The Eyes Do Not Have It

Maybe it's time to take a break from Craftster for awhile. :) I saw something on there a few weeks ago that stuck with me: upcycled white sweatshirts turned into eyeball cat toys stuffed with catnip. I thought this was wildly innovative and I wanted to give it a try. Plus, sewing on the iris and pupil onto each eyeball was just a reason to play with the various stitches on my new machine.

I used Silver Penny's ball pattern for the white part of the eyes, and freehanded cut the pupils and irises. The white part of the eyes came from a Kid's Gap long sleeved shirt from the thrift store. I should have used a sweatshirt instead but I was in a hurry and didn't feel like going through allllllllllllllllllllllllllll the shirts to find a white sweatshirt. The colored pieces came from my stash.

Hannapt used four sections for her eyeballs. Silver Penny used six sections for their eye pattern. I think that if I had used four sections instead of six, they would have turned out smoother. I should have also used interfacing or fusing or whatever it's called to stabilize those colored parts before sewing. They look a little ratty to me without it.

I was actually hoping to make about twice as many eyeballs, so each cat I was sewing them for would get two for Christmas (Dixie, Odin and my sister's two cats). But I didn't like how they were turning out, so each cat is getting just one.