Pet Project

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)