News, Advice and Resources for Thoughtful Pet People
Yikes, it’s December! I have to get crackin’ on making some presents. To get you started on gifts for people with pets, here’s a round-up of previous posts on DIY toys for cats & dogs. They range from crazy-easy to not-too-taxing on the difficulty meter. Try them out! You’ll have thoughtful, unique gifts for all the furred ones you know.
Crazy-Easy:
Some Sewing (some can be done with just needle & thread):
Felt Mouse, Bird, Fish Toys for Cats
Knitted:
This gives me the giggles, but it’s also got some fun ideas. Crafting With Cat Hair, by Kaori Tsutaya has been translated to English. I think I like the finger portrait puppets the best. They’d make cute Christmas ornaments!
Here’s one of the projects—How to make a bookcover with with a cat fur kitty.
(Click to image start slideshow.)
This tutorial from Stephanie over at Multi-Tasking Mama shows you how to turn a photo of your pet into a felt portrait you can put on a stocking or just about anything else—pillow, bag, etc. You will need some type of photo editor like Photoshop. The rest of the materials are pretty simple and the instructions are detailed & easy to follow. You’ll need:
After a little stutter of snow yesterday, it’s actually snowing with some conviction here in our corner of the Pacific NW. So here’s a clever project that recycles an old, wool women’s cardigan into a cute coat for a smallish dog. A large men’s sweater would work for at least a mid-sized dog. Make sure you use a wool sweater, otherwise it won’t felt. Don’t have an old sweater around? Get thee to your thrift store and find one for cheap. Be sure it’s larger than your pup, because it will shrink when you felt it.
Felted knits handle more like fabric and are more durable. (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.)
The tutorial has you fitting the sweater by pinning it while it’s on your dog. This seems like A Very Bad Idea. I think a better idea would be to mark the sweater where you have it pinched to take up the excess material. It might not be as precise, but you also won’t risk poking holes in your dog or yourself, which sounds much more pleasant to me. If you’re making one for a larger dog, I’d check the length of the sleeves before you cut them off.
So check out the tutorial and don’t miss the video that also shows how to make the cardigan dog coat. It can give you a better idea of how this project works.
Felt sushi are perfect for kitties! With a couple of modifications, this tutorial for felt sushi will make some awesome cat toys that would be fun gifts for the holidays. One thing I’d change is instead of beads for the tobiko, use french knots with orange embroidery floss. They’ll still look good and will be safer. And don’t forget to add some good catnip!
