craftgrrl | Sad Kitty

My first forray into the craft world was not a very successful one. My mom bought me a kitty doorstop pattern. It sat in my 'craft drawer' for a very long time. I later learned that this is exactly the reason why my dad made my mom stop going to craft stores - she would buy a lot of crafting materials and then never do anything with them. Whatever did I do with my copy of "My Mother, My Self" ...?

Anyway, so finally, one day, I set out to finish my kitty doorstop. I got all the required materials for it, I cut out the pieces and I started sewing. It's really a very cute kitty, kind of a patchwork thing, very country crafty looking - which isn't usually my style, but it was a gift, and a kitty, so why should I complain? I love all the creative energy involved in crafting. I just love how I feel when I'm doing crafty work. I feel creative, I have fun, I'm creating something, I'm giving life to something, all that Goddess energy and other mumbojumbo totally goes to work. I just feel good when I'm crafting.

Unfortunately, this being my first forray into the craft world since grade school, there were.... problems.

First though, I did cut the pieces out well. I left a big enough seam allowance - in fact, the directions called for a very small seam allowance and that didn't seem right to me, so I made a slightly bigger seam alllowance. I started sewing the pieces together, and for the most part, I didn't do too bad. For example, one of the cat's ears turned out very nicely. The right one. The left one, well, let's just say that the cat's left ear has personality.

If you don't look too closely, you hardly notice that his left ear is ... well ... special.

And for the most part, I sewed the seams together pretty well. The seam on his back though was a little troublesome.

And of course, it's a stuffed kitty, so I had to buy batting to squeeze into him. I didn't even buy as much batting as the directions called for. I think I bought about half as much as I was supposed to - and I was barely able to shove that much into him. I will master the art of batting stuffing eventually.

Then, once the kitty was stuffed, I had to hand stitch the hole through which I stuffed him.

Yet another fine art I will master eventually.

Hopefully.

So not only does the cat who was already dubbed "Sad Kitty" before I finished stuffing him have a crooked ear, he also has a hump on his back from where I hand stitched his batting stuffing hole.

If you don't look too closely, Sad Kitty doesn't really look too bad. In fact, he's a happy looking cat from far away. But his crooked ear and humped back give him personality. I wanted to give him back to my Mom as a Christmas gift, but I became too attached to Sad Kitty, so he functions as an occasional doorstop at my house now.