. I saw a red fish toy on Etsy that was being sold for ten dollars. I loved the idea because my dogs pull stuffing out of toys.  I figured I could whip up the same toy with scrap fleece for free. I cut a basic fish shape, cut two pieces. I sewed, turned, and top stitched and voila!! Stuffing free dog toy. It feels like a blankie. My little dog loved it. I will be making many more!

My dog Chip is unable to have stuffed beds because he destuffs them and tries to eat the stuffing (he already had one abdominal surgery to remove something naughty that he ate!).  As soon as I found this tutorial, I knew I had to try it.  It is basically a cot-style dog bed.  The materials cost me about $30 and when I looked up similar beds online, they were about $80!!!  Tutorial:  http://littlehousebigheart.com/2012/07/10/raise-the-woof/

My fiance and I went to Home Depot and bought the pvc and screws and then Joanns is where I bought the orange duck cloth. 

The whole thing took us about 45 minutes from start to finish, including cutting the PVC.  My pup loves it.  He wasn't sure what to do with it at first but once I put one of his blankets on it, he hopped right on and went to sleep.  It is 24" by 36" and he is a 9 month old lab (around 60 pounds) and he first with plenty of room. 

I want to make a few more for my other dogs and for my friend's dogs as birthday/Christmas gifts.

I found a neat tutorial on pinterest for making 18" doll tights out of adult/teen knee socks.  Each pair of socks will make either two pairs of tights or a pair of tights and one pair of knee socks, as well as head band or a beanie for the doll. It was super easy and each sock only took 10 minutes (or even less!) from start to finish.

I found a free tutorial online showing how to make your own martingale collar.  I love the look of printed collars but did not want to spend $20 or more per collar since I have 3 dogs that all need seasonal collars.   So here are the first two. The large black one is 1.5 inches wide and is made from nylon webbing that I sewed fabric onto. It is for my boyfriend's dobie/shepherd mix.  The smaller orange one is 1 inch wide and made from the same materials as the other collar. It is for my black lab puppy.  I am working on one for my other dog as we speak.





I ordered enough hardware from an online supplier to make each dog 5 collars each.  I figured they have halloween collars, now they will need one for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine's Day at least.

My dachshund mix Betsy hurt her back and is now on crate rest for 1 week.  To help her feel better, I went to Petsmart and bought her a kong wubba toy to snuggle with.  The problem is that they only had the large ones and so she doesn't really like it.  It was too big for her to comfortably carry in her mouth.  I was looking at the toy and figured that it would not be too hard to reconstruct.  So I got some leftover fleece, some tennis balls, and got to work.  

I didn't sew the tails into long strips mostly because I cut my initial square of fabric too small.  I bought bright neon green fleece and black sherpa to make a better one.  I stuffed the little head with batting and the body is a small tennis ball.   If you wanted to make more like the kong wubba, you should use a squeaky tennis ball.    Making my own wubba was WAY cheaper than going out and buying one.  

BTW, the large wubba now belongs to my other dog and Betsy is snuggling with the prototype homemade wubba while I make the next one.

I have two dogs- one dachshund mix and one black lab puppy.  The puppy is still crated because, well, otherwise our house would not survive even quick trips to the store.  The pup needed something to keep his crate cozy but I was pretty shocked at how expensive crate pads were at Petsmart.  So I looked on etsy, saw that lots of people were selling them and basically got ideas from them and made my own.

It was very simple.  For the large pad for the puppy, I made it 28 X 36 (to fit the crate) from cute doggy print fleece that I bought at Joann. The other side is red fleece and I used one layer of high loft batting to make it fluffy.  I basically pinned everything together, sewed right sides together leaving a small hole for turning, turned, topstitched, and the quilted it so the batting wouldn't shift. 

For the small one I followed the same steps but used a very soft "cuddle" fabric remnant from Joann with 1 layer high loft batting. I made the one for my little dog 18" by 24". 
Large, 24 inches by 36 inches



Small, 18 inches by 24 inches

Here is he at Starbucks. 



And here is one of him kissing my boyfriend.
 

He is a little terror but we love him!

My 13 week old lab puppy has a thing for empty water bottles. He LOVES them.  Because it is a relatively safe thing for him to destroy, I let him play with them occasionally under supervision to make sure he doesn't eat any of the plastic pieces.  Mostly he just crunches on it and enjoys the noise.  A lady at our puppy class was describing how she buys cheap stuffed animals and then removes the stuffing and stuffs them with bottles for her puppy and it gave me an idea.

I took an empty water bottle, threw some kibble in there, and wrapped a piece of fleece fabric around it and knotted the ends.  Voila, super simple, easy peasy dog toy that kept my pup enthralled for a while.

I didn't take pictures of the steps but I think they are pretty self-explanatory.  If not, I can make another with pics.

Here are pictures of my little swapper opening all her items.  She was super thrilled with everything and has been using them non-stop since she received them.  Amriana did an amazing job!

All the items together


Headband shot  


Dolphin bracelet- she was so excited about the dolphin bead!


Bracelet and necklace


Hannah Montana apron!!


Hannah Montana pillow


Thanks again for an awesome swap!

She is precious! I am glad she loves her toy.  Since you showered us with puppy cuteness, I will add to it.   Here is my puppy Chip. He turned 10 weeks yesterday.