How to make an Arno Cat

Arno cats are soft toys that are easy to make. They make good gifts, as well as having your own.

Difficulty rating: Easy
Time: 1 hour to 2 hours hand sewn

What you need:

- 2 black buttons
- Lots of stuffing
- Black embroidery thread
- Sewing tool box
- Polar fleece for the body
- Contrast polar fleece or felt for the face
- Scrap of white felt for the eyes
- Template [ shown below ]

How to make the face

1. Cut out your arno cat template and place it onto your fabric. Cut around the template.

Note: Be careful when cutting your arno cat's shape. Polar fleece is a rather expensive material so you don't want to be making any mistakes;

2. Sew your white felt onto the face with a small blanket stitch.
3. Sew your two black buttons onto the center of each eye with a cross stitch using black embroidery thread.
4. Sew a small triangle, made up of small straight stitches, onto the center of the face, below the eyes.
5. Sew a smiling mouth with a back stitch that connects to the bottom corner of the triangle.
6. Position the face to the top of the arno cat's body, near the ears. Make sure it is straight.
7. Sew a blanket stitch around the face onto the body.

How to make the body

1. Turn your body right side out. Make sure your face is facing down.
2. Pin around the edges.
3. Sew a back stitch around the edges. Leave a gap.
4. Turn you body right side out and stuff through the gap.
5. Stitch the gap closed with a hemming stitch.

Your Arno Cat is finished!

Template: You may want to adjust the sizing.