Catnip Hearts With Ribbon Sprays

Valentines Day isn't the only day for hearts.  I've been doing up flower print ones all year, and to spice it up further I add in 6 ribbon dangles attached at the bottom.

My catnip filled hearts are done from a pattern that's 4" by 4", a nice wide rounded heart, with a side opening for turning.  The ribbon is 3 strands of 1/4" ribbon in colors complementing the fabrics, knotted in the middle, then doubled over and sewn in along the bottom side. When they're turned right side out the heart has this great 'spray' of ribbon off on the side.

Metallic ribbon isn't good for this, the ends unravel a little too easy. Mostly I use the solid color ribbons you cna get on rolls at JoAnns Fabrics that are 10 feet for 50 cents.  1/4" wide ribbon is nice, but you can even go thinner with the 1/8th inch type.

I use fabrics from the quilting area of the store - mostly cotton with pretty prints.  Leave a side opening of 2" and take small stitches to close after stuffing.  And make sure to clip the valley of the stitching at the top so you get a nice rounded area there without funny gathers at the center!

Making Sushi Wraps

In the past I did cat toy Sushi Wraps by folding over a rectangle of black felt to make the seaweed wrap (two layers gave it substance) and then did up white rice balls that had the fiberfill and catnip inside, tacked on all sorts of rolled , cut, decorative felt pieces and such, THEN pushed that into the wraps and hand attached the black wrap to the parts I put in.

Time intensive and taking more planning than it ever should have.  Yes, they looked good and had the right size and a lot of visual texture, but rethinking the item this morning I came up with a better way that goes together quicker and looks just as nice.

The white rice will be made first -- a rounded teardrop shape.  Attach all the extra fancy pieces including some textured yarn, then do ONE thickness of black but using black polar fleece instead of felt, and do a wrap around, tacking down just two edges to the teardrop shape.

No more making an empty cone and trying to adhere everything at the top. This way it's made more like the real thing where you just wrap and seal.  FAR easier.  I don't know why I didn't do it that way in the first place!

They sell 3 to a set, I wholesale them at $6 for the set.  Retail is whatever the seller wants to put on them as a price.  Boelter's restaurant supply store here in Milwaukee has containers at 25 cents each so the packaging is consistent. I add a label to the top by printing out what I want in the size I need, cutting those and using clear mailing tape over the label.  It attaches to the container top perfectly.