Fat Cat free crochet pattern

The Fat Cat 

I saw a cute picture of a cat stuffed animal/pillow a while ago, and thought it would be fun to work one up... This is what I came up with on my first try. This was a great scrap yarn project, using up cakes of yarn that were just a few ounces each. This worked up quickly, since I used HDC, a double strand of worsted weight yarn and a K hook. I think I might go down to a J hook for the next one, since there are some gaps where the stuffing shows through.

I think I used about 8 ounces of yarn. I started with red, and when I was close to running out, I swapped out one strand of the red with orange, and did about one row with red and orange together. I continued that with all the color changes, doing one row of mixed colors between the color changes.

This guy took a lot of stuffing... make sure you have nearly a full bag of stuffing on hand!

Uses: worsted weight yarn (2 strands held together)
Size K crochet hook
Cartoon safety eyes (I got mine from Wish... but be careful if you order from them... of the six items I ordered, three weren't what I expected... I got safety noses without backings, "safety eyes" that were just painted eyes with no backing, and plain black eyes when I thought I was getting color. These cartoon eyes were pretty cute, though! I just needed to make something with a really big face to make them work!)

Fat Cat ends up being about 10" tall and 12" long. He's soft and squishy and cuddly, and can even double as a pillow.

My gauge: 9 stitches and 7 rows = 4"
Gauge isn't really all that important with this project... if you want your cat to have a longer body, you can do more rows.

Head/Body: worked in continuous rounds without joining
Row 1: 8 HDC in Magic Ring (8)
Row 2: inc in each stitch (16)
Row 3: HDC, inc, repeat around (24)
Row 4: 2 HDC, inc, repeat around (32)
Row 5: 3 HDC, inc, repeat around (40)
Row 6: 2 HDC, inc, 2 HDC, repeat around (48)
(yes, you could do 4 HDC, inc for row 6, but staggering the increases like this helps to keep his face round rather than an octagon)
Row 7: 5 HDC, inc, repeat around (56)
Rows 8 - ??? - work even in HDC (56)
Keep working until your work measures around 12" from Row 8
Before you get too far, embroider his nose, mouth and whiskers, and insert safety eyes (if using). I think he would also look cute with crocheted eyes: a long oval with little black pupils added.

I made a triangle over the bottom half of my first round, and kept making stitches until it was filled in. Then I did one more long stitch across the top to make it look neater. Then I stitched a straight line down from the point, across about two rows, then followed the curve between the rows for the smile. I did three lines on each side for whiskers. 

Decrease row 1: 5 HDC, dec, repeat around (48)
Decrease row 2: 4 HDC, dec, repeat around (40)
Decrease row 3: 3 HDC, dec, repeat around (32) Stuff the body
Decrease row 4: 2 HDC, dec, repeat around (24)
Decrease row 5: 1 HDC, dec, repeat around (16)
Decrease row 6: decrease around (8)
Finish off, leaving a long tail. Use long tail to close hole.

Ears (make 2)
Using the color you were using around row 8, two strands of yarn held together and K hook:
Leaving a long tail for sewing later, chain 18 and join to make a circle.
Ch 1 and sc in each chain. Place a stitch marker at the halfway point. You will continue to sc in rounds, decreasing at the beginning (marked by the yarn tail) and the halfway point (marked by your stitch marker). Keep working in rounds, decreasing two stitches per round, until you have three stitches left. Gather up a loop from each stitch and pull through. Finish off. Using yarn tail, sew to round 8 of the head.

Tail: 
With two strands of yarn and K hook:
Row 1: 8 sc in magic ring
Row 2: sc, inc, repeat around (12)
Rows 3 - ??? keep crocheting around in sc until tail is desired length. I made mine about 8" long.

Leg (make 4) I made mine with the same/similar color to the stripes where I would be placing them.
Round 1: 6 HDC in Magic Ring
Round 2: inc in each stitch (HDC) (12)
Round 3: HDC, inc, repeat around (18)
Rounds 4-7 - work even in HDC (18)
Finish off, leaving a long tail to sew to bottom of body