Prices and lead times checked October 2026.
Every ginger cat is a tabby, so the markings are always there. The catch is that they are faint, because the ground colour and the markings are both warm and often only a shade or two apart. That makes the photo unusually important: in bright sun or warm indoor light the pattern vanishes. We stitch cats. Sweatshirt £70, cushion £55, patch £25, lead time 2 to 3 weeks.
Yes, we stitch cats. Worth saying at the top, because a pet portrait studio is usually assumed to mean dogs and a lot of cat owners never get as far as asking. We stitch dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, hamsters, birds and reptiles, and on our own order book tabbies, ginger cats included, and black cats are the most common cats we are asked to stitch. Around 70 per cent of the cats we stitch are tabbies, ginger cats among them, which is an approximate figure from our own orders.
So this is familiar ground for us, and it is still the trickiest kind of cat coat to resolve. Not because there is nothing there, but because what is there is almost too quiet to see.
Key takeaways
- Ginger cats are tabbies. The markings exist even when you can barely see them.
- Ground colour and markings are both warm, so the contrast between them is low.
- That is the opposite problem to a silver tabby, where contrast is high and obvious.
- Colour runs from pale cream through marmalade to deep red, which changes everything.
- Bright sun and warm indoor light both wash the pattern out of a photo.
- A good design finds the real separation without inventing contrast that is not there.
- Nearly all ginger cats are male, because the gene sits on the X chromosome.
- Sweatshirt £70, cushion £55, patch £25. Lead time 2 to 3 weeks, unlimited revisions.
Why is every ginger cat a tabby?
Because the gene that makes a cat ginger does not switch off the tabby pattern. Whatever pattern the cat would otherwise have had, it keeps, which is why a solid ginger cat with no markings at all is essentially not a thing. Look at a ginger cat in good light and you will find stripes, swirls, spots or banding somewhere, usually clearest on the legs, the tail and the face.
That is the whole of what this page needs to say about pattern identification, because the four tabby patterns and how to tell them apart are covered properly elsewhere. If you want to work out whether their cat is mackerel, classic, spotted or ticked, read tabby cat gifts and come back. It is a five minute job and it is genuinely useful before you order, because the pattern changes what we are looking for in your photo.
Worth knowing too that ginger cats go by a long list of names and none of them is the official one. Ginger, orange, marmalade and yellow are all in common use, and in the breed world the colour is called red. That matters mainly when you are searching for a gift, because the same cat will be filed under four different words depending on who wrote the listing.
What ginger is not is a breed. It is a colour that turns up across many breeds and in cats with no breed at all, so there is no registration figure for it, no ranking and no official count. Cat breeds in the UK are registered by bodies other than the Royal Kennel Club, which handles dogs, and a colour would not appear in a breed register anyway. If a page tells you how many ginger cats there are in Britain, somebody invented it.
Why is ginger the hardest tabby to see?
Because the markings and the coat they sit on are the same family of colour. On a silver tabby you get near black markings on a cool pale ground, which is about as much separation as a cat coat can offer. On a ginger cat the markings are a deeper, slightly redder version of the ground colour, sometimes only a shade or two away from it. The pattern is real. It is just very quiet.
This is the opposite of the usual difficulty. Most hard coats are hard because something has to be invented from very little information. A ginger coat hands you plenty of information and then hides it inside a narrow band of warm tones, so the job is reading rather than inventing.
It also means the pattern's visibility varies from cat to cat far more than it does on a brown or silver tabby. Some ginger cats are boldly marked and read as obviously striped across a room. Others look almost plain until you are a foot away, and then you can see faint rings on the tail and soft bars on the legs. Both are tabbies. They sit at opposite ends of the same spectrum, and a design that treats them the same way will be wrong for one of them.
The one place the pattern is nearly always legible is the extremities. Legs, tail and face hold their markings even on a cat whose body looks washed out, which is why those parts of a photo are so valuable to us. A head and shoulders crop that cuts the legs out of the frame throws away the clearest evidence on the whole animal.
How much does the shade of ginger change things?
A lot, and the range is wider than people expect. Ginger runs from a very pale cream through classic marmalade to a deep, almost rust red, and where a cat sits on that range changes both how visible the pattern is and what the piece should be made on.
| Shade | What the pattern does | What it means for the piece |
|---|---|---|
| Pale cream to apricot | Markings are faintest here, often only a wash deeper than the ground | The hardest case. Go larger than the £25 patch, and pick a deep fabric colour |
| Classic marmalade | Usually readable, with clear bars on the legs and rings on the tail | The most straightforward version. Works at most sizes on most base colours |
| Deep red to rust | Strongest separation, since the markings have somewhere darker to go | Holds up well small, and the one shade that can sit on a warm neutral |
| Ginger and white | White breaks the body up, so the pattern reads in patches rather than overall | The white does the contrast work for you. Avoid cream or white fabric |
One practical point on base colour, because it catches people out. A warm ginger cat on a beige, sand or cream sweatshirt is warm on warm, and the edge of the cat softens into the fabric just when you want the silhouette to help. A deeper shade, or something clearly cooler than the coat, gives the whole portrait somewhere to sit. Ranges change, so check the product page, and ask us if you are unsure before we start. Nothing goes near a machine until you have approved the design.
