DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Mouse Toy (for Cats)

The project requires either sewing or hot glue skills.  A child of age 7 or so could do the project with adult supervision.  Younger children can help stuff the project.

This makes a great gift for a child to make for a pet cat for Christmas, Valentine's Day or as a welcome to the family gift.

Materials:

• two pieces grey or white felt
• one scrap pink felt
• small bell 
• two pony beads.
• grey wool
• long piece of 1/4 inch elastic
• hot glue 
• needle and thread
• Pillow stuffing, cotton balls or toilet paper if you'd prefer a pillow to a bean bag
• dry catnip.
• scissors,
• scotch tape
• printer and paper

Instructions:

• Print out the template (see bottom of this page).
• Cut out the template pieces.
• Scotch tape the mouse body template to one of the pieces of grey felt.
  • Cut the shape from the felt
  • I scotch tape templates onto felt instead of pinning them as I find it easier...  It doesn't "buckle" as much.  It's very easy to just pull any tape off the felt after cutting
  • Make sure you scotch tape liberally!
• Repeat with the second piece of felt.
• Scotch tape the large ear circle to the grey felt and cut out.  Repeat a second time.
• Scotch tape the small ear circle to the grey felt and cut out.  Repeat a second time.
• Hot glue the ear middles to the ears.
• Sew the two beads and the ears onto one of the body halves.
• Put the two body pieces together and hot glue them, leaving a space at the bottom to add stuffing.
• Do a 2 to 4 inch section at a time (so the glue doesn't harden on you).  
  • The less experienced you are with hot glue, the shorter the section should be.
  • I usually have my daughter use a popsicle stick to press pieces together without getting any of the heated glue on her skin...  I just use my fingers.
  • My 9 year old daughter has been able to use my "low temp craft glue gun" with supervision for a couple of years.
• Fill with stuffing and catnip and glue shut
• Sew three pieces of wool through the mouse.  Braid to make a tail.
• Sew the black elastic at the same spot as the tail (you'll use this to pull around so the cat can chase the mouse).
• Sew the bell to the point of the mouse.

Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Template

Print friendly version of these instructions