Cat Crinkle Wrestling Sausage Toy

Another cat craft project!  I swear I'm not a crazy cat lady; I have just one cat, but he deserves fun toys to play with.  This Wrestling Sausage is a great idea I found online today at littlegreencat.com (full link at end of tutorial).  The sausage shape is perfect for wrestling.  It's narrow so it's easily trapped in a 'head-lock', long enough for back-leg scratching and it crinkles!  I included the following hi-tech features; a bell / rattle, a feather and ribbon streamers!  This toy was an instant hit.

 Materials

Rectangle of cloth aprox 12" x 5"
T-shirt cotton is cheap.  You could use any material that will withstand some scratching.  I don't recommend wool for this reason.  I used a patchwork of various material simply because it was going unused from a previous project.  The variety of texture might even be interesting for scratching.

Crinkly sounding stuff;
You can use any, or all, of the following.  Listed in order of crinkliness,
Mylar, clean crisp / chip bag foil, plastic shopping bag, tracing paper, Cellophane, regular paper.

A shoelace, piece of string or cord

Optional extra's

To make a rattle
A clean plastic lid from a shampoo bottle, glue-stick or something similar, aprox. 2" diameter.
A bell or bead.
Scrap of card
Tape

Feathers, ribbons or strips of cloth to make streamers.  I can't emphasise feathers enough!
Dried Catnip, if your cat is into it.

Method

Fold cloth in half lengthways, with right sides together.  Sew along one short side and long side.

Sewing short side.

Sewing long side.

This creates a tube.  Turn tube right side out.  Roll up the crinkly paper, scattering Catnip between the layers if desired.  Insert the roll of paper into the tube.

Crinkle power!

To make the rattle simply place a few beads or a bell into a plastic cap.  Cut a piece of card to close the rattle and tape the entire piece to ensure the beads cannot fall out.

Cutting guidelines shown on piece of card: Cut along the straight lines.

Place open end of cap on the card and fold flaps down the sides.

Tape it all up.

We'll bundle the rattle up in wool and cloth so that it won't be too hard.  I used black, fluffy wool but you could also use a few scraps of cloth or cotton wool.  I sewed this inside a scrap of cloth, being extra cautious considering there are small beads inside (choking hazard).

Rattle nestled in wool

Sewing the rattle and wool inside a scrap of cloth

Rattle done!  Now for the streamers.  I sewed ribbons, a feather and a shoelace onto a little scrap of cloth to keep them together.  The shoelace is for the human to play with, to make the toy move, wiggle and fly.

Finally, insert the rattle and the cloth end of the streamers into the open end of the sausage.  If there is empty space just stuff with more cloth, wool or paper.  Sew it up, and shake it at your kitty!

Streamers and shoelace attached.

I can't over-emphasise the importance of feathers.

Any other ideas for improving this toy?  I'd love to hear them.


Project idea from
http://www.greenlittlecat.com/day-15-weekend-homemade-cat-toy-ideathe-30-day-green-cat-challenge/