I'm not really 'into' internet famous cats; that is to say, I'm not really into internet famous cats that have huge followings, lots of different content, and lots of merchandise (I love cat memes, though, and the cats that get famous from them, such as Longcat). Except for Pusheen.
I'm not a super fan or anything (I don't get the sub box, for example), but I really love Pusheen's simple, Sanrio-esque design and pastel/soft colors. So I was excited to find that there are Pusheen craft kits, including a crochet kit!
This kit was surprisingly easy to find; I got mine for about $25 on Amazon. There are two other craft kits, a cross stitch kit (not to be confused with the mini $10 kit) and a plush kit, that are much harder to find. I could only find the cross stitch kit available via European sellers on Amazon and ArtBox, and I don't think the plush kit currently exists. I wasn't able to find it available anywhere, nor any photos or information on it. Even the publisher's site, Stone Fox/Koch Media, had no mention of it...
This kit comes in a reusable metal Pusheen lunchbox, and is one of the most all-inclusive kits I've seen.
It comes with an instruction manual that has the pattern for two Pusheen-themed plushies (a Pusheenicorn and Pusheen holding a donut). Even though I'm pretty sure this is a UK-based kit, the instructions are in US crochet terms...
...four colors of yarn (the box says wool, but I think they're using it in a more generic way as I'm pretty sure the included yarn is not wool. It is very soft, though, and seems to be good quality)...
...some stuffing (spoiler: there was no where near enough stuffing included in this kit to even make one of the designs, much less both)...
...four colors of felt (it's very stiff which makes it easy to cut, but also soft and opaque, except for the white), two colors of sewing thread (brown and dark grey), stitch markers, a sewing needle and yarn needle (both metal), a G/4.00mm size crochet hook (metal!), and a pair of scissors.
I was very surprised by the scissors as even the most comprehensive crochet kits I've completed up till now haven't included scissors. Unfortunately, the scissors are the worst quality item in this set, and are not able to cut the intricate shapes the patterns need from the felt, much less cut yarn.
One thing I find interesting is that there are no pictures of the finished plushies on the outside of the packaging, only in the instruction manual. I knew what to expect since I looked up other photos of the kit during my quest to find the cross stitch and plush kits, but it would have been nice to have at least one photo on the packaging.
I'm not a big fan of using felt to add accents/details to crocheted projects; if it can be crocheted, I would much rather do that than sew it on with felt. Plus, the included thread colors are much darker than the felt colors, so the stitches would be very obvious. The sample photos in the instruction manual appear to be either be made using different colors of yarn, felt, and thread, or to be color corrected, as they don't match the included materials. I understand why they chose to add details in felt (they would have had to include more colors of yarn and it would be difficult to embroider Pusheen's face), but I didn't like the finished look and substituted my own yarn when possible.
The first pattern in the manual and the first Pusheen I finished was the Phuseenicorn. I decided to crochet the horn instead of using felt (the white felt was not opaque and I wanted it to be more sturdy), and I made the mane and tail using chains of slip stitches instead of looping in yarn bunches per the instructions.
Even though I don't like to use felt, I do like how it looks for Pusheen's face and stripes, as they would be hard to embroider perfectly. I did not, however, sew the felt details on and instead used fabric glue, as the stitches were very obvious and did not look good. I don't think it works well to sew such fine details on such a chunky piece. The pattern itself was very simple, as Pusheen is basically a cylinder with four small bumps for feet and two flattened triangles for ears.
I ran out of stuffing while filling the Pusheenicorn's body, so the body and feet of this plush, and the entirety of the second plush, were stuffed using my own stash. Honestly, it might have been better to not include any stuffing and throw in another color or two of yarn.
The other, slightly more difficult pattern is Pusheen with a donut. This pattern was interesting; you crocheted her body, leaving two holes at the top, where you sewed the ears on. I've seen this type of pattern before, but you usually crochet one ear, finish off, reattach your yarn to the other hole, then finish the second ear. This makes the ears look seamless, whereas this technique, of sewing separately made ears to the holes, leaves a very noticeable seam.
Along with the face and stripes, the instructions say to sew felt stripes to the tail and to make the yellow part of the donut out of felt (even though the pink frosting is crocheted). It was much easier for me to use some of my own yarn to make the tail stripes (I got as close to a color match as I could) and to use the included yellow yarn to make the donut. I'm really not sure why they had you make it out of felt, since I basically used the same pattern for the frosting and sewed two sides together to make it a little more substantial, and the kit already included the yellow yarn.
Besides the ears, this was also a very simple pattern since, again, Pusheen is just a (cute) tube with feet.
Finally, I had enough yarn left over to make a Pusheen Donut!
Except for the stripes on the tail and head (I embroidered them this time), I only used yarn from the kit. The donut turned out much bigger than I expected (it's a little bigger than my hand, including the tail and ears), but it's very soft and squishy.
After making both plushies and the donut, I still have a bunch of yarn left over. Again, I really like the feel of this yarn, it's like a chenille, so I'm happy to have to extra. Plus, I get to keep the cute metal lunchbox everything came in!
Overall, I think this is a good kit, and the $25 cost is reasonable for everything you're getting (I think Pusheen metal lunchboxes themselves are $10-$15). I wouldn't recommend this kit for absolute beginners as, even though the patterns are simple, I can see the ears of the Pusheen with a Donut being confusing, and the felt features are fiddly.
If you are going to purchase this kit, I recommend having your own stuffing stash, a good quality scissors (I used a curved embroidery scissors to cut things out, and it took a lot of careful trimming to get the face right), and fabric glue (or different colors of thread if you'd prefer to sew the details on).
Thank you for reading! <3
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