We featured this tutorial on Fab You Bliss a few years ago and it was a huge hit. So much so we had several dog magazines contact us to feature the it in their publications as well. Pretty nice, huh?
Given A Doggy Tale is all about doggies, (and our love for them), we thought this tutorial would be perfect to re-feature here.
Here’s how to make a dog toy from t shirt material.
Supplies
Jersey material, new or old in different colors and patterns.
Scissors
Rubber band
When we originally did this project we used all new material. But I think old t-shirts, sweats and even jersey sheets would work beautifully. We used 10 different colors and patterns in our original toy, but the sky is the limit for you to do whatever for what you want.
Step 1: Cut 30 pieces, 1″ width x 25″ length. In our original tutorial we mentioned this length is for a large dog and suggested for small dogs you might want to reduce the length. But feedback from people with small dogs said no, that this length was good for small dogs too.
Our Quinley loves long toys that dangle. She carries them around like they’re her baby or some sort of prized possession. It’s so adorable!
So after thinking about this, I feel that adding length, like maybe doubling the length to make one toy longer, might be something fun to try. If you’re using old shirts or sheets, you will have plenty of material and can make a bunch of different sizes. And with as easy of a tutorial as this is, why not have a few lengths for your pup to try.
Step 2: Divide 30 pieces into 3 piles of 10 like so.
Step 3: Rubber band the top of the three pieces together to start your braid leaving about 5 inches of un-braided tassels to make your knot. Then remove the rubber band and make a knot where it was. Pull the knot tight making sure to pull on the tassels so there’s a few inches dangling after the knot.
Step 4: Make a knot on the other end following the same method in step 3.
And there you have it, a fun new toy for your baby!
Now I just have to figure out how to get a squeaker in it.
As you can see, Quinley absolutely loves it. It was even a bit hard to capture these pictures of her because she was tossing it up in the air and spazzing out with it quite a bit. I’m telling you she loved this more than some of the toys we’ve purchased for her. It’s almost as if she knew it was specially made for her!
Hope you enjoy!
As always, thanks for stopping by!
This is adorable!
Such beautiful photography Stephanie! And if you know me, I love a DIY that doesn’t involve sewing – nice work xx