I LOVE this flickr group. People make such beautiful portraits and I was inspired to dig out my paints today and make a better attempt this time compared to my last doodle. So much fun :)

She makes me giggle, she really does. She looks so surprised a lot of the time…

Christmas is on it’s way so why not make yourself some festive cat themed decorations!

ok, here we go:

First of all gather yourself some supplies – most of these I’m sure you’ve got lying around. You need: Lots of lovely colourful felt, embroidery thread, some complimentary cotton, ribbon (in strips measuring around 7 – 8cm), toy/cushion stuffing, nice sharp scissors, a fat needle for the embroidery thread and a slightly smaller one for the cotton.

Next, you need the templates! Bellow are the shapes I’ve used to make the little cat decorations. You can download this template by clicking and dragging it to your desktop.

Using the templates cut out the same shapes in felt – 2 of the bodies, 1 face and 1 nose per cat. Sew the nose in place down the left and right side of the nose (like a V. Don’t worry about the top/forehead that gets done later when you attach the face to the body) – use a similar coloured cotton to do this so it doesn’t detract from the nice simple shapes. Using a bit of black embroidery thread put 1 or 2 little stitches on either side for the eyes. I did a mixture of ‘closed eyes’ and ‘glancing eyes’ as you can see below.

Stitch the face in place: Using a pale cotton tack the face securely onto one of the body pieces by going all the way around the edge . Now it’s time for the cheeks. Using embroidery thread pop a couple of stitches on either side of the face just below the eyes – pick any colour you fancy. Using perhaps a pink or a black bit of thread you can add a little nose too.

Still using the embroidery thread you can add some little embellishments to the body of the cat. This is one of the really fun bits. I did some with clusters of triangles or flowers. Lots of snow flakes. Some stripes, some spots. Whatever takes your fancy! You decide :)

Sewing it all together: Sandwich together your decorated front piece and the plain black piece (I use a different coloured piece of felt for the back just to make the decorations extra bright). Fold the ribbon and slip it in between the ears so you have a loop. Using a colourful piece of cotton sew the ribbon and felt together and then using the same cotton blanket stitch your way around the edge of the 2 pieces! When you’re about 2 3rds of the way round add a bit of stuffing and then continue with the blanket stitch until the decoration is complete!

TA DA!

Hello folks!

I’m sorry things have been a little quiet recently on the site. This weekend  I was out in Southwell taking part in the open studios, which meant manic making over the last few weeks. I’ve got a load of new little treasures to share with you (I’m really excited) AND I’ll be finally making some of the Cotton Doodles available online! Also I will be posting my first little seasonal tutorial over the next couple of days so keep tuned! For now, here are some pictures from over the weekend.

Another one of the little paintings I’ve been working on these past few days. More to come…

And another…

VERY excited about this. See you there! x