DIY Fleece Dog Toys

SixSix
edited March 2016 in Products & DIY
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:

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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.

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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

  • edited March 2016
    I have made these and my dogs LOVE them! I wouldn't use white fleece though... it is going to look nasty super quickly. XD

    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:
    image
    Note the finished ends / no bulky knot.

    ETA x2: Here's the completion stitch I did:
    http://www.boondoggleman.com/prj_completion.htm
  • @PoetikDragon thank you for the tutorial on the completion stitch, I will definitely give that a go. I am still new to this and experimenting so it's great to find new things to try. I had a go at tying paracord knots into the fleece last night but that didn't work so well!

    Can you show me how you weaved the ring into the pattern?
  • These look awesome! I think I might try these. Meitou loves to tear toys apart, too.
  • I have also made a few these kind of toys!
    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 :)
    image
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  • These look great! Thanks for sharing. :) I'm looking forward to trying this
  • Oh yeah, like @JaanaS I also didn't have a knot at the starting end. I didn't even notice that the linked tutorial did it that way.

    @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.
  • I'm going to try a globe knot with fleece next time

  • I'm going to have to try this with rope/paracord. Kuma got a fleece one once as a gift. Destroyed it in 5 min.s
  • Oh thank you for that video @PoetikDragon ! I have to try that globeknot when I find something to use inside it.
  • Those look super cool with the tennis ball and the donut ring! I also make DIY tug toys, but instead of using fleece I use flannel with some stretch in it. Our dogs love them! They hold up really well and can go in the washer! I've made them to sell as a way to raise money for the local shiba rescue and they are a hit. Its a fun project and you can make so many different combinations at a low cost.
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