I made my hamster, Oliver, and my friend's two rats, Daisy and Bubbles, fancy accessories! A mini tie, two bow ties and a top hat. Don't these fluff balls just look adorable?!

PS: There is a photo shoot at the end....

Step 1: What You Will Need

Scraps of fabric
Felt fabric
Elastic
Needle and thread
Scissors
Measuring tape
Any type of paper if you want to make a template (I used old wrapping paper)
Fabric glue
A small fluffy friend

My seam allowance throughout the project was about 0.5 cm

Step 2: Tie

I used scrap fabric from a skirt I made a few years ago and a plain black fabric for the lining.

Cut a template if you want to. I made a three part template. Each part was 2,5 cm long. The front part was 3 cm at the widest part, the back part was 2 cm at the widest part and the middle was 1,5 cm wide.

Pin the template to your fabric and cut it out. Also pin it to the lining fabric and cut out only the front triangle part. You can cut the whole template out of the lining fabric as well, I just found that the tie becomes very bulky and hard to work with. Since the triangles are the only part of the lining fabric that you will see once the tie is finished, I only cut out those pieces.

Pin and stitch the lining triangles to the front and back piece, right sides together. Only stitch the front part of each triangle (the red line in the picture). Trim the fabric as close to the thread as possible, this will ensure that the tie has a nice crisp point and is less bulky when it is flipped around at the end.

Pin and stitch the three pieces, right sides together (the red line in the picture). You should now have a long piece of fabric with two black triangles at each end on the right side of the fabric.

Fold the whole piece of fabric lengthwise, right sides together, (with the lining triangles on the inside), pin and stitch the whole thing (red line), leaving the ends open. You should now have a long cylinder with the wrong side of the fabric facing the outside.

Now you are going to flip the whole tie inside out. Take a clothespin and pin it to one end of the tie. Push the clothespin through the cylinder, pulling and dragging the fabric along on the inside. This should flip the tie the right way around with the lining fabric triangles on the outside.

Now take the lining triangles and flip them around as well, so that they are on the inside of the tie. You can use a toothpick or anything else small enough to help you form a nice crisp point at the ends of the tie. Tuck in the ends and stitch it closed.

Iron the tie to make it flat and to ensure the ends stay pointed.

Fold the tie and there you go!

Step 3: Bow Tie

For the bow tie, I just used a piece of black elastic and other scraps of fabric.

Measure the neck of your little fluff ball. Mine was about 6 cm. Cut that length of elastic and sew the ends together.

Cut a rectangle of fabric, keeping in mind how wide or long you want the bow tie to be. Mine was about 1.5 cm wide and 8 cm long, which resulted in a 0.5 cm wide and 4 cm long bow tie.

Pin and stitch the fabric, right sides together, lengthwise, to form a cylinder.

Now you are going to do the same as with the tie to turn the whole thing inside out. Take a clothespin and pin it to one end. Push it through the cylinder, pulling the fabric along with it. You should now have a cylinder with the right side of the fabric facing the outside.

Take the two ends, bring them together and press them down in the middle of the piece of fabric. Stitch this together. Then take a piece of thread and wrap it around the middle where the ends now are, cinching in the middle. This should form a basic bow tie shape.

Use small strip of fabric to attach the bow tie to the elastic by wrapping it around the middle of the bow tie (covering the thread) and around the elastic at the back. You can stitch or glue this in place.

No need to iron the bow tie, just puff up the ends.

Step 4: Top Hat

Cut a rectangle and two circles out of the felt fabric. The bigger circle is for the bottom of the hat, the smaller circle for the top and the rectangle for the hat itself. The width of the rectangle will determine how tall the hat will be. Mine was about 2 cm.

Put fabric glue on one side of the rectangle and roll it up to form a small roll.

Put glue on the top and bottom of the roll and glue it to the two circles, the small one on one side and the bigger circle on the other. Make sure it is in the center.

Let the glue dry and you got your little fluff ball a top hat.

You can, of course, attach a piece of black elastic to the top hat to keep it secure on your fluffy friend's head. Just glue it in place with fabric glue.