The Sewing Machine Broke, Smooch's Tough Design Choices and The Cat From Quality Control - Says YES! on The Pet Parade 315 with Dash Kitten, Barking from the Bayou and US!

Pawesome Wednesday Greetings Furriends

Welcome to the Pet Parade and our weekly news round up!

What a week; we were making a few more snuggle mats and the sewing making started to smoke, so we had to take evasive action, get the fire extinguisher and put it out and the P.A. too who was using it at the time.  No she wasn't smoking it was just unfortunate fur her! MOL MOL [she wasn't impressed, though we think she should be grateful fur our swift thinking and action].

So anyhoo the machine is broken, we have to take it to see if it can be repaired this week, but the good news is, we have another one so the snuggle mat production line didn't get interrupted - WOOO HOOOO!

Smooch's Tough Design Choices

As chief designer this week at BBHQ, Smooch has had some really tough design choices to make, such as;  what colour pom pom trim to use on the snuggle mats, what size pom pom trim to use on the snuggle mats and what fabric to make the snuggle mats from - woah too much pressure fur sure!

At this point Smooch was a rock in a hard place and didn't know if he wanted to use the mustard yellow pom pom trim or the purple, like we used fur HRH Erin's mat. Choices, choices.... aftur an awful lot of deliberation he chose the purple.

**Meanwhile in another part of BBHQ**

The Cat from Quality Control - Says YES!

Melvyn is supurr focused when he's wearing his Quality Control Officers hat; just look at that intense concentration, nothing will distract him from his job - well a pile of primo catnip would but apart from that he's incredibly dedicated to the task at paw.

He likes to test things such as:-  mat comfort and size, overall springiness, fabric quality, fabric softness/smoothness/type, pom poms etc... its a furry involved job but it is rather rewarding especially when mew get pawesome feedback from extremely catisfied customers.

"Smooch, this one is a pass!" Melvyn shouted before he added it to the growing pile... see below.

These are the ones we've made this week.

If mew missed anything offur the last week, here's the latest posts fur your purrusal:

Friday Fluffers ~ Raspberry Blowers

Sunday Selfies ~ Solo Selfies

Completely Random Link #1

Completely Random Link #2

Completely Random Link #3

We'll be back on Friday with another Fluffer post, so we do hope mew can join us then and don't furget to hop along on the Pet Parade below.

Bestest purrs

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team xox

❤

Go visit our pawesome host

The Dash Kitten Crew

 & Co Host

Barking From The Bayou
❤

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**NATIONAL CRAFTS FOR YOUR SHELTERS WEEK** Craft-Fest with Cats ~ The Snuggle Mat ~ Day Three ~ Plus The Pet Parade Blog Hop

Welcome to our week long craft-fest 

NATIONAL CRAFTS FOR YOUR SHELTERS WEEK 

Here's a quick re-cap just in case you missed Mondays post:

Everyday this week we'll be showing you how to make all kinds of stuff to take to your local shelter to give the kitties and K9's so they get to feel some love, and you get to flex your crafting skills. Any excuse to make something right? MOL

Now we know that some peeps don't sew and/or don't have access to a sewing machine or the like, so we will be incorporating some ideas that are completely NO SEW during the week, and don't think that the items are just for us cats, 3 of our items are for our K9 furriends too, so don't panic we've got you covered - of course we do, we're The B Team we've got everything covered! 

Also we love to upcycle, recycle and re-purpose items here at BBHQ, so most things can be made without having to buy anything in.

Here's what we've got on offer throughout the week

 As modelled by our youngest B Team memfur; Melvyn, and you can see he's absolutely blissed out.

1. Snuggle Buddy    2. Kicker Toy    3. Snuggle Mat  

4. Mini Cardboard Scratcher    5. Catnip Cracker

SO LET'S CRAFT ON

Today we're going to show you how to make this super easy snuggle mat.  This is purrfect for all kitties and K9's and can be made in any size and/or shape of your choosing.  Plus it's takes no time at all to run up on the machine, so it's a really quick project if you're short on time.

What you will need

Fabric*

Wadding**

Sewing machine - needle and thread

Pins

Scissors

>^.^<

*Fabric ~ for the top we used a fleece robe that the P.A. was looking to re-purpose, and for the backing we used a piece of this: Ikea STOPP FILT - Rug underlay with anti-slip which the P.A. bought ages ago to use under a rug in the lounge but then found the rug skidded all over the floor, so it was promptly packed away and put into stock, and it was purrfect for this project.

**Stuffing ~ we used regular 1" thick wadding as we also had that in stock.

*    *    *

Lets Begin

1. Here's the super soft fleece robe pre-scissors.

2.  We cut the entire back panel out and decided that we could make something approx  24" x 18" with enough for a 1" seam.

3.  We then cut the grey fabric aka former Ikea rug underlay and wadding to size - 25" x 19"

4. Then we tested for softness, at this point if you want another layer of wadding, feel free to add one.  Though we felt this was a rather nice thickness.

5. Layer your fabrics together in this order.

a. wadding

b. top*

c.  bottom*

*b. + c. = right sides together.

6.  Pin all the way around and sew, leaving about 12" gap so that you can turn the snuggle mat right-side out.

7.  You should now have something that looks like this.

8.  Trim excess off the seams.

9.  Turn the snuggle mat right-sides out.

10. It should now look like this.

11.  Turn in edges and pin. We hand stitched this final part of the mat together.

12. Your finished snuggle mat should now look something like this.

Here's our finished Snuggle Mat

Smooch has been loving the mat, yet Melvyn keeps going and hoofing Smooch off and getting all snuggled and not wanting to share.  So the moral of today's post is: make more than one as somepurrdy might be upset like Smooch!  AWWWWWW just look at his little face, and yes he will be getting his very own snuggle mat when the P.A. feels a bit better and makes a batch for the local shelter.

*    *    *

If you missed our previous Crafting For Your Shelters posts, here's the links:

The Snuggle Buddy   Kicker Toy



And that furriends furry sadly brings us to the end of Craft-Fest Day Three. We do hope you've enjoyed it and feel inspired to make something, and we'd love to see how your projects turned out so feel free to post your pawesome crafty pics on our Facebook page at:

Bionic Basil & The B Team @Facebook

And if there's anything you'd like us to make, leave a comment with your idea/s.  

We'll be back on the morrow with how to make the fab Mini Cardboard Scratcher and do hope you can join us then, until then...

Keep calm and craft on

Bestest crafty purrs

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team xox

Don't forget to join in today's pawesome Pet Parade 

with

  Dash Kitten and Barking from the Bayou 

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If mew missed any of our previous Crafting with Cats posts, here's the links:

Merlin's Wizard Hat   Smoochie's SupurrHero's Cape  Magical KittyLantern

Supurr LuxePom Pom Hammock  KittyObservatory ~ Cativity Centre

Halloween CatnipToys  Valentines Heart Crinkle Mat  

PuzzleTreat Box ~ Fish Fur Treats   Haunted HouseSet & Catnip Pumpkins

Catnip Easter Eggs

Disclaimer:

We at BionicBasil HQ are not responsible or liable for 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. Be super careful if you're using cutting tools, take your time and always cut away from yourself and we do recommend that you wear some special cut resistant gloves like this: Cut Resistant Gloves for Safety. these are just an example we found on Amazon and this is not an affiliate link. This project is not suitable for younger readers without parental/adult help. 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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