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