Materials: orange, brown, magenta, pink, mustard yellow and white colored felt (you can purchase single sheets at your local craft store for approximately 25 cents each; you won’t need more than one sheet of each color for this project), card stock, pen or pencil, brown & white sewing thread, sewing needle, and fabric scissors.
To begin, draw all the pieces shown in the diagram out on a sheet of card stock, then cut them out and assemble (you can make your modifications at this stage); once you are pleased with your cutouts, you will use them as a pattern to cut out your felt pieces by tracing a line around each pattern piece. Pieces A and D (see diagram) measure approximately 8” in height and 5 ½” in width. Piece C (see diagram) measures approximately 4 ½” in height and 3 ¼” in width. All additional pieces can be cut to proportion and/or adjusted to suit your preference.
Next, start by sewing the three flower pieces together (see F in the diagram). To do this, employ the blanket stitch (which you will use to finish all edges of the puppet). To start, employ the blanket stitch around the edge of the small pink circle and attach to the gold floral shape. To follow, employ the blanket stitch around the edge of the gold floral shape and attach to the magenta floral shape. When you finish, do the same with the magenta floral shape and attach it to felt piece A as indicated in the photo.
Next, employ the blanket stitch around the smaller gold eye pieces (see G in the diagram) and then attach to the larger brown eye pieces. To follow, employ the border stitch around each completed eye and then attach to piece A (as depicted in the finished puppet).
Next, employ the blanket stitch around the edge of piece C and attach to the body of piece A.
After, use the satin stitch to create the cat’s nose and then use the back stitch to create the whiskers.
Next, employ the blanket stitch to attach the two tail pieces (see E in the diagram). The brown piece will be seen from the front, the orange from the back. To follow, attach the finished tail to piece A so that the inside lower edge tucks behind piece A and the curved inner edge sits atop piece A (see finished photo). Be sure that when you attach the tail that your thread doesn’t go entirely through the piece A so that it’s not visible.
Lastly, employ the border stitch to attach piece A to piece D. Be sure, however, that you do not stitch the bottom edges together. Rather, stitch each edge independently so that you can slip your hand between the pieces and utilize your finished produce as intended: a kitty cat hand puppet!
