Shrimp Cat Toys

That little 'squeeze and sew' technique works great for making the segmented backs of shrimp.  I've made tiny shrimp that go on catnip sushi, all wrapped with seaweed over rice and green onion.  And made medium to large size shrimp as stand alone toys.

Blue is 'raw'. Pink is also 'raw' and the orange are cooked shrimp. I used to make them without tails on but they look so much nicer with tails. 

The body of the shrimp is a cotton print and usually I find the right colors over in the quilting section of the fabric store.  The tails are triangles of felt with notches sliced into them.  The shrimp are free form cut in arcs about six inches long, left open at the large end and turned, stuffed then closed. The back segments are then done and the tail added last. 

I've done some tightly curled ones too, but they're harder to stuff so they don't get made often. Each toy takes a good 2 tablespoons of catnip and stuffing inside.