DIY Fleece Dog Toys
So... last week I was a nice mummy and bought my dogs four lovely new toys, honky ducks and squeaky rabbits, what fun! Sadly my dogs are Demon Destroyers of Doom and these toys lasted less than an hour before they were dedded and de-stuffed with all honking and squeaking innards well and truly removed. So I set about on the internet and found these really easy-to-make fleece toys which require no tools (except scissors) and no stitches!
DIY Fleece Dog Toys
I found these instructions super-easy to use because of the photos and helpful diagrams. And since starting to make these a couple of days ago have tweaked the designs just a little to make round versions and also because I found a clamp (randomly in the spare bedroom) decided I didn't like the big knot at either end - I have trouble tying knots like that) and so clamped the pieces of fleece to the table so I could work them without needing the knot to hold it together, then at the end I tied off the loose ends in pairs with smaller double knots so they're not so conspicuous. To make the round version instead of tying off the loose ends at either end you tie both ends together tightly (take a tuft from each end and tie them together in a double knot and repeat with all ends) to make a circle.
Here is Kiba modelling the experiments so far:
As you can see he is thoroughly enthusiastic about my new project! My dogs are the "if we can't kill it, it's not interesting" variety. So today I decided to modify the instructions a little more and added a tennis ball. I will give this to them tomorrow and am interested to see if once they dead the tennis ball will the structure of the fleece itself still hold up? I'm not sure.
Anyways...it's cheap, and good fun to 'have a go', lots of us have old blankets or throws lying around, they seem to be quite tough and the prototypes have been down for a couple of days now and aren't dead yet!
DIY Fleece Dog Toys
I found these instructions super-easy to use because of the photos and helpful diagrams. And since starting to make these a couple of days ago have tweaked the designs just a little to make round versions and also because I found a clamp (randomly in the spare bedroom) decided I didn't like the big knot at either end - I have trouble tying knots like that) and so clamped the pieces of fleece to the table so I could work them without needing the knot to hold it together, then at the end I tied off the loose ends in pairs with smaller double knots so they're not so conspicuous. To make the round version instead of tying off the loose ends at either end you tie both ends together tightly (take a tuft from each end and tie them together in a double knot and repeat with all ends) to make a circle.
Here is Kiba modelling the experiments so far:
As you can see he is thoroughly enthusiastic about my new project! My dogs are the "if we can't kill it, it's not interesting" variety. So today I decided to modify the instructions a little more and added a tennis ball. I will give this to them tomorrow and am interested to see if once they dead the tennis ball will the structure of the fleece itself still hold up? I'm not sure.
Anyways...it's cheap, and good fun to 'have a go', lots of us have old blankets or throws lying around, they seem to be quite tough and the prototypes have been down for a couple of days now and aren't dead yet!
Comments
Thanks for the instruction link. I just used my know-how from making lanyards, but it's great for those who don't remember how. This one doesn't cover the end knots in as much detail as I would like however. I got creative and gave it a really finished end that wont come undone like a normal knot. (Maybe I will try to remember how I did it and add to this thread later.)
ETA: Here is a terrible photo of the ones I made:
Note the finished ends / no bulky knot.
ETA x2: Here's the completion stitch I did:
http://www.boondoggleman.com/prj_completion.htm
Can you show me how you weaved the ring into the pattern?
I start a bit different so that there won't be knot at all at the starting end.
I also tried few different "extras" few years ago to make them more fluffier or interesting to chase
@Six To put the ring in, I simply did a normal stitch "around" it. I placed the ring diagonal across the previous stitch so that two strings came up on either side of it. Then did the normal over-under procedure.