Published on
April 21, 2010 in
Cats, Do It Yourself, Dogs, Green and Thrifty Things.
Tags: bed, doggie dooley, earth day, litterbox, raincoat, repurpose, scratching post, sock, sweater, thrifty, upcycle.
We can do more than just Reduce, Reuse, Recycle—we can help the environment and ourselves by “upcycling” things we can no longer reuse. Plastic grocery bags with too many holes become crinkly stuffing for cat toys. A sad, old pillow is transformed into a pet bed. A funky, old candy dish on a pedestal becomes a fancy, raised water bowl. Try using your imagination before you go out to buy new things for your pets. You might already have something around the house that will work as well or better than something new. Save money, help save the planet!
Some of my favorite DIY projects that Rethink, Repurpose, Recraft!
Beds & Furniture:
Clothing:
Poop:
Earth Day is Thursday April 22nd—here’s a great way to kickstart the week. Last year, Holly Tse at Little Green Cat issued a 30-Day Green Cat Challenge. For 30 days, she looked at ways to give her cat a “green makeover” and she has some really good ideas.
A few of my favorites are:
Holly also has a book, Make You Own Cat Toys: Saving The Planet One Cat Toy At A Time.
If you’re not totally swamped by holiday preparations, you might have time to crank out some of these cuties for gifts. Here are 3 easy, inexpensive, and fun cat toys to sew.
A mouse tutorial from atinyhouse. You could skip the ears if you wanted.
A fish from Martha. She made a wand type toy with them by attaching them to a pole.
A crackly wrestle sausage from Green Little Cat. A plastic grocery bag provides the crackle.
Here’s a great project to re-purpose old sweaters and turn them into squeaky bones from CraftStylish. If you use a wool sweater, you should probably felt it first. If you don’t, then when you wash the finished toy, it may shrink into a MUCH smaller toy. If you use cotton or acrylic, it won’t felt. (Here are a few tutorials on felting, in case you need them: this one covers both hand & machine felting, here is a printable one on machine felting, and another on hand felting.)
You’ll need:
- a clean, old sweater (yours, from a thrift store, etc.)
- bone pattern–here are 3: bone #1, bone #2, bone #3
- squeakers
- sewing machine
- thread
- fiber fill or some kind of stuffing
- a needle for hand sewing (here’s a tutorial for slip stitch for closing the toy)
The second project is for a fabric squeaky bone toy. This isn’t a difficult project and the tutorial is thorough. You can get some fun fabric for this. If you want to be thrifty, check the remainder table at your fabric store or check for yardage at thrift stores. If you use a lighter cotton, you should use an inner layer of a heavier fabric like canvas or muslin. Upholstery fabric could make some neat toys and you don’t need to buy much.
You’ll need:
- fabric (check the remnants table & thrift stores)
- heavier fabric like canvas or muslin if you use a lighter weight fabric for the outside
- bone pattern–here are 3: bone #1, bone #2, bone #3
- squeaker (the tutorial calls for a rattle)
- sewing machine
- thread
- fiber fill or some kind of stuffing
- a needle for hand sewing (here’s a tutorial for slip stitch for closing the toy)
You’ve probably noticed the flurry of DIY projects. There’s something about colder weather that makes me want to start tons of projects. This coincides nicely with this season of gift-giving. I’m posting a variety of projects—some are super easy and some require a little skill. I’ll try to get a bunch up for you.
Here’s last year’s collection of DIY projects with fun toys, clothes, and beds for your pets or others.
