The Crazy Simple Life

Still have some fleece yardage from all those fleece animal hats you made last week? Utilize those pieces to make fun toys for Fido or Felix. Below, you’ll find the instructions to make a fleece fluff ball for light chewers and kitties, a braided rope for moderate chewers, and a tug toy for aggressive chewers. My Jack Russell, Tucker, usually demolishes toys and he still has the tug toy I made him over a year ago! As with all pet toys, inspect yours often to make sure your animals don’t ingest parts of the toys or possibly choke on them.

Fleece Fluff Ball (light chewers)

Materials:

4 x 15 inch scrap of fleece

Heavy duty thread

Cut 30 rectangles of fleece that are ½ inch by 4 inches.

Set the rectangles next to each other and then scoop by their middles into a bunch.

Wrap the thread around the center of the bundle a few times and pull as tight as you can. Tie it off in several tight knots.

If you want to make this a fun kitty toy, tie the end of a long string around the middle. Tie the other end to a wooden dowel or bamboo stake.

Braided Rope (moderate chewers)

Materials:

3 strips of fleece that are each 5 x  36 inches

This one is almost too easy to give instructions for, but just in case…

Fold each fleece strip in half lengthwise and then in half lengthwise again. Stack the strips and tie with an overhand knot. Really pull hard so you get a very tight knot!

Braid to the end and tie another tight overhand knot.

Tug Toy (aggressive chewers)

4 strips of fleece that are each 4 x 48 inches

If you’ve ever made a lanyard key chain at camp when you were a kid, this will be a piece of cake.

Gather the 4 strips of fleece and tie a really tight knot at the end. Spread the pieces out like a cross.

Loosely fold the top piece down and the bottom piece up. Now, take the piece on the right and weave it through the top and bottom pieces.

Take the piece on the left and weave it through the top and bottom pieces so you form an interlocking square. Pull the pieces tight.

Repeat this over and over. When there is only about 10-12 inches left, tie another overhand knot to finish it off. Trim any excess fleece from the end.