Just in Time for Dios de los Muertos: Skeleton Kitty!

I'm just so happy to have this one done.  I don't mean that in a "damn, this project sucked so hard I'm so glad that's over, let us never speak of it again" kind of way but in a "I set a goal and I met it" kind of way.

Yes, that's exactly how I feel about this adorable kitty.

So freaking happy that I got it done and it looks really good (if I may say so myself).  I'm particularly pleased with the face.  The chain stitching on the mouth came out really well and I love how well the fangs ended up.  I had to free hand the mouth bits so I was kind of nervous it would end up wonky.  It didn't and now I'm all smiley like my cute skeleton kitty.

There he is in all his glory (and a little bit over exposed, no photographer am I).

As you can see, it's a kind of futzy pattern but not a HARD pattern.  Just a lot of hand stitching to get all the cute bones properly placed.

And in some spots (like the fish) you have to put layers of felt details on.  You have to stitch the eye details onto the black eye dot then put the dot onto the body piece then put the rib pieces over the body piece, then add the mouth and fin details.  All by hand.  Yes, I'm sure you could do it with a machine if you had a free motion quilty (whatever it's called) foot and a bit of skill, but I don't.  It's not hard to hand stitch it, though when I was turning the pieces right side out I was worried my hand stitching wouldn't hold.  It did just fine (and I was gentle with my turning) but it still gave me a fright.

I didn't have any issues with this pattern, either.  It was very straight forward.  That's not to say my item is perfect.  You can see in the fish bone pic that I have an ugly dip on the side where I stitched the stuffing hold closed.  And the cat's right arm (one on the side with his tail) isn't caught completely in the seam.  I *just* missed it.  It's not a big deal since this will just be a display item for me (no one will be dragging this kitty around by his weak arm or anything) but it's still a flaw.  I know what I did wrong, too.  I needed to pin the limbs in deeper and that wouldn't have happened.  Life and learn.

I'm just so happy to have him done so now I can add him to the Dios de los Muertos shrine I'm making for my deceased cats.  That's the whole reason I bought the pattern (well, that and I've always wanted to try out a pattern from Dolls and Daydreams).

Would I make this pattern again?  Yes.  I've already thought about ways to use it to make non-skeleton cats, which would make the process a lot faster.  I think I saw someone use this pattern to make a grumpy cat and I might have to steal that idea.  Would I make another skeleton version?  Only if someone wanted one as a gift and/or was paying me to sew it.  I don't really NEED more than one skeleton version for myself.  A non-skeleton version would be cute for the Fluff Project (so I might look into that).

Curious about where to get the pattern?

Dolls and Daydreams  There are so many cute patterns there, all loosely based on the basic body shape of the cat (there's even a dog skeleton with homework in the belly!).