In the story, a mother cat dresses her playful kittens in fine clothes in preparation for a tea party. Left by themselves afterward, the kittens quickly manage to not only soil their clothes but lose them altogether. Beatrix Potter had borrowed a kitten from a workman to model for her previous tale, The Story of Miss Moppet (1906). The illustrations for Tom Kitten combine the drawings she created during that time with the interior and exterior sketches of the Hill Top farmhouse, her beloved country residence.