Basic Tutorial: Upcycled Dog Toys!

Today's post is going to cover some basics for using leftover fabric and rags to make upcycled dog toys.  If you are like me, always saving all those leftover bits from your sewing projects for that "later" that never comes, then this project may be one for you! If you don't have a dog, you probably know someone who does, and chances are they will be super excited to have a Christmas gift for their favorite pooch.

For this project, you will need:

• Basic sewing skills
• A sewing machine (you can hand-sew, but it will take longer)
• Thread, scissors
• A rag bag of assorted fabrics, or a bag of scrap fabrics (or both!)

Depending on how much fabric and what kind you have, there are several ways you can go. Get creative! I have made two toy animals to get you started with ideas: a snake and a frog. 

THE SNAKE

• It's best to use a strong fabric for the outside shell of the animals (old jeans, khakis, etc.).  I used part of an old pant leg for this one, simply cutting it to the length that I wanted and then making it square up into a rectangle. 

• At that point I cut out bits of fleece for exterior decoration: eyes, tongue, spots, and spikes. If you decide to do spikes, just make sure that they are facing towards the inside for when you sew the sides together. I like fleece for this part because you do not have to worry about it fraying at the edges. 

• After finishing the decorations, fold the snake in half, right sides together, and pin. Sew the long end together.

• After sewing the long end together, open the end up, and fold so that the tongue is centered (still with right sides together). Sew that end shut.

• Note: I double-stitched since this is going to be a dog toy.
• Turn the snake inside out and stuff with scrap fabric or rags. You can use stuffing if you want, but my dogs actually eat stuffing. Or, leave it empty.

• Once the snake is stuffed, sew the opening shut. You can use the machine or hand-stitch.
• Your toy is done!

THE FROG

• Again, use a strong fabric for the outside shell of the animal (old jeans, khakis, etc.).  I used old khakis leftover from another project for this one, cutting it into oval shapes.
• I used fleece to make a stomach and eyes for my frog. Cut out similar designs, or your own. Pin them into place on the front of the frog and stitch. 
• The arms and legs will also be made from old fabric.  Find long, thin strips of fabric, about 8" long. You will need 3 per arm/leg (12 total). They do not need to match.

• Put 3 strips together and tie a knot at the end. Braid until you get to the other end, and tie another knot. Do this for the remaining strips until you have 4 arms/legs.
• Pin the arms and legs to the front of the frog, facing the inside. To make sewing easier, the outer knot can be outside the stitching area. Baste into place. 
• Place the backside of the frog onto the front, right sides together. Pin into place. 

• Stitch both sides together, leaving about 4" for turning the frog right side out. Turn right side out.
• Stuff the frog with scrap fabric or stuffing, or leave empty. Stitch the opening shut. 
• Your toy is done!

Cherries!

Last weekend we made cherry jam. We had several pounds of cherries to work with. I am not exactly sure how many. We had originally picked sixteen pounds of cherries (to give you an idea of quantity - this completely filled our fruit drawer), but several pounds were eaten before we got to the jam-making stage. We like our cherries!

This year I finally broke down and purchased a food mill. So many people kept telling me that I should get one. We had borrowed one before, and it was great and saved lots of time, but I never really thought I needed one until I was staring down pounds and pounds of cherries and blueberries (we had also picked 11 pounds of blueberries on our outing - those I made into freezer jam for convenience).

My daughter, who has had a keen interest in cooking shows for several years, jumped all over the food mill. I think the only thing that I was allowed to do with it was clean it.

Our new food mill.

Unfortunately, I did not realize that it didn't pit the cherries, so that was A PROBLEM. Do you know how few stores in rural areas sell cherry pitters? We do. That was several hours on a Saturday morning. We eventually found a swiss-army kitchen tool thing (below) that pits cherries, cores apples, does something to strawberries and also zests things and I don't even know what else. It actually worked quite well.

The swiss army kitchen tool.

Colleen and I had quite the system going - she would use the food mill to process the cherries after I cleaned and pitted them. Then we got them cooking and canned. So blueberries and cherries are done, now we get to move on to the raspberries and blackberries.

Jars of cherry jam.

Spring (and every other season) is here!

Weather in the mid-atlantic east coast area has been strange lately. Today feels like spring, last week was very very summer, and the week before we had the heat running! Our poor animals have no idea whether to shed or what, and the trees think they are supposed to bloom... And the pollen!

We are working on making some changes to our farm as well. Due to my increasing allergies to the goats (and the lack of any kind of allergy serum for goats), we are down-sizing our goat herd. Since my daughter and I are both riding horses now, we are bringing my horse to the farm to make the horse care easier (pictures to come!). There will be goats posted for sale on our sale page, although most of them will be for sale after August when the summer shows are over.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures:

This is the female of the angora triplets, picture taken a few months ago. She ended up being the bottle baby.

Here is one of her brothers. They are so soft!

Bubba. At 5 months old, he is almost as big as his mother.

Corgis counting goats. 

Our puppy, Mia. She is much more interested in chasing balls than goats.