Chickenfish pattern

My first chickenfish is now undergoing roadtesting by two kittens belonging to my son and his fiancee and seems to be bearing up well, so I'm ready to share my pattern with you. 

As I've made it in honour of FosterDadJohn and his kittencam, I'd like to ask you to only make it for personal use unless you make a donation to purrfectpals, the charity that John fosters for. If you are wondering what I'm talking about, it's time you watched the kittencam!

You'll need yellow felt for the body, red felt for the fins and tail, optional wadding to pad the fins and tail, black and white felt for the eyes, and toy filling. I used a carrier bag full. I used straight and zigzag machine stitching and handsewed some parts.

 My felt was supplied by MinervaCrafts.com (thank you!) and you can read all about my struggles designing the pattern here and here. Details of materials used are at the bottom of the page.

Clicking on each picture will enlarge it. I've added measurements to help you to duplicate my efforts, but to be honest it isn't rocket science and your versions may well be better than mine! Additional details of how to sew your chickenfish are in my previous post here.

Fin: Make three the same. Fold each fin piece in half, sandwiching wadding between if you wish. Zigzag stitch around edges, add (optional) top stitched details. The folded edge will be sewn inside the body seam later.

Main body: Cut 6 "rainbow" shapes in yellow. Position and pin top fin halfway along outer edge of one body piece pointing down, then add the second body piece on top so that it will be inside when you sew the seam. That makes more sense in the pictures below. Sew outer and inner seams. I've allowed one centimetre (half an inch) as seam allowance.

The next photo show the body section turned the right way out, seam inside. Stuff with toy filling from each end. You *might* find sewing the tail on easier if you don't stuff yet, but it'll be very tricky stuffing the whole thing from just one open end. Judgement call!

The remaining two body pieces are sewn in the same way but the side fins are positioned nearer to the front (see photo below)

Pin chickenfish's rear ends together, folding a 1cm (half an inch) seam allowance at both ends and handstitch securely. Very securely! Kittenproof!

Tail: Place tail in position, matching the centre of the tail to the seam and handstitch securely.

Now add wadding (if used) and pin sides of tail together. Zigzag stitch as with fins, topstitch details (optional). You will probably need to finish by handsewing as the stuffing will prevent the machine getting up close!

Join front ends in same way, then position and pin top section and stitch in place. Take care to line up seams, it helps give chickenfish a face. 

Eyes: Cut two white circles to size (mine are 1" across because that was the size of the nearest round thing!) and two smaller black circles. Stitch together, then in position.

HAIL!

You are welcome to use this pattern free of charge for your own kitties, but if you choose to sell your chickenfish please make a donation to help support FosterDadJohn and all the others who help PurrfectPals.

I'm not a professional pattern writer (can you tell?) so if this fails to make sense, please let me know and I'll correct it. You can find more detailed sewing information in my previous post here.

I used 18" wide Plain Acrylic Craft Felt Fabric in Yellow (My 2.5 metre roll has made two chickenfish so far and have enough remaining for another two.)

1 X 18" x 18" Squares Plain Acrylic Craft Felt Fabric red felt for the fins and tail

The wadding came from my stash but I think Minerva's lightest weight wadding would be fine. 
Black and white felt also came from my stash, as did the toy filling. I used a carrier bag full, I don't know what weight of bag that would be, best to check before ordering! Minerva have filling and eyes if you prefer to use them.

I will be making A FEW chickenfish to sell, with a donation going to purrfectpals, so if you're interested please get in touch with me using the contact details at the top of the page or through my shops: Niftyknits at Etsy or Niftyknits at Folksy

Chickenfish #2 (son of chickenfish?)

This is the photo that started my sewing adventure, many thanks to FosterDadJohn from the Critter Room for permission to use it, and of course don't miss the FosterKittenCam where you can see the original ChickenFish and find out why we say "HAIL!" :-)

You may have noticed some time has gone by since part !! There has been considerable scratching of head and much advice sought and given by people who are so much more experienced at sewing than I am. A big thank you is owing to MinervaCrafts.com who supplied my materials.

(Please note this is not a pattern as such, not yet, more an exploration of my sewing learning curve! the pattern will come later, and will be free to use with the suggestion that you help support the kitten cam by donating to PurrfectPals)

Jackie suggested trying gathering the fabric rather than the mass of tucks I'd tried last time, so I gave that a go:

The felt is quite thick though, so was too puckered. Worth a try though! 

My reason for trying to shape a rectangle rather than just cut out "rainbow shapes from the start was to save fabric, but Janine Basil asked me "Is the saved amount of fabric worth the amount of time taken to mark out and sew all the darts?" Oh so very true!

Back to my scrap fabric...

Here are the two together. No puckering, which is good, but somehow the arch has become too tight, and I could see that the "feet" need attention.

I cut my template in half and stretched it out a bit to give a wider arch, and also trimmed the ends to get a better angle. (Don't tell anyone, but I didn't think of this when I made the first one...)

So - on to the fins and tail. I cut a template for the fin and then doubled it with an extra seam allowance in the middle to allow me to sew it inside the seam.

I wanted the fins to be sturdy so I decided to add wadding between the two layers of felt. 

Felt doesn't fray, so no side seams - I just zigzagged along the edges. Feeling confident so added extra top stitching detail!

Yay we have fins! I cut my arch shapes from the rectangles that hadn't worked out, economical to the end! The scribbled bits at each end are my afterthoughts, these needed trimming. 

This was where it got complicated. I needed to make sure the fins were in the right place, and facing in the correct direction. The top fin is in the middle, the side fins are nearer the front - and need to match! I laid it in place, right side out, first (you can see where the seam allowance on the fin will slip inside the main seam).

