This colorful yarn-wrapped cat craft is great for young kids to practice their fine motor skills while keeping them focused for a bit!

Most people enjoy Halloween because it gives them a chance to look at the many creative Halloween costumes people come up with. However, I tend to deviate a little – I love looking at how people dress up their cats!

I can imagine it can’t be easy to put a cat into a costume, so I appreciate the effort that goes into it! But dressing cats is not something new – it’s been around since the time of the ancient Egyptians!

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A Quick History of Cat Fashion

950s BC: Cats enjoyed a high status in Egypt and were often adorned with jewelry, mainly for religious reasons
Late 19th century: Cats began to be considered more than just rat-killers, and wealthy Victorian women began to dress their pet cats in custom outfits made from silk and velvet
1880s: English artist Louis Wain became famous for selling cat portraits featuring anthropomorphised cats
1959: French fashion designer Jacques Fath dressed his cats in custom outfits for a photoshoot, which became an instant hit
21st century: The social media boom gave rise to ‘catfluencers’, showing cats dressed in special costumes, especially for holidays like Halloween and Christmas

Sounds like a lot is happening in the world of cat fashion, and we’re not complaining! Cats look adorable when dressed up, as long as they’re comfortable and safe. If you don’t have a pet cat to dress up yet, don’t worry – we’ve got a little yarn-wrapped cat craft which you can use to dress up a cardboard cat!

Colorful Yarn-Wrapped Cat Craft for Kids

Supplies required:

Yarn in multiple colors
Thick cardstock or cardboard
Googly eyes
Black Sharpie or marker
Pencil
Craft glue
A pair of scissors

How to make the Yarn Wrapped Cat Craft:

1. Download and print the Yarn Wrapped Cat Craft template. The template has the outline of cats in different sizes, and you can choose the one you like.

2. Trace the cat template on thick cardstock or cardboard and cut it out. Make sure you’re using something thick, so that it doesn’t warp when you start wrapping yarn around it.

3. Turn the cat cutout to the other side. Select a strand of yarn and glue its open end near the bottom edge of the cat cutout, in line with the beginning of the cat’s tail. Look at the image below for guidance.

4. Turn the cat back to its original position. Start wrapping the yarn around the cat closely, so there are no gaps between lines of yarn. We want our yarn-wrapped cat craft to look neat!

5. To decide when you want to stop wrapping your yarn, here are a few things to consider. Decide how many colors you want to use, so you can split the area on the cat’s body accordingly. You’ll need less of each yarn if you’re going with 4-5 colors, and more of each yarn if you’re choosing only a few colors. Once you’ve decided that you’ve had enough of your yarn, bring it to the back of the cat cutout and cut. Then secure the open end with glue.

6. Now, take a strand of yarn in a different color and glue the end of the yarn exactly where you stopped in the previous step.

7. Now repeat steps 4 and 5. When done, move on to your third yarn and repeat step 6.

8. Continue till your yarn-wrapped cat craft is completely covered with yarn. Make sure the ends of the yarn are glued in place. Allow the glue to dry completely.

9. Attach two googly eyes in a straight line in the center of the cat’s head.

10. Use a black marker to draw the mouth and nose under the eyes.

That’s it – your yarn-wrapped cat craft is now complete!

Doesn’t your yarn-wrapped cat craft look like he’s wearing a sweater? The best part here is that you can play around with the yarn colors. You can use 4-5 different colors, or just two colors in an alternating fashion. Your choice of colors can be complementary or analogous. Who thought a simple cat craft could become a study in color theory?

If you’d like to make more cat crafts, check out these projects: