Making a felt toy cat - face template, other parts

A charming felt cat is the dream of many needlewomen and their children. This cute and gentle toy will bring a lot of joy to everyone who looks at it and holds it in their hands. You can sew felt toys with your own hands: a cat, a bunny, a teddy bear, a dog.

How to choose felt for crafts

Felt is ideal for making toys. This material is soft and does not fray at the edges. The felt product holds its shape well. The felt cat looks so tender and warm that you want to touch and stroke it.

Felt fabric is tightly pressed wool, which is treated with hot steam to make it denser. Felt is used to sew toys, make brooches, tiaras and other decorations. Felt is used to decorate pillows and even book and photo album covers.

In stores you can find felt sheets of various thicknesses - from 1 to 5 mm. They are painted in pleasant colors of all possible shades. This fabric has two undoubted advantages:

• its edges do not fray, so there is no need to bend them;
• the front and back sides look absolutely identical.

The first thing you need to pay attention to when choosing felt is its composition. There are 4 types of fabric:

1. Pure wool — 90–100% natural wool. Used for brooches, jewelry, and interior decor elements. It wrinkles easily and becomes shaggy, and shrinks when washed. It may form pellets.
2. Semi-wool - consists of 50-60% wool, the rest is acrylic or viscose. Very smooth and neat, you can find a variety of shades. It does not hold its shape well, so only small parts are made from it.
3. Modeled - impregnated with a special agent that allows the material to retain any shape. You only need to wet the fabric in water and mold the figure, like from plasticine. After drying, this material holds its shape for a long time.
4. Artificial - 100% acrylic, viscose or polyester. The properties of the fabric depend on the material of manufacture.

Types of synthetic felt:

• Acrylic - does not fade and retains color for a long time. The color palette is very rich. The fabric is easy to clean, it does not shrink in the wash. You can make toys, covers and appliques from it. Even such a high-quality material has its drawbacks: it shines a little, fluffs up and slides, and thin acrylic felt is slightly translucent. This material does not tolerate high temperatures.
• Viscose is soft and smooth, but durable. The shape of the product is maintained perfectly. Toys and decorations can be sewn from it.
• Polyester is very durable, holds its shape well, and is soft to the touch. Light-colored fabrics can be translucent. This material can be used to make parts that are exposed to active influences, such as bags, finger puppets, and theater masks. It is also suitable for soft toys.

The thickness of the felt plays a very important role. The thinnest fabric is needed for small parts and crafts. Thick felt holds its shape well, so it is suitable for large items, especially for their base.

For sewing toys, it is advisable to choose synthetic felt of medium thickness. If the toy needs a strong base, you can use 5 mm fabric. Small parts are made from 1-1.5 mm fabric.

Other necessary tools, materials

To work you will need not only high-quality fabric, but also other materials and tools.

What you need to prepare:

• sewing needle;
• threads of the same color as the felt;
• cutting scissors;
• holofiber, synthetic padding, foam rubber, synthetic fluff, polyethylene granulate or camphorel (small quantity);
• a small piece of white soap or tailor's chalk;
• beads for eyes;
• floss threads;
• office scissors;
• glue gun;
• Curly scissors that can cut a piece with wavy edges;
• roller knife (if the fabric is too thick).

First, you need to make a pattern, transfer it to the fabric and sew it, then embroider the face and prepare additional decorations.

Pattern template, rules for transferring to fabric

An important stage of the work is preparing the pattern and transferring the drawing to the fabric. Using tracing paper, you need to transfer the drawing to paper and cut out all the details with office scissors. Then these paper templates are applied to the felt and outlined with white soap or tailor's chalk. Miniature details can be outlined with a thin gel pen. After this, each detail from the fabric must be cut out with cutting scissors. Additional details can be cut out from another sheet to decorate the cat.

The body together with the head is sewn from two paired parts, so the corresponding pattern must be made on two sheets of felt, tightly folded together.

Schemes, patterns and detailed descriptions of the work can be found in all master classes. Their authors often add useful tips and interesting ideas. After the release of the cartoon of the same name, the cat Simon became very famous, so it is easy to find a pattern for sewing a figurine of this particular cat.

Step-by-step description of the work on creating a toy

Having prepared all the necessary materials and tools, you can start sewing.

DIY Felt Cat (Step-by-Step Instructions):

1. Put together two parts for the body with the head and ears.
2. Place some stuffing material between them.
3. Sew the pieces together neatly using a backstitch or overstitch.
4. In the same way, two parts for the tail are sewn together with the stuffing.
5. The kitten's tail is sewn to the body.
6. Cut 8 thin strips from black felt and glue them to the muzzle. These are the kitten's whiskers.
7. You need to cut out and glue a nose from pink fabric.
8. Glue on beaded eyes.

There are many ideas for decorating and embellishing a cat's face. You can cut out 2 small triangles slightly smaller than the ears and glue them to the ears. It is important that this fabric is different in color from the main background. The whiskers and face can be embroidered with floss. Many craftswomen make stripes on the cat's tail from felt of a different color.

The figurine can be decorated with additional details: satin ribbon, beads, decorations. The kitten looks great with a bow or flowers. A fluffy skirt for the kitty can be sewn from another fabric.

A kitten is a dream of many people. If there is no possibility to settle a live pet in the apartment, do not despair. You can sew a cat from soft felt fabric. The toy will be soft and will give a lot of joyful emotions to both the needlewoman and her loved ones. Even a novice seamstress can make a kitten from felt.