Easy Felt Mer-Cat Plushie Sewing Tutorial for Beginners – Free Printable Pattern for Kids - Cat Mermaid, Kitty-Maid, MerKitty

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I’m so excited to help you make this super fun Mermaid Cat felt plushie … or maybe Kitty-Maid? Honestly I don’t know what to call it, but I do know that I love mermaids I think this adorable friend is fun, and so cute in all the best ways! This project is great for kids ages 8 and up (with a little adult help). Along the way, you’ll learn beginner sewing stitches and create your own MerCat friend. Ready to get stitchin’? Let’s go!

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What You’ll Need:

Felt (in your chosen colors for body, belly, tail, shirt and ears)
Free MerCat pattern (link below)
Sharpie Markers (or similar) for tracing
Embroidery floss (try to match the colors to your felt)
Needle with the big eye / Embroidery Needle (a child-friendly one works best)
Scissors
Stuffing (polyester filler, scrap felt, or even ripped-up plastic grocery bags)

Free Printable Easy Mer-Cat Cat Mermaid Felt Pattern Click Image to Download and Print

Click Image to Download and Print

Step 1: Cut Out Your MerCat

Download and print your free Mermaid Cat pattern. Use your marker to trace the shapes onto your felt. Remember to flip any shapes that need to be cut twice; this ensures a perfect match when you sew. After tracing, carefully cut out your felt shapes, trimming any visible marker lines where possible. Don’t throw away your scraps; they can be great for stuffing your kitty!

Step 2: Stitch On the Nose (with Embroidery Floss)

Now it’s time to give your kitty maid a cute little nose! Place the felt head stripe and nose pad circle where you want them on the cat’s face, making sure the circle nose pad overlaps the stripe where you’ll be sewing on the nose. Use embroidery floss and a few stitches to make a small triangle or oval right in the center of the nose pad.

✨ How to Stitch the Cat’s Nose

Cut a small piece of embroidery floss (about 18 inches is plenty).
Thread your needle and tie a knot at the end.
Push the needle up from the back of the felt where you want one side of the nose to start.
Make a small stitch by going down across to the other side of where the nose should be.
Come up again in a new spot and keep stitching back and forth to fill in the shape.
A triangle or oval shape works best!
Keep your stitches close together so there are no felt gaps.
When you’re happy with how it looks, flip your felt over and tie a knot on the back to hold it in place.

💡 Tip: Go slow and use short stitches—you can always add more to fill it in!

Step 3: Sew On the Eyes (with Knot Stitches)

Use knot stitches to sew each eye.

✨ How to Knot Stitch

Thread your needle and tie a knot at the end.
Push the needle up from the back of the felt where you want the eye to go.
Pull it all the way through.
Go back down very close to the same spot to make a small stitch.
Repeat 2–3 times in the same place to make the eye “pop” and look bigger.
Tie a knot on the back to hold it in place.
Repeat for the second eye!

😄 Step 4: Add a Smile (with Backstitch) Optional Step

This step is a little trickier than some of the others, but if you want you can add a mouth to your cat with a backstitch! Sometimes I find it helpful to lightly draw where I want the mouth to be with a pencil so I can trace over it with my thread, but you can also just free hand it without drawing tracing lines.

Starting under the nose, use a backstitch to add a mouth to your cat.

✨ How To Backstitch

Start by pushing your needle up through the felt from the back.
Move forward a small bit and push the needle down again.
Now bring the needle up a little ahead of the last stitch.
Go backward into the end of the previous stitch.
Repeat: up ahead, down back into the last stitch—this makes a smooth line!

🪡 Step 5: Sew the Mermaid Cat’s Head Together (Blanket Stitch & Running Stitch)

Now it’s time to put the two head pieces together. Line them up and use a blanket stitch starting at the bottom of the Mermaid Cat’s face, and go to the side about where it’s eyeball is. Pause there to add the MerCat’s ear.

