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:
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:
How cute are these detailed cat toys? Check out this great tutorial on how to make a felt mouse, bird, & fish. These would make nice gifts for your kitty friends. Download the templates and get sewing. (from Fantastic Toys, Timothy Haugen, the creator notes that these patterns are for personal use and are not to be used for profit)
Fall is in the air here in the Pacific NW. It’s getting chilly and our cats & dog are finding snugly places to sleep. I may need to make a couple more small beds to keep the peace amongst the cats. Here’s the collection of posts on DIY pet beds.
A favorite spot for Sage is the bed I made from an old sweater. Here’s a great tutorial on how to upcycle an old sweater into a pet bed and you can check out how I made my version of the sweater bed.
Vintage suitcases make cute & clever pet beds. This post has a bunch of tutorials and examples of these fun beds.
I would consider learning to knit just so I could make some of these beds. You can knit & felt wonderful pet beds using the two great tutorials here.
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If you crochet, check out this pattern for crocheting & felting a nifty bed.
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You don’t have to be an expert in sewing to make this cute & easy nest bed.
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Some cats & dogs like to burrow more in their beds and this tutorial on making a hooded pet bed is perfect.
A hammock for your small pet might be the best thing. Here’s a post on how to make a hammock that can be free-standing or placed on a furnace to keep our pet good and toasty.
And if you need to get your pet off a cold floor, or if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere and need to keep your pets cool, this post shows how to make an elevated bed out of PVC pipe like Kuranda beds.
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I found a great little tutorial on making a custom fit dog jacket over at BurdaStyle.com. This is mainly a tutorial on making & customizing the pattern, not actually sewing the jacket. You’ll need some knowledge about sewing, especially if you line the jacket. But, this is doable so don’t be intimidated.
Your jacket doesn’t have to cost much. Look for remnants at your fabric store—a cute, durable upholstery fabric could be really cute. You could also use fleece. Or you could use a blanket from a thrift store. If you find a fun wool blanket, you could felt it to make a more durable & very cute jacket.
Here are a few tutorials on felting: this one covers both hand & machine felting, here is a printable one on machine felting, and another on hand felting.
In addition to fabric, you’ll need:
The tutorial shows you how and where to measure. Then how to transfer the measurements to paper to make the pattern.
Here are some instructions to help flesh out Step 4:
