Felt Cigars

Someone pointed out some felt cigars over on Etsy, done up as cat toys ($10!!!) that looked to be fairly decently designed the other day.  A basic search for more turned up two others which were far inferior in appearance but they gave me an idea for overall size and shape if I wanted to try my hand at something similar.

 

While 'doobies' have been out there as cat toys like---forever, cigars not so much.  The cat toy did have a lot to recommend it, however tweaking it a little bit more would have given them a nicer overall product. 

 

Like don't have the 'nipple' at the mouth end be sticking out. Dude, tuck it IN so the back end is smooth. 

 

And the cigar had no 'band' on it.  Missed opportunity!  Just looking around Michaels Craft Store I ran across black and white print ribbon that's 1/2" wide, in 5 yard sections in the 99 cent display. I'm talking about the ribbons that are on those little ribbon rolls.  Five yards make for a lot of cigar bands. 

 

And the 'ash' at the lit end was just gray felt rolled up and tucked inside.  Nope!  It's a CIGAR, make it look like it's lit up on the end. It's not a big deal to put a bit of red and orange felt in the center of that rolled gray ash to liven things up!!!  Come on!

 

They looked simple enough to do.  Its basically a 6" long rectangle with the cigar band sewn down on it the short way, then folded in half and sewn down two ends, turn it right side out, stuff it, tuck in the ash part on the end and hand stitch it closed.   Or sew it starting from the 'lit' end and leave the mouth end open for turning and stuffing, do a gather stitch and tuck in the butt end.  Easy peasy. 

 

I might even try making a few.

Avoiding That 'Bead Disaster'

We have cats.

 

We have at least two cats who like to springboard off the couch cushions. 

 

Imagine sitting on the couch, a bowl of beads next to you as you patiently use an ultra thin needle to hand sew individual beads onto a project. Your cat saunters up, sits by you quietly for long enough to ignore him, then *WHAM* decides to jump to the top of the couch and your entire bowl of beads goes up like a fountain of glitter. 

 

BEADS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!  Tiny ones, bouncing across the wood floor, embedding themselves into the rug......  You sit there swearing at the cat who ignores you and flops down on top the cushions.

 

Yes, you could have a heart attack, get down on your knees and try to corral all those tiny pieces one by one.  I have done that in the past (take it from me, it's not fun).  But this time I used a tip I found online a few years back and it works great.  Get your vacuum cleaner. Get an old pair of nylon hose (knee highs or pantyhose), and a rubber band and put the hose over the end of the vacuum tube.  Dimple it down a little, use the rubber band to hold it in place. 

 

All you do is lightly vacuum, the hose catches all the beads, holds them there for you and you turn off the vacuum over the bowl to get them back where they belong.  It even works on tiny seed beads.  You can still swear at the cat though.

 

Fish And Chips!

There's a nice realistic fish print out now on both a black background and a dark blue background.  I got a few yards of it to use with my sushi design, a 'wrap' sushi design and now for a new item. Fish and chips! LOL

 

Since each design only faces one way, the backs are plain black polar fleece. They're stuffed with fiberfill and catnip.  Each is between 4 and 6 inches long.  The 'chips' part of the idea is just plain rust colored felt cut in good sized triangles and top sewn around, stuffing with catnip before doing the final closing on the machine. 

 

Three chips to a fish, all packaged in those clear plastic top opening boxes you get miniature tomatoes in from the grocery store. I've been saving them up for months, taking the labels off and coming up with a new label to tape down on top.  It's a way to sell sets of things for a standard price at some of the events I go to.

Here's the fabric.  NICE looking fish on them and they're not overly large, they do sew up well.  Now if only I could find a realistic MOUSE print (I've never ran across one in over 20 years of looking).