Made It - The Cat's Meow

Hello! Interior decorating trends come and go, and when they go, the "must-have" accessories that have fallen out of fashion often end up in thrift stores.

Of course, if one waits long enough, the rejected trends become fashionable again. It seems that 1980's country-style decor hasn't come back yet, though, so I often see patterns for various decorative stuffed animals of that era at the thrift stores. The animals are usually shown sewn up in rather muted colors that seem dull to me. For example, this:

This pattern set is called Felicia and her Friends and was produced by the Putnam Pattern Company in 1985. Despite the embroidered faces and the stenciled hearts, they just don't look very interesting. But at only 25c for the pattern, I figured I could make a more colorful version. 

And that's what I did over the weekend:

With thrift store fabric, mismatched vintage buttons and coordinating trims tied around their necks, I think that these cute kitties have an updated look. The fabric print is similar in color to the shower curtain/bath mat set I'd gotten at Target awhile back, so these cats were made to hang around in our upstairs bathroom. In fact, the smaller of the two fits perfectly inside the groovy beaded plant hanger seen HERE.  (there was a hook for a hanging plant already in the bathroom ceiling, so that's where the plant hanger went. But until now it never had anything in it!)

Lesson learned: don't hesitate to buy a pattern for an outdated look at the thrift store - just update it!