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 I recenlty bought Amy Butler's "In Stitches" book. It is full of great projects for making items for the entire house. But when I saw her Kitty Tunnel pattern, I knew that had to be my first project to tackle. I made some dog beds last year, and our cats seem to enjoy laying on them as much as the dogs. I decided it was time they had their own place for relaxing.
 The pattern is very basic and easy to sew. It is a long tube. The exterior being a beautiful print that coordinates with your decor, and the interior being a warm fur for your cats to snuggle in. Amy adds a drawstring so you can close up one end if you (or your kitties) prefer. The project took me about 90 minutes. It took me longer than expected because I didn't have a piece of fur large enough for the project. I have all sorts of fur pieces, but all of them were too short. So I had to spend some time piecing together different furs to create a piece large enough for the project. It was good though because it used up a lot of fur scraps I had about.  Once that was done, the project itself took only about 45 minutes. I created the channel for the drawstring according to the pattern, but I didn't make the drawstring. I was too excited to see how the cats reacted to it to spend extra time making the drawstring. Plus, I guessed that my cats would like it more open. I'll have to make the drawstring eventually to see how the kitties enjoy it closed.
The cats haven't taken to the tunnel like I dreamed they would have. As I sewed, I had visions of them curling up inside the tunnel all day long. They do enjoy curling up inside our blankets on the bed, so I thought this would be just the same. Plus it would keep our bed linens fur free (okay, they'll never be fur free, but at least it would be less fur). The cats were a bit wary of it at first. I've tried putting bits of food or catnip in the tunnel to entice them inside. It does work for a bit, but once the food is gone or they've reached the peak of their catnip high, they jump out of the tunnel.  In fact, I'm more likely to see them sitting on top of the tunnel, than laying in it. But I guess that is better than them not using it at all. On a few occasions, I have seen on of the cats napping inside the tunnel. I'm hoping that as time goes on, they'll use it more. Perhaps they need to get it covered with their smell before they feel comfortable with it. Either way, it looks cute in the living room. And isn't that what matters? ;)
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