c is for cat

birthday time again.   my daughter's friends all know i make their gifts so i get requests for birthdays.   makes knowing what to get so much easier!   here is the request i got, purple and cats.   i have been having one of those hectic months so i knew i wasn't going to get anything crocheted in time.   i went to pinterest where i found this adorable and seemingly simple pattern for a stuffed cat.   

looks pretty simple, right?   well it would have been had the pattern included seam allowances.  i am not sure how the pattern got those cute little legs in there unless she has a serger or some kind of magic that i don't know of.   i admit, i am not great with a sewing machine.   we often disagree on what we are going to do and where we are going, but this was more difficult than i thought it would be.

i printed the pattern form the site twice on regular paper.   you probably know, i am a recycler.   i take old clothes and sheets to make stuff.   this cat happens to be flowers from a hanna montana sheet set.  nobody in the family likes the show, so she ended up fabric.  

as i was cutting out, i eyeballed some seam allowances in.   that is most difficult between the legs.   there just isn't room.

stitched everything together, turned and stuffed.   the tight turns were a killer for me.  those turns were the deciding factor in me not attempting kittens to go with it.    

i don't know what i am doing wrong, but i do not have nice round feet and my head turned out a bit less than perfectly rounded although not as lumpy as it looks in the picture.     i also learned that the tail should be sewn on a little loose or tacked in two places or it sticks up weird.   i let mine be a tad loose but didn't tack it so she can move the tail.    

i embroidered a simple face.   we discussed button eyes or embroidered.   i figured it should be a sleeping cat and have a soft face in case she chooses to lay on it.

my projects rarely go as planned but this turned out cute anyway.    i hope that my experience with the pattern helps you before you dive in.     

butterfly braid

super cute but super easy braid with a fun look to it.  

you will need pencil or some kind of rod to put in the braid.  just use something that slides in and out of the braid easily.   sharpened pencils tend to stick on the wood for me and pens obviously have too many little things to catch on.   i used a crochet hook, just make sure you only go one direction with it.

start with a normal underbraid.

stick your rod into the braid try to keep it kind of horizontal.  

separate a small section from the section you are working on and wrap it up and around the rod then just put it back in the braid as normal.   

i did two sets of loops and then a small section of regular braid and then moved the rod down and made two more sets of loops.

you could make loops all the way down or just a few at the top.   if you don't move the rod down you will end up with larger and larger loops.  i did that too one day and it was also really cute.   kind of floppy loops on the side of her braid.