News, Advice and Resources for Thoughtful Pet People
I love this! Taryn Zychal had the great idea to take sad, broken umbrellas and transform them into cute raincoats for dogs. She has an etsy shop where you can get a coat for your dog big or small. Kitties aren’t left out because she even makes cat toys from umbrella scraps. Taryn was a finalist for the prestigious Cooper Hewitt People’s Design Award. She was also asked to make a couple of her coats for Martha Stewart’s French Bulldogs, Francesca and Sharky. Nifty!
Want to knit a sweater sized just for your dog? Then check out this calculator that uses your dog’s measurements and generates a pattern for your dog. (scroll down) Pretty cool!
The schematics page shows you what the pieces will look like and how they fit together.
There are loads more DIY projects on PetProject.
I love this version of a pet bed made from a suitcase! The fun, green claw feet are inspired. And you can get two beds out of one suitcase. Don’t miss the tutorial for the Suitcase Pet Bed in the DIY Pet Bed Round-Up.
These are from Vintage Renaissance on Etsy. They don’t have any in stock right now, but it looks like they have them fairly often. Here are some of my favorites:
Some kitties really like the smell of leather. Here’s a simple suede & leather mouse you can make for your freaky little cat. Download the instructions and template—it’s the grey behind the directions. I’d make the mice out of some fun colors instead of boring brown. (The instructions call for punching the suede with holes and hand stitching, but I think if you have a good sewing machine and the appropriate heavy duty needle, you could sew this on your machine.)
You’ll need:
–OR–
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.