Thrifty and quick(ish) dog toy tutorial…

I needed a quick Christmas present for my uncle’s dog and it needed to be thrifty too. I decided to gather my brother’s old t-shirts and make something chewable and tuggable – dogs like tug-of-war, right?
I came up with this:

It was really easy to make, but because it needed to be gift-worthy I added a few steps to make it neater than I would if it were for my dog :)
You will need:
3 differently coloured man-sized t-shirts
Sewing machine
Door knob

First, gather 3 old, huge, blokes t-shirts

Then, starting from the hem, cut the t-shirt in one continuous spiral to create a strip about 2” wide and 3 metres long.

Do this for all three t-shirts.

If this is for your own dog, you can skip this step, but I needed it to be neat and tidy and giveable – even if dogs don’t care, humans seem to!
Sew each strip, face-to-face, lengthwise to make really long tubes. It takes ages, but it will hide all those seams and slightly raggedy edges you have.
Now turn each strip right way out using a chopstick or knitting needle and lots of patience.
I forgot to take pictures from now on, (doh) but hopefully my words make sense.
To make the handle:
Fold each strip in half lengthwise, and then find the centre of the doubled strip. Hold them all together so you have 2 strands of each colour in your hand. About 6” from the centre, tie the strands together with a scrap of fabric. Now plait the strands together until when you hold the centre of your plaited bit, the loose ends all hang level.
Hold all the strands together (there should be four of each colour), untie your scrap of fabric and re-tie it tightly where the plaited middle bit ends.

This is your handle. Now loop this over a door handle, gather your coloured strands, and plait away until you have about half a foot left.

Tie a big knot in the whole thing, trim the ends and you’re done!
Finally, give to a dog and hope it lives through Christmas day (the toy, not the dog) :)
Beccy