Sew a Christmas Cat: An Easy Sewing Project for Beginners

These simple softies make an easy sewing project for beginners. My four-year-old started making them yesterday. So far she has made seven!

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Sew a Christmas Cat

Every Monday morning, my three oldest children go off to school. That’s the sign for my youngest daughter, Anna, to go into project mode. Every Monday, this girl is a craftaholic! We paint wood, draw pictures, and make things out of cardboard.

Yesterday, Anna wanted to sew a Christmas Cat. This was inspired by the book, The Christmas Day Kitten. Anna made her kitten white because then it looks like snow. But she used pink thread because she loves pink.

Simple Softies for Kids to Sew (Beginner Sewing Project)

Her Christmas Cat completed, Anna decided to sew cats in more colors, as well as dogs and butterflies. We came up with some very simple sewing patterns (see below, if you’d like them for yourself). Anna picked out colors of felt and thread, and spent the morning sewing up a storm.

How to Sew Simple Felt Toys with Kids

You don’t need any fancy materials to make this easy sewing project for beginners. Here are the materials we used.

Materials

• Felt. We used nice craft felt for this project. 100% wool felt would have been nicer, but this worked well enough.
• Fabric shears (these cut through felt like butter, unlike many household scissors).
• Needle and thread.
• Clover Wonder clips.
• Stuffing.
• Pattern – see below to download. It’s free.

Anna hasn’t done much sewing, so we kept this sewing project simple. I cut out the pieces for her, and used Clover Wonder clips to hold the edges in place. Anna used a whipstitch to work her way around the edges.

She left a section open at the bottom to stuff.

Then she stitched the animals shut after stuffing.

Finally, she used an Ultra Fine Sharpie pen to add a face. She also signed her name on the back of each animal.

Would you like to make these with your child? Download the pattern!

More Sewing Projects for All Ages

I created this post as part of the Sew a Softie for Christmas campaign. Want to keep sewing with your kids? You can find the rest of my sewing tutorials here – I have something for everyone! Tag me on Instagram or share a photo on my Facebook page if you make one of these softies with your kids!

MaryAnne Kochenderfer

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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.