Do you love cats? How about crafts? Why not put your loves together and make some fabulous creations? The Cat Lover’s Craft Book has 17 fun cat crafts and projects for every ability in many different types of materials.
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Many thanks to Tuttle Publishing for sending us a copy of The Cat Lover’s Craft Book: Cute and Easy Accessories for Kitty’s Best Friend. This book has actually traveled many miles with us going overseas and back!
Some of the 17 fun cat crafts:
- Embroidered booches
- Apliqué coin purses
- mini mini pouches
- Sketched book covers
- Knitted pillows
- embroidered bags
- Catryoshika pouches
- Umbrella handle covers
- Door-stopper
- And more!
Cat Dolls
The first project that caught my attention were the very cute cat dolls on the cover. I picked up some fabric at our nearby sewing shop and ordered some sweet Japanese fabric for the dress online. This was going to be fun…except that I don’t have a sewing machine and would have to do all of the stitching by hand, which did take me some time to do because I’m not the fastest stitcher.
I will mention that the instructions say to increase the pattern size, but I thought this size would be sweet…but do follow the instructions as putting the arms and legs of the cat from inside out to right side out after stitching was a challenge. Also because I didn’t have a machine and my fabric was fraying more than expected, I made a little adjustment to the dress pattern, which was sewn right on the cat rather than being removable. But it did turn out well in the end.
Kallista helped choose some of the embellishments for the cat, and those gave it some real character. I love this little cutie and crafting a whole family of them would be a fun family project.
Shrink Plastic Cat Projects
A while back Mom had sent us some shrink plastic and it came in very handy! The children hadn’t had experience with it and I knew they’d be fascinated watching how it works. I remember projects we made as kids, too.
There were a few patterns at the back of the book to use for this, and we all chose ones we likes and used Sharpies to trace and colour the images before shrinking them in the oven.
In addition to using them as brooches and earrings as in the book, we also made a bookmark dangle and a zipper pull/key chain decoration. This is a craft the children both want to do again…we will have to purchase more shrink plastic for that!
Embroidered Cats
Last winter I took a cross stitch class in Belfast and quite enjoyed it so I wanted to try out one of these cat projects. Instead of turning the cat into a covered button, Tristan donated a plastic badge that he used for a craft at the library some time back and I swapped his picture for the cat, which worked very well. This will look cute on a jacket or backpack!
This is a fun cat crafts book with many projects that cross many craft interests and skill levels, as you can see from our works. There are more items that I would love to do, but they will either take more time or I will have to purchase a sewing machine. I think the cat pillow will be great made from a pair of well-worn jeans, and could then be sued as a keepsake later in life. The little zip-pouches could hold change, or any small treasures little girls have, and the door stop is very creative and practical, and better than looking at ugly wooden wedges!
This book will stay on our shelf to be brought out again over the winter, or even during the summer when the children are looking for something to keep them busy. After all, the skills practiced making these crafts are life skills, and this is a fun way to learn them.
If you’re interested in purchasing Cat Lover’s Craft Book , it’s available through:
- Tuttle Publishing
- Amazon
- Great bookstores near you
If you’d like to know more or would like to follow Tuttle Publishing, you can connect with them through their website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest (and you can see our other Tuttle reviews here).
