Zombie Catnip Toy

Whenever I walk into a Petsmart or Petco, the cat toys are ridiculously cute. Pink feathered birds, blue mice with little red noses... not exactly my style. So when I saw this post from DreamALittleBigger for zombie catnip toys, I knew I wanted to make one. Now I don't have a sewing machine so I sewed it all by hand, which does make it take a little longer but you can definitely conquer this project.

So to get started, you'll need:

1. Green, pink, white, and black felt
2. Corresponding thread and a needle (if sewing by hand)
3. Catnip
4. Scissors
5. (optional) A marker


First, create your zombie body template. I drew mine by hand and have uploaded the pdf here, to save you some time Otherwise, create your own, cut it out, and trace around it on the green felt. Cut out two bodies (one for the front and one for the back).


Put the two bodies on top of each other and cut off whatever body parts you like. Be creative! Cut off a leg, part of the head, maybe some of the insides (but only cut the front body, in that case). It doesn't have to be perfect because, after all, it is a zombie.




 I decided to go with the original's and show the zombie's intestines. To do that, cut out a light pink piece of felt and using your red thread, stitch in the lines of the intestines. Once you're done, sew the pink felt to the green piece of felt that has a hole in it. Don't worry if the back looks like a mess because it will be hidden.



I decided to add some exposed brain so I did the same thing to the brains as I did with the intestines. Small piece of pink felt, red thread for the lines, and sewed to the head of the green piece of felt. I also added an eyeball, a line under the eye, and an X for the missing eyeball, just to give our little guy some character. And don't forget the mouth!



Once all the pieces of your zombie are in place, do a blanket stitch around the sides (if you're not sure how to do one, I walk through the steps in my "How to Make Felt Booties" post). Be sure to leave a 1-2" opening to pour in the catnip. Use a funnel or use your fingers to push the catnip to all the corners of the zombie. I decided to have the opening be the head so I could use my finger to push the catnip through the extremities.





One word of caution, if I may.... the thicker the felt, the better. The reason being, if you overstuff your toy (like I did), your cat may or may not chew a hole through it, which will require some repair. This happened about 15 seconds after I gave him the toy...

Other than that, you're all set! Your little zombie catnip toy is ready to be devoured!

Now isn't this so much cooler than a stuffed purple mouse? My thoughts exactly. 

WARNING: Your cat may or may not act like a zombie wanting brains. Batman was first curious, then ravenous, then paranoid.

TOTAL COSTS: About $6.50

$.33/color of felt at Michael's

$4.99 for catnip at Vons

Thread and needle on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About an hour and a half

20 minutes to make the template, trace, and cut out felt

20 minutes to make the intestines

10 minutes to sew them to the body

10 minutes to make the brains

5 minutes to make the eyes

15 minutes to sew the body

15 minutes to fill the body with catnip and sew together

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very hard): 3 out of 5

If you're not good at sewing (like me) you may find this more difficult than if you actually had sewing skills or better yet, a sewing machine. However, it's a zombie, so if the stitching isn't perfect, that'll just add to the zombie's character! 

How to Make Felt Booties

Babies to the left of me, babies to the right... they're everywhere! Sometimes I feel like the only woman who doesn't have a bun in the oven but that's ok, I'm happy to make things for other people's kids! For example, this post from Purlbee shows how to make felt booties, perfect for the wee one who'll grow out of them sooner than you think!

All you need is:

1. Some felt
2. Some embroidery thread
3. A needle
4. Some elastic
5. A printer and scissors to cut out the template
6. Some pins (about 20 pins -- 10 per shoe)

Cut out the pattern, trace it onto the felt (I didn't have an erasable marker so I just used a pen), and pin a long piece to a short piece. Pretty self explanatory, you're making a shoe!

By the time you're done pinning both shoes, you'll see they're approximately 4" long, the size of a 3-month old baby's feet. Hopefully.

And then comes the sewing... my big mistake for this project? Reading the instructions as needing "4-6 inches" of thread instead of "46 inches". I actually didn't need that much, I was able to sew with 36 inches. Now I don't know about you, but her instructions for a button hole stitch made no sense to me whatsoever so I turned to this video for help. See, you don't have to already know how to sew to do this project!

If you can't see the video, here's all you have to do: always sew from the back to the front and when the thread is almost taut, stick the needle through the thread and then pull it taut, like the photo below.

The hardest part for me was sewing the elastic, but it really shouldn't take more than 5 minutes per shoe. It's just making sure the elastic is sewn in on both sides that proves to be a bit awkward but not impossible.

And voila! Slippers for the little one!

TOTAL COSTS: About $18 (to make about 24 shoes)
$12 for 2 packs of different colored felt from Fiddlesticks in San Francisco
$.60 for embroidery thread from a knitter at Zoe Zeynep in Los Angeles
$2.59 for elastic from Michael's
$2.99 for pins from Vons
Needle, scissors, and printer/paper already on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: First time 1 hr. 20 minutes; Second time 54 minutes
First time: 35 minutes to cut out felt and pin shoes, 40 minutes to sew both shoes, 5 minutes to sew elastic
Second time: 16 minutes to cut out felt and pin shoes, 33 minutes to sew both shoes, 5 minutes to sew elastic
See? The more you do it, the faster you'll get!

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 3 out of 5
For someone who doesn't sew, I found this to be moderately difficult but not impossible! It does get easier the more shoes you make!