I was walking thru PetSmart a couple of months ago and passed by their dog toys section. I saw these fleece rope dog toys, similar to the braided ones that I posted a while back, but with a loop on one end. Anyway, two things popped into my head when I saw this; 1) “That's kinda pricey” and 2) “I can make this.” :-) And then a post was born. Luckily, I also had some fleece fabric left over from when I made some of the other Fleece Rope Dog Toys, so I gave them a try. Here's my attempt: Materials:
- Fleece strips – I used 3 - 4” strips from selvage to selvage – I like to use different colors for each strip.
- A clip of some sort to hold the fleece strips in place while braiding – I used an Ikea chip clip.
How To:1. Stack all three fleece strips together, and use the clip to clip it about a third of the way down.
2. Begin braiding the longer part (the two-thirds length side) until the unbraided length matches the length of the clipped third portion. (Note: I use thirds, but you can change this up a bit.)
3. Unclip the clipped portion and group together the like-fabrics. (assuming you used different designs/colors).4. Braid the 3 groups of fleece together til about 6 inches from the bottom.
5. Make a knot and cut the ends so they're even.
That's it. I made several of these in less than an hour and gave them as christmas gifts to all my friend's doggies. 
See Also:- Fleece Rope Dog Toy #1
9 comments:
What a wonderful gift for your dog!
Thank you so much for sharing your dog toy with all of us!
You're welcome. My dogs just love them, I hope yours do as well.
You certainly did a great job making it! What is the price difference between buying them and making them yourself? I made a Christmas dog toys list, but who needs to buy gifts if you can just make them yourself!
A quick cost analysis leads me to a savings of about $4 bucks per toy. Here's a similar toy at http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3207160
for $5.99 (at least that was the price when I copied it in).
Here's some plain fleece fabric from Joann's (tho, remnants would make the savings even cheaper)http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/productdetail.jsp?pageName=search&flag=true&PRODID=prd18849 at $4.49/yard. You'll need about 1/3 yard for each toy. So, the cost would be ~$1.50/toy.
Which leaves a savings of $6 - $1.50 = $4.50 per toy.
Plus it really is nice to add a personal touch and be able to pick the design you want.
Thanks very much for the compliment, glad you like them. :-)
How did you create the loop? I can't tell from the directions or pictures. I love the idea and with a growing teenager I have lots of tee and sweat shirts I can use.
Hi Rita,
I start braiding about a third from one end. Then when only a third is left unbraided, I put together the unbraided ends, and braid to the end. So the loop area is single braid thickness and the rest is double braid thickness.
Hope that helps. :)
These are very nice ideas. There are plenty of animals that could use these toys. Thank you for the pattern.
How long is each 3-4 inch strip that you braid?
I believe I went with the full width of the fleece fabric (from selvage to selvage, about 40 - 50 inches). However, it really just depends on how long you want the rope toy to be.
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