Ask a cat to sit still for a photo and they will leave the room. Ask nothing at all and they will fall asleep in a patch of sun in a perfect curl for two hours.

That second photo is the one we want.

A custom cat pillow is a cushion printed with your own cat, made from a photo you already have. Square, cut around their outline, or full length. It arrives filled and sewn shut, and within a day your cat will be sitting on it.

You see a free preview before paying, so you find out about a bad crop now rather than after it ships.

Prices start at $25 and production takes about three days.

There is one thing about cats that changes how these are made, and nobody warns you about it before you order: whiskers cannot be cut around. There is a whole section on that below, because it is the most common surprise on cat orders.

The rest of this page is the practical detail. How to photograph an uncooperative animal, why the loaf position is the best shape we print, sizes, and how to keep fur off it.

A cushion printed with a photograph of your own cat rather than a generic illustration. Every marking comes from your picture, which is why tabby stripes, tortoiseshell patches and that one white sock all come out exactly right.

Three formats

• Square cushion around 40 x 40 cm, the photo printed edge to edge including the background
• Die cut, where the pillow is cut around your cat and the background disappears
• Full body at 150 x 50 cm, which works for a cat photographed stretched out rather than curled

How the printing works

Dye based inks go into the fibers rather than sitting on the surface, so fur texture stays visible and nothing peels after washing. Printing is double sided at no extra cost, which cat owners usually use for an awake photo on one side and an asleep one on the other.

What arrives

A finished cushion, filled with polyester fiber and sewn closed. There is no removable cover, because an irregular outline needs its own filling to hold the shape.

Kittens and older cats

No difference in process, but a note worth making. Kitten photos are usually low resolution because they were taken in a hurry on an old phone. If you want a kitten pillow of a cat who is now fifteen, send what you have and we will tell you what size it can carry.

Every cat owner has four thousand photos and thinks none of them are good enough. Usually two or three are perfect and they have been scrolled past a hundred times. Here is how to spot them.

Sleeping beats awake

A sleeping cat holds still, holds a clean compact shape, and is usually lying somewhere with good light because cats choose the sunniest spot in the house. Awake cats blur, look away and leave. Go through your camera roll looking specifically for sleeping photos.

Side on is better than head on

A cat photographed from the side reads instantly as a cat. Straight on, a lot of cats become a round face with two ears, which is charming but harder to recognize as an outline once the background is removed.

Black cats need bright light

A black cat in normal indoor light prints as a flat black shape with two eyes floating in it. Photograph them near a window on a bright day, and if your phone allows it, brighten the exposure slightly. The difference between a good and useless black cat photo is entirely light.

Watch what they are lying on

For a die cut you need an edge we can follow. A ginger cat on a cream blanket is difficult. The same cat on a dark sofa is easy. If you are choosing between two photos, pick the one where the cat contrasts with what is underneath.

Resolution

At least 1500 pixels on the short side. Any recent phone is fine. Photos sent through messaging apps are compressed and often too soft, so find the original in your camera roll rather than the copy someone sent back to you.

Checklist

• Asleep, or at least still
• Side on or three quarter angle
• Good daylight, especially for dark coats
• Contrasting surface underneath
• Original file, 1500 pixels or more on the short side

The whisker problem, explained once

This is the one thing unique to cat pillows, and it surprises people.

Whiskers print perfectly. They cannot be cut around. A whisker is roughly a millimeter wide, and there is no way to sew a seam along something that thin without it tearing the first time somebody picks the pillow up.

So on a die cut cat pillow, the cut line follows the head and body, and the whiskers stay printed on the fabric within that outline. In practice it looks completely natural and nobody notices. But you should know before you order rather than after, which is why the preview shows the exact cut line.

The loaf is the best shape we print

A cat in loaf position, paws tucked, is a compact rounded blob with no thin parts anywhere. It is genuinely the easiest shape to cut and sew well, and it is the most requested cat outline by a wide margin.

A stretched out cat with legs extended is harder, because thin legs and a thin tail have to be thickened slightly to survive being sewn.

Sizes

• Square 40 x 40 cm: the standard, keeps the background
• Die cut 30 to 60 cm across the widest point: measured by longest edge since every outline differs
• Full body 150 x 50 cm: for stretched out poses
• Mini 15 to 20 cm: cheap enough to order several

Fabric

Peach skin, almost always. It is matte, so fur reads as texture rather than shine, and it is the softer of the two. 2 way tricot adds a gloss that rarely suits an animal photograph.

A significant share of cat orders are memorial pieces, often for a cat somebody had for fifteen or eighteen years. If that is why you are reading this, here is how we handle it.

Say so when you order

There is a notes field at checkout. Mention it and the print gets checked twice rather than once before it ships. It costs nothing and it means a second person looks at the file.

About old photos

Cats who lived a long time were often photographed on phones from a decade ago. Those files are small. Send them anyway. We will tell you plainly whether the photo can carry the size you want, and if it cannot, we will suggest a smaller format where it will still look right rather than taking the money and hoping.

We do not add wings, halos, clouds or names unless you ask for them. Most people want their cat exactly as they were.

Which format people choose

Die cut in the loaf position is the most common. Removing the background stops it feeling like a printed photograph and makes it feel like the cat. A square cushion is the right choice if the background of the photo matters to you, for example a favorite windowsill.

If anything about the finished piece is wrong, tell us and we remake it.

Your cat will claim it

This happens often enough that it is worth stating. A new soft object arrives in the house and the cat sits on it, frequently on the printed version of themselves. The fabric is not claw proof, so if your cat is a determined kneader, put it somewhere out of reach.

Fur

A lint roller handles day to day fur far better than washing does, and it does not stress the seams. Keep one nearby if your cat has adopted the pillow.

Washing

Spot clean with a damp cloth and mild soap for marks. For a full wash use a cold gentle cycle inside a laundry bag, reshape by hand while damp, then air dry completely. No hot water, no hot dryer, and never iron the print. Heat is the only thing that damages a dye based print.

Keeping the shape

Push the filling back into ears and tail with your fingers every few weeks. Narrow parts flatten first, and a minute of hand shaping restores them.

Fading

The ink sits in the fibers, so there is nothing to crack or peel. Keep it out of a permanently sunlit windowsill, which is unfortunately exactly where your cat will want it, and the color holds for years.