{"id":2600,"date":"2025-11-18T04:00:48","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T09:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/?p=2600"},"modified":"2026-02-11T19:00:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T00:00:58","slug":"stuffed-cats-and-stubborn-needles-a-beginner-sewing-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/projects\/stuffed-cats-and-stubborn-needles-a-beginner-sewing-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuffed Cats and Stubborn Needles: A Beginner Sewing Workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2602\" style=\"width: 285px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.34.00\u202fAM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2602\" class=\"wp-image-2602\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.34.00\u202fAM-236x300.png\" alt=\"The promotional poster created by the communications team at the FabLab.\" width=\"275\" height=\"349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.34.00\u202fAM-236x300.png 236w, https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.34.00\u202fAM-806x1024.png 806w, https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.34.00\u202fAM-768x975.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.34.00\u202fAM.png 1082w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2602\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The promotional poster created by the communications team at the FabLab.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The goal of this workshop was to have participants (a total of 8 people attended) learn basic sewing and cutting skills through the process of making a small stuffed cat. We started out by picking colors for our felt and thread, and then I instructed students how to thread a needle and sew on eyes. This part seemed to be the most challenging for people who have never sewn before, as threading a needle can be frustrating, and figuring out how to properly sew buttons can be a bit tricky. But after this step, everyone seemed much more comfortable and required less induction on how to sew both sides of the felt together.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Success: Everybody Made One<\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_2601\" style=\"width: 285px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.32.50\u202fAM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2601\" class=\"wp-image-2601\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.32.50\u202fAM-239x300.png\" alt=\"A photo of our participants hard at work.\" width=\"275\" height=\"345\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.32.50\u202fAM-239x300.png 239w, https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.32.50\u202fAM-816x1024.png 816w, https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.32.50\u202fAM-768x964.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.32.50\u202fAM.png 1012w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2601\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo of our participants hard at work.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was an option to attach a keychain to the stuffy, which some people chose. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since attaching the keychain can be challenging, I took the lead, giving a detailed explanation of what I was doing. By the end of the workshops, all participants were able to make at least one stuffy, with a few making more than one. We\u2019re hoping to do another sewing session soon, maybe expanding beyond cats to other animals or characters based on participant suggestions. I\u2019m hoping next time we get returning participants who enjoyed the community-building aspect of the workshop.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Finished Projects<\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_2604\" style=\"width: 285px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.35.58\u202fAM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2604\" class=\"wp-image-2604\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.35.58\u202fAM-259x300.png\" alt=\"A cat stuffy made by Franz-Hank.\" width=\"275\" height=\"319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.35.58\u202fAM-259x300.png 259w, https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.35.58\u202fAM-768x890.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.35.58\u202fAM.png 796w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2604\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A cat stuffy made by Franz-Hank.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_2603\" style=\"width: 285px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.35.01\u202fAM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2603\" class=\"wp-image-2603\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.35.01\u202fAM-260x300.png\" alt=\"A bat stuffy made by Alessandra.\" width=\"275\" height=\"317\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.35.01\u202fAM-260x300.png 260w, https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-24-at-10.35.01\u202fAM.png 706w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2603\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bat stuffy made by Alessandra.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The goal of this workshop was to have participants (a total of 8 people attended) learn basic sewing and cutting skills through the process of making a small stuffed cat. We started out by picking colors for our felt and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/projects\/stuffed-cats-and-stubborn-needles-a-beginner-sewing-workshop\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3260,"featured_media":2601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[92,63,93,94,95],"class_list":["post-2600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-projects","tag-cats","tag-fablab","tag-sewing","tag-stuffies","tag-workshop"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2600"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2945,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions\/2945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}