Cat plush or plush cat? Yeah, it's a cat pillow.

Cat plush for my office.
These days, I'm all about pillows. Don't know why. Maybe I have a subliminal need to get comfortable. Maybe there are too many sharp edges in my life.

I think my pillow spree is about building sewing mojo. Lately I've approached creative endeavors with lightness, humor and openness to learning. So far, it's feeling pretty darn good, better than it has in a long while. In this spirit, I'm following whims, and my whims make me make pillows.

Cat plush discovery


This sweet little project has been stuffed in my WIP box for a year (or more). I saw this cat plush on Instagram and freaked out a little bit, because this pillow looks pretty much exactly like Mrs. Mimi Whiskers, one of my two tuxedo cats. Behold:

Baby Mimi and her pillow twin!
I reached out to the Insta account and discovered I could buy this magnificent objet d'art from Spoonflower. She's Penny, the Pretty Warming Kitty; fill her with rice, and she's a microwaveable heating pad.

I wanted this Pillow Mimi cat plush to sit on my office futon, so I stuffed her with poly-fil and called it a day.

Making the cat plush


Getting the pillow underway.
This project was incredibly gratifying. I crushed it, from beginning to end, while my older kiddo was at afternoon 4K and my younger kiddo napped. I'm not a fast sewer, so this was big doings for me. It took me less than the length of one "Modern Sewciety" podcast! (Granted, it was an hour-and-three-quarters-long podcast, but finishing anything in one sitting is THE BEST FEELING, am I right?)

The Pillow Mimi fabric was washed and dried right after I got it. Making the cat plush called for a little bit of lots of sewing skills (because it's little pillow): cutting, sewing, pressing, stuffing, and hand sewing.

I'm pretty proud of my stitching here. Thank goodness for my foot with marked seam allowances.
The only other thing to report about this project was that I hand stitched the pillow at the bottom, even though the directions indicated that you should close it up at the top — between the ears. I don't know about you, but I don't want to make my hand sewing any more noticeable than it needs to be.

Mimi's still cuter than her pillow, IMO. And so is Gato, our other tuxedo cat. He's our CTO (chief tuxedo officer). It's like tuxedo cat "Inception" at my house.
I'm not done with pillows. I have some sentimental fabric items that I've been hanging on to, and now is the time to act. I'm making over my sewing room/home office. I need more inspiration and comfort in this space, and I'm nearly giddy over my pillow plans.

What sort of projects help give your sewing mojo a kick in the pants? Do share!

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