Make Your Own Fattie Kitten

You're the one for me, fattie

More sewing this week. This literal ball of fluff is a kit from Cupcakes for Clara's Etsy Shop.

Now, as the possessor of a substantial stash, I don't tend to be concerned by how complete a kit is in terms of having absolutely everything you need to make the finished product. However, I was massively impressed by this kit, which contained absolutely everything you needed, down to the needle and thread. It was also beautifully packaged in a sweet cardboard box and the thread came on dear little spools. Most cute.

To get started, I glued the pattern pieces to thick cardboard and cut them out to make sturdy templates. I then used a trick marker to cut out all the pieces from the high quality felt. There was even enough felt left over to cut additional pieces if you made a mistake, which came in handy when I pricked my finger and bled onto one of the ears.

The body of the kitten is made up of four segments. I used the sewing machine to stitch them together as it was quicker and more sturdy. I was particularly careful to make sure the segments were joined correctly at the top and bottom. I left a small gap in the last join and then turned and stuffed the ball. I then top stitched the body seams by hand as per the pattern, which I think is a really nice design feature.

The next step was to embroider the facial features. I still don't think I'm great at this but I guess practise makes perfect. I then blanket stitched the tail onto the back of the kitten.

The appendages (front paws, back paws and ears) are all made by hand stitching the pieces wrong sides together, lightly padding and then sewing onto the body. At this point, I realised I wasn't sure how to replicate the stitch style in the photograph. One quick convo to Laura Clempson, the designer, and I discovered you needed a neat running stitch in both directions and then a whip stitch over the sides. Mine isn't as good, but it's something I'll definitely be trying on other projects.

Anyway, there's my fattie kitten. I happen to also have a pattern by Laura for a bluebird in the same round design from the book Little Birds, so I'll be tackling that soon..

Melx