Why are nearly all ginger cats male?
Because the gene that produces the ginger colour is carried on the X chromosome. A male cat has one X, so a single copy of the gene makes him ginger. A female has two, and she needs the gene on both of them, which happens far less often. The result is that the great majority of ginger cats are male. It is one of the most firmly established facts in cat colour genetics, and it is the reason almost every ginger cat you meet is a he.
The flip side of the same mechanism is the tortoiseshell and the calico, which are nearly always female, because they are the cats carrying ginger on one X and a non-ginger colour on the other. Ginger and tortie are two outcomes of one piece of genetics, which is a pleasing thing to know and occasionally useful at a pub quiz.
Does it change the portrait? Not directly. It changes the words around it. When someone talks about their ginger cat they will almost certainly say he, and that is worth getting right on a card or in the sleeve embroidery that goes with a long sleeved piece. We mention it because the one thing more noticeable than a wrong pattern on a gift is a wrong pronoun on the tag.
What photo shows a ginger cat's markings?
Soft, even daylight, which on this coat means an overcast day or an indirectly lit room rather than a sunbeam. Bright sun blows out the pale ground and the markings go with it. Warm indoor bulbs push everything towards orange and close the small gap between coat and pattern. Include the legs and tail in frame, because those hold their markings even when the body looks plain.
Ginger cats are drawn to warm places, so a very large share of ginger cat photos are taken in direct sun on a windowsill or a doorstep. Those are lovely pictures and they are the worst possible reference. In bright sun the lit side of the cat clips to near white, the pattern on it disappears, and the shaded side goes too dark to read either. You end up with a cat the colour of the sun rather than the colour of the cat.
Warm artificial light does something subtler and just as unhelpful. A warm bulb adds orange to everything, which raises the ground colour towards the marking colour and shrinks the difference we are trying to see. Overhead daylight bulbs or an ordinary window on a grey day both keep the two apart.
The last thing is simply to tell us what you can see in life. If you know the cat is a classic rather than a mackerel, or that the stripes on his flank are much fainter than the ones on his legs, say so when you order. It takes a few seconds and it stops us reading an ambiguous photo the wrong way. Our general guide to the best photo for an embroidered pet portrait covers the wider rules, including cats and the coats that give a camera the most trouble.
Ginger cat photo checklist
- Overcast daylight or indirect window light, never direct sun
- No warm bulbs overhead, which push coat and markings together
- No flash, which flattens the pattern out completely
- Camera at the cat's eye level, not angled down from standing
- Legs and tail in frame, since they hold the clearest markings
- A plain background rather than a patterned blanket or a busy sofa
- Tell us the pattern name if you know it, and how bold the markings look in life
- Old and imperfect photos are welcome. Say if it is the only one you have
Every photo is reviewed by a person before any design work starts. About 70 per cent are approved with no edits at all, and roughly 1 in 25 need a retake, where we come back and ask for another. On a ginger cat, a retake nearly always means the light has washed the pattern out rather than the photo being bad.
How do you stitch a pattern that barely shows?
By finding the real difference between the ground colour and the markings and then holding it, rather than widening it. There has to be enough separation for the pattern to be visible once it is stitched into fabric, because a difference that is obvious on a screen can close up in thread. But push it too far and you have made a brown tabby with ginger paint on, which is not their cat.
That is the whole balancing act on this coat, and it is a question of restraint more than of skill. It is tempting to darken the markings until they read nicely, because a bold ginger tabby looks good on a sweatshirt. The trouble is that the owner is not comparing the piece to a nice design. They are comparing it to a cat they have looked at every day, and an over-separated ginger reads as a different animal before they can say why.
There is a second reason to be careful, which is that a ginger coat is shaded as well as patterned. The warm ground colour is itself banded and uneven, lighter under the chin and along the belly, deeper over the spine. So the design is not placing markings onto a flat field. It is resolving quiet markings through a ground that already has variation in it, and both have to stay honest.
