**RERUN** Creepy Crafting With Cats ~ Part XIII ~ Halloween Special ~ How To Make A Pumpkin Pouffe and Some Other Really Fun Pumpkin Inspired Stuff

Welcome to

Supurr Spooky Greetings Pawesome Pals

Today we're rerunning last years Halloween Crafting with Cats post, so mew can get a headstart on proceedings and also because the P.A. has got a terrible head cold and is in bed and as she hasn't got the energy to finish the scheduled post today.

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Thanks fur joining fur us fur Part XIII of our Crafting with Cats segment. Mew know we have so much fun making all this stuff for feline enrichment, and we hope mew enjoy seeing it and/or making it too! 

If mew missed any of our previous CWC posts, stop by the Crafting with Cats Page and see all our previous projects, and mew don't have to be an expert in anything to make any of them.  Plus we offer workarounds and no-sew projects for those who don't like to sew.

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**A quick note before we begin**

All Crafting with Cats ideas and creations are of our own design and we share them fur purrsonal/home use only.

  So purrlease do not copy fur commercial/resale purrposes.

Copyright ©BionicBasil®

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This time we're making these pawesome pumpkin-inspired goodies, and just so mew know this is a bit of a monster-sized [pardon the pun] post.

Pumpkin Pouffe with Catnip Leaf Cushions and Catnip Stalk Kicker Toy ~ OH YEAH! 

Cute Mini Pumpkin Trimmed Halloween Bandanna's

Easy Peasy Pumpkin Collar 

Furst up is the 

Pumpkin Pouffe with Catnip Leaves and Catnip Stalk Kicker Toy

What Mew Will Need:

Pumpkin - Orange faux fur - our piece was 1m x 1.5m 

stuffing/wadding - we used the filling from 2 x 18" square cushions we had spare

Leaves - green fabric, wadding, catnip

Stalk - 2 x beige felt squares, wadding, catnip

threads - orange, brown and green

needle, scissors, chalk, tape measure

sewing machine or mew could hand sew if mew wanted

Optional Cat/s ~ Parsley, Smooch and Fudge were today's Craft Room Snoopervisors

TOP TIP

As we've never made a pumpkin before, instead of cutting into the faux fur straight away; we made a toile aka mock-up of the pumpkin to, a: see if the pattern worked and b: check that it was the right size - so if in doubt always make toile out of some old fabric or calico furst, as then if it doesn't wurk mew've not wasted your expensive fabric.

1.  Cut 6 x ellipse shape, ours were approx 12" wide by 27" long.

2. Pin edges together and sew each panel in turn.  On the last panels to be sewn leave a 6" - 8" gap to turn right sides out before stuffing.

3. Check size suitability - Parsley was on paw for this step and he said it was purrfect.

4. Stuff to check the overall shape and finished size.

So now that we're happy with the size, plumpness and dimensions etc...  we took our faux fur to make our pumpkin - mew don't have to make a toile unless mew want a bigger or smaller version than ours and to test it with your pet.

1. to 4. same steps as above on toile: cut, pin right sides together, sew and repeat with all panels, leaving a gap on the last seam.

5. Turn right-sides out.

6. Begin to stuff with the wadding.

7. Shape your pumpkin as you stuff until mew're happy with the desired amount of plumpness.  We didn't over-stuff ours as we wanted it to be nicely spongy, without being too full.  Hand stitch final part of seam closed.

8. This is how your finished pumpkin should look.

Optional Catnip Leaf Cushions and Catnip Stalk Kicker Toy

We had a look online as to the shape of a pumpkin leaf and drew straight on the fabric freehand. Our leaves are approx 9" x 9"

1.  We cut 4 pieces of some old green curtain fabric we had in stock from about 1999, but mew could use felt squares or any cotton fabric.

2. & 3.  We used the same technique as we did with our Snuggle Mats to sew the wadding in place: Wadding on the top and the two green leaves underneath with right sides together, and stitched all the way around leaving about 4" - 5" gap to turn right-sides out.

4. Turn right sides out and stuff with as much catnip as mew want, and hand-sew the final part of the seam together.  We grow our own organic catnip, so we used loads, as we think more is better!

