Hand-Sewn Mini Stuffed Kitty

I had yet another plane flight ahead of me this week, so I decided to tackle a project that I've been putting off for a while. On one of my favorite blogs, See Kate Sew, Kate made this totally cute little deer and elephant from a pattern that looked pretty simple. How adorable is this?

Check out Kate's post here.

The pattern for this little stuffed animal was posted here. I had some corduroy and leopard fabric that I thought would make a cute combo. I originally tried using my sewing machine as Kate suggested, but completely ruined the head on my first try. I let it sit for a few weeks so I wouldn't throw my sewing machine against the wall, re-cut the head fabric, and then packed up all the fabric and some needle, thread and stuffing, and brought it on the plane! Took me about three hours and was a little painstaking, but I got upgraded to first class and watched the Hangover 2 on Directv for most of the time, so it went by pretty fast.  

The body was definitely the easiest part. The head was a bit harder to get together, and when I was done and I set it on top of the body, it looked nothing like a little deer. But it did look a lot like....a cat! So I folded the ear pieces in half to make a triangle and assembled the tail a bit differently and decided to roll with it. My little kitty doesn't have a face yet as I am in a hotel now and don't have access to my craft bin, but here she is frolicking on my hotel carpet:

I do wish I had used a bit more of the leopard fabric in creating this, but it's a pretty sweet little stuffed animal. The thread did show through a bit on the seams, but luckily I used purple thread, so it just looks kind of shabby chic. If anyone of you who are more talented with their sewing machines at a small scale try this, do let me know!