Easy Embroidered Felt Cat Toys

Today I’m making embroidered felt toys for my cats Apollo & Artemis using my Cricut Maker. If you don’t have a Cricut or similar cutting machine, you can also make these toys by cutting the felt shapes by hand.

This easy DIY project is great because the possibilities are endless. I just made catnip-stuffed toss toys today, but the project inspired tons of ideas: Christmas tree ornaments, scented rearview mirror ornaments for the car, hanging cat toys to attach to pole (for cat-fishing haha), play food for a child or doll, coin purses, baby mobiles, etc.

I already had all the supplies needed for these toys at home. So far I’ve made two toys: a watermelon (tutorial below) and a fish. But I want to make a bunch more; my cats LOVE them!

Check out the tutorial below. The first set of instructions outlines how to create your pattern and cut your felt using the Cricut machine; if you don’t have a cutting machine, you can either print or hand draw a pattern on paper and cut your felt. Happy crafting!

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Embroidered Felt Cat Toys (Watermelon)

Supplies:

• felt (for watermelon- pink, green, and white)
• embroidery thread (I used pink & green)
• fabric marker or permanent marker (I used black)
• needle
• scissors
• catnip
• stuffing (optional, I used polyester fiberfill)
• felt glue (optional)

Creating the Felt Shapes Using Your Cricut:

1. Open a new project in Cricut Design Space. From the canvas, select Images. Type “watermelon” in the search box and locate the image below. Select it and click Insert Images. 
2. Click UnGroup and separate the four layers. Then delete the brown layer. The white & green layers will have curved lines inside them. To prevent these lines from being cut, select the green layer then click Contour. 
3. On the Contour screen, select all of the curved lines, but not the semicircle itself. When you’re done, click the “X” to close the pop-up screen.          
4. Repeat the Contour step with the white layer. (Note: at this point, I edited the colors of my project to reflect the actual colors of my felt.) Then select each shape and click Duplicate. 
5. It’s time to Make It! 
6. Follow the prompts on the screen to mount each color of felt to your adhesive mat (I used the “FabricGrip” mat that came with my Cricut Maker.) 
7. On the next screen set your material to “Felt” and load your blade into Clamp B. The Deep-Point Blade was recommended but since I don’t have one yet, I clicked Choose Another Blade and selected Rotary Blade. 
8. Load your mat into the Cricut and click the blinking “C” button to start cutting. Once the cutting has finished, unload your mat and remove the felt. Repeat this step with all three colors. 

Assembly:

1. Using your fabric or permanent marker, color-in the space where your “seeds” sit over the white felt piece. 
2. Use felt glue to secure the pink peice to the white felt, then the white piece to the green gelt. (Optional: If you don’t have felt glue, you can pin your felt shapes together then stitch them instead of gluing.)                                                                  
3. Stitch around the pink semicircle using pink embroidery thread to secure the pink & white pieces to the green. Tie off the stitches on the back of the green felt. Repeat steps 2 & 3 with the second watermelon.          
4. Create a “sandwich” with the two watermelon pieces, placing them back-to-back. Then, stitch around the curved section using green embroidery thread, creating a little pocket to fill with catnip and/or stuffing. 
5. Fill your felt “pita” with catnip and/or stuffing. 
6. After stuffing your toy, continue stitching along the top edge to seal it up. After tying-off, you’re finished! 

My cats LOVED these toys!                                                                                                                                                                             

In fact, they loved “helping” me make them too! Haha.                                                                      

I also made this little fish toy: 

 

I’m looking forward to making more catnip toys for Apollo & Artemis. There are so many cute “stuffies” you can make with felt! I think next time I’ll experiment with other stitching techniques to create a different aesthetic.

Have you tried making your own cat toys? Looking for more embroidered felt inspiration? Please share your thoughts & ideas below.

Thanks!

KC

 

**UPDATE**

The day after I posted this, I decided to create a few more felt catnip toys, this time playing around with different stitches. I loved the way my watermelon turned out, so I thought I’d stick to the “people food” theme. Yesterday I made toys shaped like a slice of pizza and an iced donut. Check out the pictures below!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

 

Apollo & Artemis approve!