Fleece remnants = Easiest dog toys

I happened to visit a local chain craft store twice this weekend (yep, I think I spent more time there than at home this weekend, oops).  On my second trip I was actually there for a specific item, but ended up wandering past the remnant bins and a few pieces of fleece caught my eye.  The remnant bins can be incredible if you're there at the right time.  This particular store offers 50% off of the current sale price per yard on the remnant, so you can sometimes get it ridiculously cheap.  The only problem is that you really don't have a wide selection.  If you're not particular, you can really clean up.  Let's just say I walked out of this craft store paying $8 for over 4 yards of patterned fleece. Score!

One of the prints I bought was a brown fleece with light and hot pink dog bones, from which I knew I'd make the easiest dog toys I have ever seen.  Basically you tie three or four strips of fleece together, braid them and tie the other end off.  Presto- easy and instant dog toy.  My parent's doxies are chewers and I knew these would be a great addition to their collection, especially because it was so cheap if they demolish them and they can also be washed if needed.

I started by cutting 4 strips of the dog bone print and 2 strips of a plain brown fleece, my strips were roughly 2 inches wide.  By folding the material in half, I really only had to make 2 cuts from the patterned and one from the solid, great time saver.  Once you're done cutting the strip just snip across the top to make the individual pieces.  The best thing about these dog toys is that your cuts don't have to be perfect, the braiding will hide any imperfections.

Once the strips were cut, I layered them and tied off the one end.  I somewhat tightly braided the strips and when I had about 6 inches left, I tied off the end.  The last step was the cut the ends of each strip in half to create more fringe.  That's it, about 10 minutes and I was done.  The girls got them on Sunday night and absolutely loved them.  It's great that you can get them a toy that will entertain them for less than $4.  I also made a fleece pom-pom but my camera battery died before I could get a picture of it!

So, why was I at the craft store in the first place?  Well on Saturday I found a really cute flannel print and decided that I am going to attempt to sew pajama pants. You see, I have this personal tradition over the last few years of buying a new pair of flannel pj bottoms to wear on Christmas morning, only after seeing this fabric I decided to attempt to make them myself.   I don't typically do apparel construction, so this is new territory for me. (I'm hoping that I don't think at the end of this that I should have just bought a pair at Target for $10 and been done with it.) Stay tuned to see how this turns out!