Kittens for Halloween

Kittens for Halloween was based on a buddy bears program my sister participated in Apex, North Carolina where her quilt group made bears for the local police to carry along in the squad cars. They would hand them out to children traumatized or scared in some way by a car accident or domestic violence. Her original pattern, which I scanned and printed out at 130%, is below the kitten face that I used as a guide to transform a teddy bear to a kitten.

I overlaid a transparent face of a kitten to help me judge the shape and placement of the cat ears and where to locate the eyes and nose.

Using a very stiff interfacing I cut out a template that I could use over and over again to trace out the front and back of the kittens in various Halloween fabrics. After sewing, turning, and stuffing I planned to draw on the faces with fabric paint. The instructions explicitly stated that the fabric needed to be washed first. My guess is so that the sizing would be removed so the paint could stick.

I tossed the six kittens in the washer. When I pulled them out I was surprised to see there was stuffing scattered in the drum. Apparently I had missed whip stitching closed the opening on one of the kittens. The stuffing was easily gathered and pushed back in his leg but then I wondered, "What now? Can I sew closed a wet kitten?" Putting it in the dryer still open would just suck that fluff up the dryer vent. I learned that the answer is, "Yes. You can sew though wet cloth." There is a bit more friction but it still is possible.

I then proceeded to paint on the faces. The three dark prints needed white faces to show up.

 

I tried black paint on the three light prints but the faces did not show up very well.

I switched, unsuccessfully, to white paint and eventually found the best option was white paint on the beige kitten and neon orange on the other two kittens. By now, I suspect the only reason the faces are more visible is that, with three layers of paint they are practically three-dimensional.

I took the six kittens with me this past weekend to give to my son's family of six as Halloween decorations. His two oldest girls, ages 7 and 5, played with them for a bit at a home we rented near the beach. Then the litter was carried south home with them and left there for adoption, one per family member.