the most shit tutorial i have ever made in my life, sewing for those with poor hand-feet coordination.

hey yo i’ve been using ms paint for a while now (when i was 8 i didn’t know there was such a thing as piracy, so i was stuck to freeware that i was bad at looking up and this), and despite having ‘proper’ art programs now (except not i need to reinstall everything on win7) i still use ms paint like 90% of the time so i figured?? i’d make a tutorial on the tricks you can use in ms paint!

please note that i am using an older version of ms paint (windows xp) because it is easier for me to navigate. you can download it here (and you don’t really need to throw it in system32, it’s a regular .exe of small size)

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this is a tutorial in which i explain how to make cat ears with horns, like in this example (it kind of literally is that example). i kind of do things without planning ahead, especially when it comes to sewing, so there are no patterns and you should read the descriptions well because i’ll try and explain how to avoid making mistakes i made!

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[Click here if you wish to see the paper cat ears tutorial!]
[Click here if you wanna make these with horns!] 

Step one: Gather your materials. You will need iron wire, fabric, (cutting) pliers, a needle and thread and other sewing stuff (like pins, not pictured because I couldn’t find them at the time), and not neccesairily but certainly not a bad idea: a marker and stuffing. You do not need that half-consumed croissant.

Step two: Make the band. Your cat ears are going to be made around and on this piece of iron wire, shaped like a hair band. Consider it your canvas. Try it on to see if it fits (and make sure you cut off all the sharp pieces that stick out!), if you have troubles with the proportions go find a real hair band and use it for reference.

Step three: Bend the ears. Depending on what kind of cat ears you prefer, you might make these tall, short, straight atop the band or more towards the sides. The general rule I tend to use is that they are pyramid-shaped, pointing slightly forward. Remember to cut off sharp pointy pieces of wire that might penetrate your poor head!

Step four: Make the other ear, while making sure your ears are symmetrical. Try them on on your head to see if they fit right and look good (after making sure that you do cut off all the sharp little pieces)! When you are finally done with this, we move to the fabrics.

Step five: Cover the bottom of the band… Somehow. I have honestly no idea what I am doing. I am making the bottom of the band and the insides of the ears pink, while making the whole cover a lot darker. If you prefer, you can also make the bottom of the bad the same fabric as the top, or use white for a replacement of pink, or perhaps make light ears with dark insides… This is all up to you! After all, you are the catboy.

Step six: Once you’ve figured that out, cut off all of the fabric you don’t need and pin everything in place with your pins. This is the basis onto which you are sewing everything later on, hence we pin this in place first. Make sure you have enough fabric to flap over the sides around the iron wire, so that when you sew it up it will look nice and clean!

Step seven: Cut out a triangle and attach it to the front of the inside of the ear. This is the only place you are attaching it for now! The rest will be covered in another step.

Step eight: Cut out two more triangles, making sure there is enough space to flap them over, around the iron wire frame. You will have to attach these to the front triangle, and the line of iron wire that runs as the back of the ear. For a picture of that, see the next step.

Step nine: Sew those flaps from the back two triangles to the bottom of the inside of the ear. That triangle that you only sewed to the front in step seven. Make sure that you don’t sew through the bottom of the band, the first piece of fabric you pinned on. You might be using more or less matching thread, but I’d have little teal pieces of thread running over the bottom of the band if I wasn’t careful. So make sure you can still run your fingers between the bottom of the band and the bottom of the inside of the ear.

Step ten: Repeat step seven to nine for the other ear. When done, we can move to the top of the band!

Step eleven: Measure out a cover for one of the ears. Make sure you have a little bit of excess fabric so that you can still fold the sides double! Because it is important that this thing fits on right (the triangles for the inside of the ears could be a bit flubby), it is adviced to use a marker or something when cutting out the piece of fabric.

Step twelve: Pin it down and sew it on. This time, you’re only attaching it to the front triangle in the frame; the rest will come later.

Step thirteen: While you’re on it, you might as well stuff those ears! Put some stuffing in them and they’ll be soft and squishable and irresistable to touch. You’ll be putting a little bit (not too much and evenly spread, or they might become oddly shaped!) under each side of the ear, as well as in the space below it (between the bottom of the ear and the bottom of the band, the part you weren’t supposed to sew together).

Step fourteen: Repeat step eleven to thirteen for the other ear. I might have used a little much fabric there. Be sure to not lose any pins in the ears! I really fear for the safety of your head.

Step fifteen: Cut out a piece of fabric for the space inbetween the two ears. Make sure that this thing can fold at the sides! When you find a satisfactory piece, pin it in place, then start sewing.

Step sixteen: Fill it up with some stuffing before you’ve sewed it off completely! Again, be sure to spread the fluffy stuff evenly, so that your ears don’t become misshaped.

Step seventeen: Finish that up and realize you are nearly done with these ears! All that’s left now, is the sides.

Step eighteen: Cut out a strip of fabric for the side, sew it on, stuff it, finish it up, you know the drill by now (I hope)!

Step nineteen: Repeat step eighteen for the other side.

Step twenty: Be the catboy. It is you.

P.S.: If you want, it is possible to sew on ribbons or other decorations. They’re your ears, and that’s all up to you! The ears in the tutorial were made for a friend of mine, and I actually have no idea what he wants on them, so I haven’t sewed on any ribbons or flowers or shiny sparkly things or even lace or feathers. If you intend to decorate your ears, make sure that while sewing on the objects, you don’t pull your needle through the other side, that they are attached right and don’t come off, etc. Now, good luck, my fellow catboys!

[Click here if you would like to see how it’s done with fabric and iron wire!]

Step one: Get two papers and paste them together, side by side. You need a longer paper than an A4 to go ‘round your head.

Step two: Make a sketch on it. You’re going to have to mirror the ears on both sides to make it three-dimentional. Folding the paper and using a light source to see through the paper might help for making the sides identical.

Step three: Work out the sketch a little more. The back of the ears have to be a little bit bigger than the front because they have to reach over the band to make a pyramid (for reference, the green line within the lower ears was the mirrored sketch line of the upper ears). There should also be a fold line in them! And the front of the ears will have an inside. When you’re satisfied, trace the right lines in a colour you can see.

Step four: Cut along the black lines (also the ones that I drew through a large part of the band/lower ears line!) and ignore the dotted lines. Those are fold lines, you’re not supposed to cut them.

Step five: Fold the ears into a pyramid. If you succesfully made the back part a bit bigger, the front of the ears will stand forward. You’ll have to cut a corner out of the flaps you cut for the back of the ears for them to be able to reach the front of the ears.

Step six: Bend the band and tape a paper strip on it so it can’t bend back as easily. This is just for the model.

Step seven: Be the catboy.