Turned it down, ready to put on the top arch

Ready to pin and stitch. I sewed the top edge first so that I could turn it out and check. 

ooh it worked!

 After stuffing I could see that I was getting there!

Because felt doesn't fray I could have just oversewn the two sections together, but I thought that tucking in a seam allowance would be more secure. I was keen to keep the stuffing on the inside, and you know how sneaky little claws can be! I stitched the two sides together first, just at the back end.

I couldn't resist holding the other piece in place!

I wanted to make the tail really secure, so stitched it in stages. I cut it double on the fold like the fins, but no middle seam allowance this time. I cut some wadding to pad it out.

I lined up the middle of the tail along the seam at the back, making sure I matched the midpoints, then backstitched backwards and forwards, paying extra attention to each edge.

I put the wadding in the middle and pinned both edges together. 

I then zigzagged the edges as with the fins. I couldn't get right to the edges as the main part was already stuffed, so finished off by handstitching. You might like to stuff later, then the machining would be simpler. I didn't think of that!

Finally, it's time to stitch the front end in the same way as the back, then add the top. I was more concerned with making it cat-secure than with beautiful stitches and kept tugging the seam and putting in extra stitches wherever I saw a gap.

Eyes came next. I chose to make mine from felt circles, black on white, and stitched them in place.

And finally - to sit and guard my screen and admire the real-life counterpart! HAIL!

I will be writing another post with a pattern, but for now I hope you enjoyed my sewing journey!

I'd like to thank several people for helping with ideas, all have online shops that are well worth a peak!

JackieCardytextiles bags, brooches and more

www.janinebasil.com hat maker extraordinaire!

ModeAlisa dressmaker

HJDcrafts who even drew up a cutting plan for me!

SeeTheWoods accessories and cases for everything

and last but definitely not least MinervaCrafts.com who very kindly supplied the materials for this project. Their online store has grown even while I've been sewing, and they were helpful enough to pick out the matching thread for me when I couldn't decide which was best (it was 202)

I used 18" wide Plain Acrylic Craft Felt Fabric in Yellow (My 2.5 metre roll has made two chickenfish so far and have enough remaining for another two.)

1 X 18" x 18" Squares Plain Acrylic Craft Felt Fabric red felt for the fins and tail

The wadding came from my stash but I think Minerva's lightest weight wadding would be fine.

Black and white felt also came from my stash, as did the toy filling. I used a carrier bag full.

Kittencam and Chickenfish

Each day MrNifty and I have to have our kitten fix on livestream, all the way from America. John fosters kittens for Purrfect Pals and streams video 24/7. Kitty bliss!

One of the kitten's favourite toys is chickenfish, you can just about spot it in the middle of the screen - and I have knitted a tiny version to hang on a keychain.

I'm posting the pattern I designed free for your personal use, but I'd ask that you don't make them to sell unless you donate the profits to Purrfect Pals, the charity John fosters for.

Before I get to the pattern: I used double strands of DK wool simply because I have lots of it in my stash. If you choose to use a single strand of thicker yarn, that will work fine. My patterns aren't rocket science, try it and see what works for you. I used smallish needles and thick yarn to get a fairly solid piece of knit so that it will "stand up" by itself. Using single strand DK will result in a floppy fish.

You'll need a small amount of yellow DK yarn (light worsted weight), an even smaller amount of red DK yarn, a pair of double pointed needles (3.25mm, UK 10, US 3), a keychain and a pair of googly eyes. The yellow part is knitted as i-cord, there are lots of tutorials online if you're not sure how to do this.

Using TWO STRANDS of yellow DK yarn, cast on 3 stitches (leave a few inches of yarn for sewing up later) and knit i-cord for 10 inches (25cm). Cut yarn, leaving about 6 inches or so and pull through.

Now for the fiddly bit! Fiddle with your yellow tube until you've got it into chickenfish shape - basically 2 thirds will be the bottom loop, with the last third going from tail to nose. Use your yarn ends to sew in position, you may need a few extra stitches to "tweak" the shape at either end. Don't cut off the yarn yet, you'll need it to sew on the keychain.

Fins: make 3, red yarn, garter stitch. (It's a bit fiddly, but results in a sloping fin rather than just a square.)
cast on 4 stitches
row 1: knit
row 2: slip 1, knit 1, pass slip stitch over, K2 (3 stitches)
row 3: inc 1, knit 3 (4 stitches)
row 4: repeat row 2
row 5 inc 1, cast off all stitches.

Tail: make 1, using red DK yarn, garter stitch (just knit)
cast on 4 stitches
row 1: knit
row 2: knit 1, increase by knitting in back and front of next 2 stitches, knit 1 (6 stitches)
row 3: knit 6
row 4: knit 1, increase by knitting in back and front of next 4 stitches, knit 1 (10 stitches)
row 5: knit 10
row 6: Slip 1, knit 1, pass slip stitch over, cast off till 2 stitches remain, knit 2 together, cast off. Cut yarn leaving a few inches for sewing on.

The tail should be fan shaped at the moment. Take one of your ends of yarn and stitch through the middle and pull tight, this will give a better "fishtail" shape - then stitch to whichever end you have decided looks most like the bottom!

Stick the googly eyes either side of the other end with superglue, or embroider eyes if you prefer. Craft glue probably won't do the job, it's not easy to persuade knitted yarn to stick!

Stitch the fins on either side and at the top - and then decide where you want to attach your keychain. I tried two positions:  between the eyes, and just behind the top fin. It's up to you.

Hail Chickenfish!

Now I know some of you won't want to wait...so if you would like one of the two I've knitted, I've listed them in my Etsy shop here. I promise to donate £5 from each purchase price to Purrfect Pals.

oh...and before I go, if you're here before February 9th, don't forget to enter my giveaway here!!