Bella's House

You may remember me mentioning last week that I had bought some fleece to make a pad/bed for Bella, my chocolate lab's, crate (aka Bella's "house")  Well, this must be the first time I have EVER bought fabric for a project one day, and actually completed the project the very next day!

Check out Bella's new, comfy, and colorful space!

Seriously the simplest thing ever!  The entire project took less than a half hour and all I did was...

1)  Measure and cut a piece of fleece a few inches shorter than the length of the crate and about double the width

2)  Folded it in half (with right sides of fabric facing in), and sewed the bottom and side seams closed

3)  Cut four pieces of batting slightly smaller than my fabric, turned my fabric inside out, and inserted the batting into the fabric

4)  Sewed the end closed, and then sewed all the way around the rectangle about two inches in to secure the batting in place

Now Bella can be comfortable and stylish - thank goodness!

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

Merry Christmas, Kitties!

Gah!  Where did the day go?!  It's 7:00pm and I'm just getting around to posting.  Are you feeling the Christmas scramble, too?  I bet you are!  Thank you sooo much for popping by today, especially with life being so busy for all of us right now.  I truly appreciate it!  And now on to today's project...

 
Who says the feline friends in your life don't deserve a little Christmas lovin' too?  As a cat-lover and kitty mama to two (plus kitten fosters on occasion) I wanted to whip up a little something for my furbabies, and to give as gifts to fellow cat-parents.

These catnip stuffed kitten toys were really fun to make - and are a good way to use up scraps of felt that you have in your stash.

Felt Cat Toys

Supplies:
Felt scraps
Sewing machine and thread (or you could hand sew these if you wanted to...)
Jingle bells
Catnip
Polyfil stuffing

 

How to:

Create a template (I chose a fish!) from cardboard and cut out.  Pin to felt and cut TWO of your shapes per cat toy... you can stack two sheets of felt together to speed up this process and cut out two at a time.

Sew around the outline of the shape, leaving a small seam that can be trimmed later.  Leave one end of the toy open for stuffing.

Fill half full with stuffing, add a couple of generous pinches of catnip and two jingle bells.  Top off with more stuffing until firmly packed.

Sew the opening closed, and trim off loose ends.

Trim around the shape as needed / desired... and you're done!

 

And the final step?  Let your kitty ENJOY!!!

PS... please forgive the TERRIBLE lighting in these photos!  Things are so busy around here that crafting is taking place waaaay later in the day - and there's just no hope of good light in the craft studio after dark!