Growing up we always made lanyard keychains at summer camp, from the simplest to the most complex spirals, and somewhere in my crafts stash I even have a bunch of lanyard lace that I bought as an adult, to do crafts with my kids. As you may know, I also happen to love t-shirt yarn, so I almost fell off my chair when I spotted this t-shirt yarn lanyard, made as a dog toy but surely great inspiration for other items as well! Curtain tiebacks? Handles? Key chains (with fewer strands) or maybe even trim for a round pillow? Just as soon as I finish this article I'm grabbing some of the t-shirt yarn that I bought for Chanukah crafting, and I will give it a try!
I am not a dog owner, but I always love looking at the dog toys that I happen upon, and there are certainly quite a few that can be easily made, and even better, made as gifts for your dog lover friends, or why not leave one at the dog park with a little note for someone to find! If you need a nice sized gift for a dog lover, (friend, family, boss, client?) consider making a dog toy gift topper (or two) to give together with an amazing pet portrait for example.
Add a large dog bone shaped gift tag, (A simple DIY project, using brown cardboard, or maybe jeans fabric glued to cardboard) or even attach the dog toy to the large gift tag, and your presentation will be over the top! That handmade touch makes your gift extra special and memorable! Do make sure to use neutral colored or solid colored paper if your dog toy is colorful like this one! Of course wrapping paper with a dog theme could be great, and maybe you'll decide to make your dog toys based on the wrapping paper that you find first? Either way, have fun with it! Okay, lets get crafting, you can make dog toys and I'll make some keychains!
You'll Need:
- complete tutorial for the dog toy seen here from lvly blog. and I noticed she is also selling some nice jewelry so have a look as well!
- a colorful assortment of t-shirt yarn, both made from your t-shirts and possibly purchased. (I actually have a bit of the black and white one, and some pink, yippee!)
- a bit of a refresher possibly as to how the basic four strand box stitch or barrel stitch lanyard is made, here
Tips:
While the basic lanyard stitch used is made with 4 strands, you will use any multiple of 4 that suits you, namely 8, 12, 16, in order to get a toy with substance. I also saw a video that braided each set of three, and then used those braids to make the box stitch, and you can find that video here. Totally recommend it!
So beautiful, right?
While the dog toy featured in this post was made with mostly t-shirt yarn, one can also use fleece, which I believe is what was used in the photo above. I was not successful in finding the source for this photo but it does appear to be made using the same barrel stitch and 8 total strands.
Ah yes, and once you've mastered this stitch, why not consider adding a tennis ball to your next toy? Braid half the length, tie a knot, make x cuts in both sides of a tennis ball, pull the strands through the tennis ball with plyers, and make sure the knot inside the tennis ball, then continue braiding. Simple as that! Of course, there seem to be many tutorials for t-shirt yarn dog toys, so do some research if you like, but get crafting!
Ah yes, and just by the way, if you by any chance are interested in crocheting with t-shirt yarn, which I totally recommend, check out my crocheting with t-shirt yarn projects, something for everyone!