✨ How to Blanket Stitch

Thread your needle and tie a knot.
Start at the edge of the felt, push the needle up through one layer, pull it through.
Go down through both layers a little bit forward.
Before pulling the stitch tight, slide the needle through the loop of thread.
Pull gently so it makes a little “hook” along the edge.
Keep going around the edge of the cat’s head.
Once you’ve stitched along the side to where you want to add the ear, stop.

Step 6: Add the Cat’s Ear (Running Stitch)

Line up the two pieces of the cat’s ear, with the smaller (in my case pink) piece in front and the bigger (in my case tan) piece in back. Add the two ear pieces between the two head pieces on the cat. Use a running stitch to attach it.

✨ How To Running Stitch

Push the needle up from the back of the fabric.
Move forward and push it down again.
Keep going: up, down, up, down, leaving little spaces between stitches.
It’ll look like a dashed line. Easy and fast!

🪡 Step 7: Finish Sewing the Cat’s Head (Blanket Stitch & Running Stitch)

Go back to your blanket stitch to sew across the top of the cat’s head, making sure that you’re sewing the head stripe in, in addition to the front and back of the cats head.
Once you’re across the head stripe, add the second ear with a running stitch.
After the ear is added, continue with a blanket stitch —but leave a small gap for stuffing.
stuff the head gently, then finish sewing it closed. Tie a knot to finish!

🖐 Step 8: Attach the Tail, Belly, Shirt & Arms (Knot Stitches)

Take the body pieces of your cat, and decide if you want the round belly to be at the bottom of the cat, or under the cats neck. You can sew it in place with a running stitch, or you can layer the cat’s arms over the belly piece, and sew the belly piece in as you add the arms with a simple knot stitch. You also need to decide if you want to include the cat tail with your mercat or just have the mermaid tail, as well if you want the mermaid shirt or not. All the options are great and the cat mermaid will look super cute all of the ways.

Layer the belly, shirt, and arms on the front of the cat.
Use knot stitches to attach the arms to the front of the body, making sure to sew through the shirt and belly when you do.
Use knot stitches again to attach the tail to the back body piece.

🧵 Step 9: Sew the Mermaid Tail to the Body Front and Back (Running Stitch)

Now it’s time to sew the mermaid tail to the front and back pieces of the MerCat’s body
Place the front of the mermaid tail on the front of the cat body, and tie a knot stitch at the end with sewing thread that matches the tail.
Use your running stitch to go across the the top of the tail, attaching it to the cat body.
Knot if off when you reach the other side, and cut your thread.
Repeat those steps with the second tail piece and the back of your cat’s body.

🧵 Step 10: Sew the Mermaid Tail Together (Blanket Stitch + Running Stitch)

Now it’s time to sew the tail front and back together!
Place the front and back of the tail together.
Use your blanket stitch to go from the side of the tail to where you add in the tail fin.
Add the tail fin at the bottom and do a running stitch along the “v” to attach the tail fin.
Continue with the blanket stitch to the top of the mermaid tail and tie off your stitch.

🧵 Step 11: Sew the Body Together (Blanket Stitch + Stuffing)

Add your sewing thread that matches your cat body.
Knot your string to the felt on the cat body right about the mermaid tail.
Use your blanket stitch to go all the way around the cat body—leave a space to add stuffing.
Gently fill the body with stuffing until it’s nice and squishy.
Finish sewing it closed and knot it off tightly.

🪡 Step 12: Connect the Head and Body (Ladder Stitch)

Last step—attach your Mer-Cat’s head to its body using a ladder stitch.

✨ How to Ladder Stitch

This is a sneaky stitch that hides the thread between the pieces.

Line up the bottom of the head with the top of the body.
Push the needle up from inside the head’s bottom edge.
Go straight across into the body, then come out just a little forward.
Go back across into the head, and repeat.
You’ll make a zig-zag that looks like rungs on a ladder.
Pull gently as you go—it’ll close the gap like magic!
Tie a final knot to hold everything in place.

🎉 Step 13: Enjoy Your Felt Mer-Cat!

You did it! You’ve sewn a soft, silly, one-of-a-kind Mer-Cat all by yourself. Great job learning stitches and creating something awesome. Now swim around and show off your new handmade friend!