For a sense of how many shades that can take, at least six thread shades go into one golden retriever coat, and the same for a blue British Shorthair, both figures from our own studio practice. A ginger tabby sits in a narrower range of hues than a golden retriever but needs them spaced more finely, because the differences being carried are smaller.
Unlimited revisions are the real safety net. If the first design comes back and the stripes look heavier than they are in life, or the body reads too flat, you say so and it changes. Nothing is stitched until you are happy with it.
Which ginger cat gifts actually work?
Everything below is embroidered rather than printed, designed from your photo, and made to order in our Cambridge studio. Starting prices were correct in October 2026.
| Gift | From | Why it suits a ginger cat |
|---|---|---|
| Embroidered Pet Portrait Sweatshirt | £70 | Where most people start, and long sleeved, so the free sleeve embroidery applies |
| Embroidered Pet Portrait Velvet Cushion | £55 | Very cat. It ends up on the sofa, usually in the spot he has already claimed |
| Embroidered Pet Portrait Cotton Linen Cushion | £55 | The plain one, no trim, though natural tones need a deeper ginger to push against |
| Embroidered Pet Portrait Hoodie | £80 | Everyday wear. A deeper colour keeps the warm coat from blending into the fabric |
| Embroidered Pet Portrait College Sweatshirt | £75 | Portrait plus his name in large lettering |
| Embroidered Pet Portrait T-Shirt | £55 | Warmer months, or someone who already owns a sweatshirt of ours |
| Embroidered Pet Portrait Christmas Jumper | £75 | December, ordered with the 2 to 3 week window still in hand |
| Embroidered Pet Portrait Canvas Tote Bag | £50 | The lowest priced bag we make, and it goes everywhere |
| Embroidered Pet Portrait Kids' Sweatshirt | £60 | A child who grew up with the cat. Sizes start from 6 months |
| Pet Portrait Embroidered Iron-On Patch | £25 | Our smallest piece. Fine on a deep red cat, hard on a pale cream one |
A sizing note specific to this coat. Faint markings are the first thing to go when a portrait is shrunk, because the small tonal differences carrying them have less room to show. On a deep red or a boldly marked marmalade cat the £25 patch works perfectly well. On a pale cream cat whose pattern is only a wash deeper than the ground, go for a chest sized portrait instead, or you will end up with a plain cat.
If you want ideas that have nothing to do with us, our wider cat guides cover more ground than this page does: what to get someone who loves their cat and Christmas gifts for cat lovers. For other cats where the coat sets the problem, see black cat gifts, where there is no pattern at all, British Shorthair gifts, where the coat is flat and the shape carries everything, and Siamese cat gifts, which is the mirror image of this page: all boundary, no body. Every breed and coat type we have written up is listed on our pet gifts by breed page.
How long does it take, and when should you order?
The lead time is 2 to 3 weeks depending on how busy the studio is, and the current figure is shown at checkout rather than guessed at here. Everything is made to order, so there is no shelf with a ginger cat sweatshirt on it.
- Day 0, you orderYou upload the photo at checkout and tell us anything useful, including how bold the markings look in daylight and whether there is any white on the chest, face or paws.
- Within a day or two, we review the photoA person checks it before any design work begins. About 70 per cent are approved with no edits. Roughly 1 in 25 come back for a retake, usually because the light has flattened the pattern.
- Then, the designThe portrait is designed from your photo and sent over for approval. Unlimited revisions, so the strength of the markings can be dialled up or down until it looks like him.
- 2 to 3 weeks from order, stitched and shippedMade in Cambridge on one of our 29 embroidery machines and shipped worldwide. Free UK delivery over £75, or £3.99 Royal Mail 48 Tracked below that.
For Christmas, take the date you want it in their hands, count back 3 weeks and order before that. Any long sleeved clothing also gets free sleeve embroidery, which is a small icon such as a paw print or a heart plus a name, and on a cat piece the name is the detail people mention most.
When is Lucy & Lola not the right answer?
Often enough that it is worth being plain about it, rather than letting you spend an evening on us for nothing.
- Your budget is under £25. Nothing custom and embroidered comes in under £25, which is the iron-on patch, and most pieces sit between £50 and £80. Our stocking fillers for pet lovers collection starts at £2, but those are stock designs and small extras rather than a portrait of their cat, and the range changes. For a genuinely cheap gift with their ginger cat in it, a printed photo in a decent frame beats anything we sell at that price.
- You want a figurine, a model or an ornament. We do not make them and have no plans to. Look for a ceramicist, a pet sculptor or a needle felting maker instead, and you will find all three on Etsy or at a craft market.
- You need it in a few days. Made to order means 2 to 3 weeks really is 2 to 3 weeks. Buy something immediate now and give the portrait later, or hand over a card saying it is being made.
