Primitive Cat Dolls for Halloween
I find primitive dolls to be so charming, and especially well-suited to one of my favorite decorating holidays – Halloween! You can use Design Space and your Cricut to jumpstart this project on ordinary muslin fabric.
Materials:
- Muslin fabric
- Fiberfill
- Gesso
- Sewing needle and thread
- Acrylic paint in black, brown, terra cotta or pumpkin orange, and green
- Fabric scrap for nose and hat
- Gold pipe cleaner
- Buttons, 2 per cat
- Wood block, 2 inches
- Small diameter dowel rod, 4-5 inches long
- White glue
- Cricut with pen
Directions:
These primitive cat dolls can be created from a wide variety of cat silhouettes available free on the web or from Cricut Access. I modified the faces on my cats to make them simple and oversized by creating a new face from an oval shape sliced by an octagon shape in Design Space.
Draw the outline of a cat on a piece of muslin using a Cricut pen.
Cut a second piece of muslin, the same size as the piece with the pattern drawn on it. Pin the two pieces together and stitch through both pieces along the pattern line.
Trim the excess fabric close to the stitching line.
Cut a 2-3 inch slit in the back of the cat only. Take care to cut through only ONE layer.
Turn the cat right side out through the slit cut in the back.
Stuff the cat firmly using fiberfill. Use small pieces of the fiberfill to stuff the legs and the tail. A dowel or stick is a handy tool for pushing the fiberfill into these small spaces.
Stitch the opening closed.
Paint the cat doll all over using a generous amount of gesso and allow to dry.
Paint the cat black or a mixture of black and white and allow to dry. Overpaint the cat using brown paint thinned with a bit of water for a primitive look.
Cut a triangle from a scrap of fabric and attach it to the cat’s face using white glue. Glue or stitch two buttons to the face for eyes.
Cut a triangle and a circle from a scrap of fabric to make the hat. Glue a pipe cleaner along one long edge of the triangle and allow to dry. Roll the triangle into a cone shape and secure with white glue. Roll the top end of the pipe cleaner into a ball shape at the top of the hat.
Poke the bottom end of the pipe cleaner into a hole at the center of the fabric circle to make the brim of the hat.
Poke a hole in the top of the cat’s head using a craft knife or pair of sharp scissors. Insert the end of the pipe cleaner into the hole in the head and add white glue to secure the hat to the cat. Allow to dry.
Drill a hole in the top of the wood block that will fit your dowel rod. Place some white glue in the hole and insert the dowel. Allow to dry.
Paint the block orange and paint the dowel green. Allow to dry.
Poke a hole in the bottom of the cat. Squeeze some white glue into the hole and fit the cat onto the dowel rod, posing the cat however you would like.
Cut a couple of thin pieces of cardstock and roll into “curls” to glue to the top of the pumpkin.
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