My grandmother has a little poodle named Coco who destroys toys. There are only a few which are left whole and stuffed at the end of the first day of play. Those which have no stuffing or stitching tend to hold up better, and a braided fleece toy in particular has not been shredded. It is the type of product which you look at and immediately understand how to make.
This is how I made Coco's braided tug toy:
You will need:
A rotary cutter and cutting surface or scissors
A ruler
A sharpie
A rubber band
A weight
3 3" strips of polar fleece cut from selvedge to selvedge
I used 3 colors of fleece at 60" wide. The bolt should be labeled with a width when you buy your fleece. A width of 54" or more is best for this project.
Fold your fleece in half matching selvedges. Measure a 3" wide strip and cut so that the folded edge is facing you and the selvedge is away from you. You should end up with one strip of fabric. Do this 3 times so that you have enough strips to braid. Keep them folded in half.
Line up your three folded strips with the fold end towards you. Measure 10" up from the fold and mark with the sharpie. Push aside the top layer of fabric and mark the lower layer as well. When you unfold the strips, there should be 2 marks on each (approximately) 20" from each selvedge and eachother.
Line up ends and find your sharpie mark. Pinch at the mark and rubber band here. The rubber band will not be centered, put the shorter tails away from you.
Place a weight above the rubber band to hold everything in place while you braid. Braid until you reach the next mark. If you are using different colors, make sure your strips are in the same order that they started in.
Remove the rubber band. You should now have something like this - a centered braid with two loose ends. Look at the braid, it has a direction where the fleece makes up pointing or down pointing Vs. These Vs need to be pointing in the same direction, if they are not, flip one end of the braid horizontally.
Match the colors and begin to braid them tightly as if each pair of strands were one.
Grab the ends of your braid and tie an overhand knot near the ends. It might seem like a bulky knot, but it will work. You will see that a loop has formed on one end to serve as a handle for either you or your dog (or cat?).
Take each piece of fleece individually and pull to tighten up the knot. It is now unlikely that a dog will untie it right away.
Trim the ends to a uniform length, and it's ready!
Make sure that if the fleece does start to fall apart that you take the toy away from your pet. Fleece is non digestable, so do not let them eat it.
Happy dog time
This is how I made Coco's braided tug toy:
You will need:
A rotary cutter and cutting surface or scissors
A ruler
A sharpie
A rubber band
A weight
3 3" strips of polar fleece cut from selvedge to selvedge
I used 3 colors of fleece at 60" wide. The bolt should be labeled with a width when you buy your fleece. A width of 54" or more is best for this project.
Fold your fleece in half matching selvedges. Measure a 3" wide strip and cut so that the folded edge is facing you and the selvedge is away from you. You should end up with one strip of fabric. Do this 3 times so that you have enough strips to braid. Keep them folded in half.
Line up your three folded strips with the fold end towards you. Measure 10" up from the fold and mark with the sharpie. Push aside the top layer of fabric and mark the lower layer as well. When you unfold the strips, there should be 2 marks on each (approximately) 20" from each selvedge and eachother.
Line up ends and find your sharpie mark. Pinch at the mark and rubber band here. The rubber band will not be centered, put the shorter tails away from you.
Place a weight above the rubber band to hold everything in place while you braid. Braid until you reach the next mark. If you are using different colors, make sure your strips are in the same order that they started in.
Remove the rubber band. You should now have something like this - a centered braid with two loose ends. Look at the braid, it has a direction where the fleece makes up pointing or down pointing Vs. These Vs need to be pointing in the same direction, if they are not, flip one end of the braid horizontally.
Match the colors and begin to braid them tightly as if each pair of strands were one.
Grab the ends of your braid and tie an overhand knot near the ends. It might seem like a bulky knot, but it will work. You will see that a loop has formed on one end to serve as a handle for either you or your dog (or cat?).
Take each piece of fleece individually and pull to tighten up the knot. It is now unlikely that a dog will untie it right away.
Trim the ends to a uniform length, and it's ready!
Make sure that if the fleece does start to fall apart that you take the toy away from your pet. Fleece is non digestable, so do not let them eat it.
Happy dog time