Fur-bearin’ Varmints, with Remnants

I had a good reason for wanting to make cat and dog purses…I just can’t remember what it was.

Oh yeah, I had some fake fur remnants.

fake fur remnants

I just recently bought the brown one, but I remembered having a white one somewhere. I looked all over, then found it at the bottom of a barrel full of fleece, minky, and other furry, fluffy fabrics. And I’d purchased the pattern back when Joann’s had a 5-patterns-for-$5 sale.

Simplicity 4376

I love this sort of thing. If the girls in Little Women had seen it, I’m sure they would’ve referred to it as “cunning.” “Cute” and “adorable” just aren’t descriptive enough! Plus, I’ve been camping lately, and seen more cute, cunning and adorable wild animals at close range. Check them out:

Mr. Squirrel

Mr. Cardinal

little deer

at Manatee Springs State Park

So beautiful!

Here are 2 of the finished purses.

2 cat purses

Although I had the furry remnants, this project called for lots of other little notions and things. Here’s the breakdown of what I used. Inner ears: minky remnants in pink (had on hand). Noses: I bought some pink heart-shaped buttons. I also bought some black Animal Noses to make some dogs later. Eyes: I bought a package of green Cat Eyes, thinking, “wow, I wish they had some other colors besides green.” Lo and behold, when I got home I found an old, old package of Cat Eyes in blue, in the bottom of my button box. Yay! I bought some regular-looking brown Animal Eyes to make the dogs later. Ribbon for the cats’ necks: had remnants on hand. Jingle bells for the ribbon collars: had on hand in the trusty button box. Cord for the purse handles: bought Parachute cord in several colors. Whiskers: used black hand-quilting thread and ran it through a block of beeswax. Zippers: had several on hand that were smaller than 7″ and they fit perfectly. Purse lining: had pink satin-like remnants on hand and also used a remnant that looked like it had been cut from someone’s double-knit pants hems. Tails: used feather boa from Joann’s, cut into 9″ lengths. Hand-sewed the ears on with white cotton hand-quilting thread.

Bob turned his back on the new competition

PS, here’s a pic of one of the dog purses.