insides of the ears into place. Add any markings you want. I’ve punched out small circles of light pink felt to make paw pads and cut out small triangles from brown felt to create markings for Square Cat’s body and tail.
At this point Square cat might want something to eat, even after all that stuffing! A warm meal is always welcoming. And we don’t want him meowing all night, do we?
My Just Released Books
If you’d like to learn how to create more zenkis like Square Cat, then my new book The Zenki Way: A Guide to Designing and Enjoying Your Own Creative Softies will tell you everything you need to know. And if you’re interested in seeing what other Sew a Softie participants have created you might like to have a look at Sewing Simple Softies With 17 Amazing Designers which I co-authored with Deborah Fisher. Both books were published by Schiffer this year.
These are affiliate links and I may earn a commision at no extra cost to you if you use the links.
And here’s my How to Sew an Easy Cat Softie video!
3 thoughts on “Looking for an Easy Stress-Free Cat Softie Pattern?”
Comments are closed.