A Girl and Geeky

Once in a while my friends and I participate in “Pay it Forward”. We volunteer to make something for the first five people that react to our on-line message. But as payment, those five people must offer the same and make something for others.

First thing I made was a Pusheen pillow. A friend of mine loves cats, but due to work and being away from home a lot, he cant have one as a pet. He also loves Pusheen.

There are official Pusheen plushies available, but this was all about crafting something yourself. I also wanted it to be something practical, so I decided on a pillow.

Using the inspiration from a Sir Pusheen plushie tutorial I slightly adapted the process to make it a pillow.

I got a huge piece of thick felt and traced pusheen’s outline onto it. After cutting it out, I used the sewing mashine to sew around the edges, leaving a hole at Pusheen’s butt. To save me trouble with handsewing the stripes, I put the tailstripes on during the initial sewing.

Turning Pusheen inside out was quite a challenge. The felt was a good sturdy quality, but that made it bunch up easily on the small parts like the paws, ears and tail.

Eventually Pusheen got right side out, and stuffing had to be done. And boy oh boy, was Pusheen a fat kitty! Sewing the last opening shut was a challenge with the sturdy felt and the amount of force on the thread. I was stupid enough to use some lesser quality thread I had lying around that was the right color. It didnt handle all the forces well, and broke up to three times, which had me cursing quite loudly and creatively.

But we got there. With Pusheen being such a big boy, it was almost impossible to sew on the details, making me revert to Vliesofix (also known as Bondaweb). I hope it turns out strong enough to hold the details on, but if they get rubbed off during use, they can always be ironed back on.

And here is the Pusheen Pillow in all its glory:

He’s got his mustache, monocle and tophat at a jaunty angle, like a Sir.