- You want a painting, a print or an illustration. Everything we make is embroidered, apart from a small range of large scale print graphic sweatshirts. If the brief is paint on canvas, commission a painter.
- You actually want a generic ginger cat design. Plenty of people do, and there is nothing wrong with it. An illustrator or a print shop will be faster and cheaper, and nothing on this page applies to you.
If you want the version with his actual markings on it, faint ones included, the sweatshirt is the usual place to start. Over 75,000 pet parents have ordered from us, and we hold a 4.9 average from more than 10,000 five star reviews.
We were founded in 2021 by Lucy and Andy with one embroidery machine and a rescue dachshund called Lola. There are 29 machines now, and everything we make is embroidered rather than printed, apart from a small range of large scale print graphic sweatshirts. We stitch dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, hamsters, birds and reptiles, and multi-pet designs are available if the ginger cat shares the house.
Frequently asked questions
Is a ginger cat a tabby?
Yes, essentially always. The gene that makes a cat ginger does not switch off the tabby pattern underneath, so a ginger cat keeps whatever pattern it would otherwise have had. On some cats it is obvious and on others you have to look closely, usually at the legs, tail and face. A truly solid ginger with no markings anywhere is not really a thing. Our tabby cat gifts guide explains how to tell which of the four patterns their cat has.
Why are ginger cat markings so hard to see?
Because the markings and the coat they sit on belong to the same family of colour, often only a shade or two apart. A silver tabby gives you near black markings on a cool pale ground, which is a lot of separation. A ginger cat gives you a slightly deeper, redder version of the ground colour. The pattern is genuinely there, it is simply quiet, and how quiet varies a lot from one ginger cat to the next.
Why are most ginger cats male?
Because the gene that produces the ginger colour sits on the X chromosome. A male cat has one X, so a single copy makes him ginger. A female has two and needs the gene on both, which happens far less often, so the great majority of ginger cats are male. The same mechanism is why tortoiseshell and calico cats are nearly always female: they carry ginger on one X and another colour on the other.
What photo works best for a ginger cat portrait?
Soft, even daylight, which means an overcast day or an indirectly lit room rather than the sunbeam he is probably lying in. Direct sun blows out the pale ground and takes the markings with it, and warm indoor bulbs push coat and pattern together. Get the camera to his eye level and keep the legs and tail in frame, because those hold their markings even when the body looks almost plain.
Will the stripes show up once it is stitched?
Yes, and getting that right is the main job on this coat. There has to be enough separation between the ground colour and the markings for the pattern to survive being stitched, since a difference that looks clear on screen can close up in thread. The limit is honesty: we will not darken the markings past what the cat actually has, because an over-separated ginger reads as a brown tabby. Revisions are unlimited, so the strength can be adjusted before anything is stitched.
What colour should I pick for a ginger cat piece?
Something deeper than the coat, or clearly cooler than it. The trap is warm on warm: a ginger cat on beige, sand or cream has very little to push against at the edges, and the silhouette softens into the fabric. Ginger and white cats should also avoid cream and white, since the white patches then disappear. Ranges change, so check the product page, and ask us before we start if you are unsure.
What is the best gift for a ginger cat mom?
Something with her own cat on it rather than a ginger cat in general, because how bold his markings are is specific to him and no stock design will match it. The sweatshirt at £70 is the usual starting point and includes free sleeve embroidery because it is long sleeved, normally the cat's name. If she would rather have something in the house, the cushions are £55. Our guide to what to get someone who loves their cat goes wider.
Do you stitch ginger cats often?
Very often. On our own order book, tabbies, ginger cats included, and black cats are the most common cats we are asked to stitch, and around 70 per cent of the cats we stitch are tabbies of some kind, which is an approximate figure from our own orders. We stitch dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, hamsters, birds and reptiles, so a cat order is not an exception here even though the founding story involves a dachshund.
How long does a ginger cat portrait take, and what does it cost?
2 to 3 weeks depending on studio capacity, with the current window shown at checkout, and that covers the photo review, the design and your approval. Pieces start at £25 for the iron-on patch and £50 for the canvas tote bag, with the sweatshirt at £70, the college sweatshirt and Christmas jumper at £75, the hoodie at £80 and the cushions at £55. UK delivery is free over £75, or £3.99 Royal Mail 48 Tracked below that.
Can you stitch a ginger cat and another pet together?
Yes, multi-pet designs are available. Send a separate photo of each animal rather than one of them together, since a group shot usually leaves one half hidden, and on a ginger cat it is the leg and tail markings that get lost first. If the other pet is a very different colour, the contrast between them actually helps the quiet ginger pattern read more clearly on the finished piece.
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