And mew should now have something that looks like this. Many apologies for the cat fur, crumpledness, drool and teeth marks, we got a little carried away before the P.A. could take a picture - OOPS! MOL!!

Next, we made the stalk.

1. Take your furst felt square as modelled by Smooch.

2.  Fold the edge over approx 1" and stitch the entire length - on the shorter side of the square - to create ridge effect.

3. & 4.  Repeat until mew have something like this.

5. Fold felt in half ridge sides together, and draw stalk shape and sew.

6.  Cut excess felt away.

7. Turn ridge sides out.

8. Stuff with catnip and wadding to your desired plumpness.

9. Measure the diameter of the stalk and cut right-sized circle from remaining felt sheet, as modelled by Fudge.

10. & 11. Check it fits and hand-stitch all the way around.

12. Mew should now have something that looks like a pumpkin stalk.

Aftur all of that, put it all together mew should now have something that looks like this! 

OMC IT'S FLUFFING EPICALLY EPIC! MOL

Talk about an ALL-IN-ONE solution for snoozing, playing and recreational nip activities, this is beyond purrfection and let's see who loved it the best! MOL

Cute Mini Pumpkin Trimmed Halloween Bandanna's

What mew will need:

Fabric - we used cat-themed Halloween fat quarters

Mini pom-pom trim in orange

Thread; orange and colours to match your fabric

A quick-release collar safety collar

1. This is our fabric, isn't it epic?

2. Cut a triangle shape pattern with a straight edge at the top on the sides  - this is for the collar to go through. Our pattern dimensions are: 9.5" across the top edge and from the top to the point at the bottom it's 4.5" including a 0.5" seam allowance.

3. Cut 2 pieces of each fabric.

4.  Fold over and sew the small straight edge with a zigzag stitch. Repeat on all other pieces of fabric, so in our case we stitched 8 x edges.

5. & 6.  Place right sides together and stitch from the bottom of the zigzag seam along to the pointy bit and back up the other side, finishing at the zigzag stitching.  Then sew across the straight top edge, leaving a small gap to turn right sides out, as it would be rather fiddly to try and turn it right side out where the collar holes are.

7. Turn right sides out and press.

8. Mew should now have something that looks like this.

9. & 10. Take your pom trim and sew it around the bottom edge. 

11. Topstitch across the top straight edge to finish off the seam.

12.  Thread your collars through the holes and mew should now have at least one mega, funky bandanna like this.

Don't Fudge and Melvyn look epically EPIC?

**SAFETY NOTE**

Never leave your cat alone wearing a bandanna or clothes of any description.

Easy Peasy Pumpkin Collar 

What mew will need:

1 x collar - quick release safety type is our fav

Some orange pom-poms approx 1" size

  

 Non-toxic glue and/or glue gun

1.  Lay the collar out and see how many pom poms are required.

2.  Start gluing pom-poms onto the collar.

 3.  Continue gluing leaving clasp area fee.

4. It should now look like an over-sized orange caterpillar! MOL

Find a willing kitty model and voila; one pumpkin collar, looking epically epic on our very own Parsley who was the purrfect choice to wear this fun creation.

Doesn't Parsley look SPOOKTACULAR?

**SAFETY NOTE**

Periodically check for loose pom poms and don't leave your kitty unattended while wearing.

Check out last years epically epic Spooky House and Catnip Pumpkins 

Click here

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And that furiends furry sadly brings us to the end of our 13th Crafting with Cats post, we do hope mew liked it and if mew decide to make your furry own pumpkin-themed goodies we'd love to see.

Feel free to post your pawesome crafty pics on our Facebook page at:

Bionic Basil & The B Team @Facebook

We hope mew enjoyed our rerun today and feel inspired to get crafting, and we'll see mew on Wednesday when we'll be here with our weekly news round-up.

Bestest crafty purrs

MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team 

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Disclaimer:

We at BionicBasil HQ are not responsible or liable fur any injuries to person/s and/or cat/s, crafting addictions, glue on cats, paper cuts, misplaced pins and needles, cats stealing your supplies, broken scissors, cat fur stuck on your projects, or your project not turning out as planned.  By using this information you hereby agree to indemnify and hold harmless BionicBasil and staff from and against any and all claims for personal injuries or damages of any kind arising from use of any Crafting With Cats posts we may share.

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