Tiny Ermine For The Royal Kitty

Yes, it’s time again to try coming up with new cat toys for this year’s Renaissance Festival.  When I first started selling at those I tried to have between 6 and 9 NEW items each year, whether in cat toys or in stuffed toys.  And I actually kept up with that each and every year.  True, some only were offered one or two years, others were good enough to be regulars for every season after that.  But come on, after 15 straight years of doing the event a person does start to run out of ideas for new items.

The past four years I’ve stuck generally with the best sellers and haven’t come up with much in the way of ‘new’ cat toys, though I did add dragonflies and Cthulhu sushi to the mix.  Yesterday I was at JoAnn Fabrics with an eye towards examining the new designs in the cotton quilting section and seeing what was on sale in the other portions of the store.  Nothing much jumped out at me though.  Ture, I did still spend $60 there which was more than I’d planned, but that was mostly a restocking of prints that I was low on.  One fabric did give me a new idea.

On the wall racks was a white, fluffy fabric sort of like terry cloth (with the nap) but super soft. The bolt calls it Soft & Comfy.  Normally it’s $14.99 a yard.  The whole selection was marked on sale for $8.99 a yard.  It came in maybe 8 different  colors but when I looked at the white I thought ‘ermine’.  What better thing for a Medieval tie in? 

Unfortunately the store didn’t have any long black fake fur so the tail tips will have to be done with something else, but the ermine is nothing other than a long tube with a pointy end at each extreme.  Black bead eyes, white felt ears, it doesn’t even need feet. 

Sketches on paper let me come up with a super simple pattern.  7 inches long, 1 inch black tail tip, 2 ½ inches wide.  Fold it over, round the tail end, point the head end, leave a side opening.  Turn, leave the tail unstuffed, wind white thread around the base of the tail to seal that off and stuff the body with fiberfill and catnip.  Close the side opening.  Pinch the face and sew on the eyes and ears.  6mm black beads for the eyes, or 8mm faceted beads if you want some ‘flash’ and gleam to them.  Two tiny rounded white felt ears folded in half and added on.  Done!

I got a full yard of the white fabric and will use the entire thing making ermine for the event in August.  Should be easy since the item only requires ONE pass through the sewing machine.