How to: Make a Really, Really Durable Dog Toy

My dog absolutely loves to tear apart toys. It’s almost a fun challenge to see what toy he can’t tear apart. That list is pretty short. So, I thought I’d take a stab at making a really durable toy that he might actually have a hard time chewing through. 

The base of this very simple toy is multiple layers of cotton duck canvas fused together and sewn without any stuffing. That stuff is a mess to clean up! 

Here’s what you’ll need:

•  A swatch of natural cotton duck canvas – about 12×12
• Iron-on fuse paper
• a 5 -inch circle template–I used an old coffee can bottom.
• scissors
• thread
• marking pen
• squeak toy insert. I bought a pack of 20 on Amazon.

Start by cutting 2 strips of duck canvas, oversized at about 6″x15.” At the same time, cut one sheet 6″x15″ of your fuse paper.

Follow the directions on the fusing package and iron the sheet to one of your pieces of canvas. Peel off the backing and layer the other sheet of canvas on top. Iron the two pieces together into a very stiff duck canvas rectangle.

Next, trace two circles on your swatch of canvas and cut them out.

Now layer the two circles on top of one another and place your squeaker in the center. I want this toy to look like a baseball, so I used my marking pen to trace the stitching lines just outside the squeaker’s shape.

Using a zig-zag stitch setting on your sewing machine, follow your markings making sure to back up and reenforce your beginning and ending stitches.

Now, we’ll stuff in the squeaker!

Now we can sew the perimeter of the baseball with a straight stitch. Once the straight stitch is finished, I decided to double it up and go back over with a zig-zag stitch too. He’s definitely not going to tear through this one!

Looks pretty good if I can say so myself. If you can’t tell, I’m pretty bad at sewing. My wife likes to make fun of me. It’s likely going to be in worse shape after my dog gets his teeth on it, so it doesn’t matter anyways! 

Wash off the blue markings and trim off your extra strings and frayed bits and you’re good to go! My dog totally loves it, and I hope your dog does too!