28 January 2009

An Oldie, but a Goodie (the Fish Cat Bed

I ran across these pictures of my kitty Joe (who passed away in July 2007) and his fishy bed that I made him many years ago—that, of course, all the current kitties just ignore. But Joe Kitty LOVED his fishy bed, so I thought I would post about it.

The pattern was on sale. And I am insane.
Those were the two main forces driving the making of the Fishy Bed for my cat. This project ended up being one of the most horrifying things I have ever taken on. I even sewed through my finger at one point and still have the scar.

Here is Joe Kitty, satisfied with the end result.



The Materials:
Pattern = Simplicity 9004.
Outside fabrics = various cotton prints.
Lining and lips = snuggly blue fleece.
Polyester foam sheets give it the shape.
Eyes = ping pong balls cut in half and a sharpie marker
A little bit of catnip sprinkled in throughout!

The Process:
I used a walking foot and tear away paper when feeding through the machine. This project would have been much easier with a Teflon foot (which I now have!) because the foot really wanted to grab on to the foam...but, live and learn.

About halfway through the project, I became too angry with my machine to keep using it (this was before I upgraded to my current fancypants machine), and ended up sewing a lot of the seams by hand, especially those where four layers of foam plus four layers of fabric all smooshed together. With a project this small, it worked out ok.

Although I hated this project while it was in process, the end result was so cute (and well loved!) that I can’t regret doing it.

Plus it gave me a lot of gumption to take on new things afterwards. “Zoot suits, wedding dresses, groom suit, hats? No problem, can’t be worse than the cat bed.”

9 comments:

Shannon said...

Those pictures are a hoot! I love it!

Christine said...

That fishy bed is GREAT! And it reminds me that I really should get going on mine for my kitties....

Summerset said...

LOL! What great pictures. Yes, I've had some of those moments where I think, "Well this isn't as bad as the time I made (fill in the blank with the worst project in recent memory)!"

laura said...

OMG, I'm not sure when I've seen such crazy kitty pictures. You just can't embarrass them, can you? And that fish is a hoot! My little Flash Cat died at Thanksgiving 2 years ago and I still miss him. And he's a cat that would have loved the fish!

edward and lilly said...

Oh my, this is so cute. I've never seen anything like it!

Diana said...

That last picture with the cat's tail hanging out is really cool.. Great work, but so sorry for your finger..

Regards
Diana
http://djstoreroom.blogspot.com

Bek said...

That's quite a project! Sewing foam sounds like a mega challenge!

Maryissewfast said...

That is sew cute! I have that pattern...I should make one for my grandkitty Lola...she would love it! Mary

Gigi said...

Damn, that is cute! I know my kitty Winnie would LOVE it - I'll have to get the pattern. I don't usually do craft sewing because I get too aggravated but what the heck. How bad can it be? :-O