Pet DIY

DIY Personalized Dog Bandana

This Personalized Dog Bandana post is sponsored by True Chews® Dog Treats and the BlogPaws® Pet Influencer Network™.
I am being compensated to help share information about the True Chews line of all-natural dog treats,
but Diana Rambles only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers.
All statements made reflect my true opinion of the product. True Chews is not responsible for the content of this article.

Make a personalized dog bandana for your BFF: best fur friend.

We have a Cocker Spaniel named Cooper, whom we adopted him from the Humane Society.

He’s my buddy and a special member of our family. to reflect the special bond that we have, I created this cute personalized dog bandana for Cooper.

My Dog Inspires Me

Cooper has been an inspiration to me. He has not done anything heroic or amazing, but he has changed me by just being a dog.

You see, I used to be out of shape. I was not happy with my health.

Aches and pains were constant and I was not comfortable with the way my clothes fit. I have always known what I need to do about that, but I was full of excuses.

Well, do you know what having a dog that needs to walk every day does? It motivates you to get out and walk.

I have always known that exercise is important, but I did the minimum.

Especially in the winter. I am not a fan of cold weather, so I would not get out and walk.

Cooper loves going on walks. He does not care if it is pouring rain, if there is a foot of snow on the ground, or if it is 20 below zero. He wants to go on a walk.

The only time I have experienced him not wanting to walk was the one rare occasion that it was 40 below zero outside. Snow piled up to where we could not get out to our backyard. I took Cooper out front and the cold hurt is paws. He did his business then tugged me back to the house as fast as possible.

Daily walk over several years became a habit. I started feeling better and went further and further.

I now walk over 10,000 steps every single day. No days off, not even in winter.

Cooper is not able to do all those steps with me, but he still gets a 20-30 minute walk each day. He sure loves his walks!

Cooper loves to explore parks. The other day we spent a lovely afternoon in the park together.

Since he has been such a great dog, I created a personalized dog bandana for him. I also made him a DIY Dog Snuggle Blanket.

This double-sided bandana has embroidery on each side for a personal touch. The bandana slips on over Cooper’s collar.

DIY Personalized Dog Bandana

The only thing that you might need to purchase for this bandana is fabric if you do not have any prints you want to use on hand.

One fat quarter works for the small bandana if you want the same print for both sides. Otherwise, you need two fat quarters or small pieces of fabric.

I picked two prints from my stash and made a medium size bandana for Cooper.

Please note: This is NOT a printable pattern. It is just a pattern guide to show you what size to cut.

See the bottom of the post for the directions.

Treat Them Well

Since the days are getting shorter, I went to the store to get some supplies for walking after dark.

In addition to a reflective vest, motion activated lights, a flashlight dog bag dispenser, and a reflective leash, I picked up some True Chews® Dog Treats for Cooper.

These wholesome treats are 100% natural. I got Chicken Pot Pie and Premium Jerky Cuts, both of which contain USA-Sourced Chicken. All True Chew Products are Made in the USA.
True Chews Dog Treats are made with natural ingredients. There are no artificial flavors, preservatives, or meat by-products.

Just 100% natural ingredients with premium cuts of meat that are always listed first on the ingredients list. Premium ingredients show how much you care.
Cooper loves them and your dog will too! Find True Chews at a local pet specialty store near you or online.

I love how Cooper’s new personalized dog bandana turned out, and I am proud of how I look and feel.

Who will you be making a bandana for?

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of True Chews. The opinions and text are all mine.

Yield: 1

DIY Personalized Dog Bandana

Create a personalized bandana that fits over a collar for your dog.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Active Time 15 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Materials

fabric - 2 fat quarters work
stabilizer

Tools

sewing machine
optional: embroidery machine

Instructions

Prewash and iron the fabric.

Cut out rectangles of fabric to match the outside measurements of the bandana. I marked the diagonal cutting lines for embroidery placement.

Add stabilizer and hoop the fabric.

Embroider your design on each side of the bandana.

Iron the fabric again.

Finish cutting out the bandana pieces.

Put right sides of the fabrics together and stitch a ¼” seam across the top.

Open up the seam and iron it flat.

Stitch down ½” along each side and then press.

Lay right sides together and sew along each diagonal.

Turn the bandana right sides out and press.

Top stitch along each diagonal and across the top.

Stitch a line parallel to the top right above where the diagonals start.

Slide the personalized dog bandana over the dog collar. Isn't that cute?

Notes

See the pattern guide image further up in the post for sizes.

Please share your create photo on this pin on Pinterest.

DIY Instagram Dog Bed

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and The J.M. Smucker Company, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #miloskitchen http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

Our dog, Cooper, is a special member of the family. He is a buff colored Cocker Spaniel. We adopted him from the humane society back in 2009. He is very sweet and always happy.

Cooper loves to eat. He will eat just about anything. I’ve had put a wire fence around my garden to keep him from eating the produce. He is clever and won’t eat anything until it’s ripe. His favorite is tomatoes. I would not label him as hunger aggressive, but if you leave anything close to the edge of the table he will grab it. We are very careful what we feed him and try to keep him from eating our food. Since Cooper likes human food, I was excited to find Milo’s Kitchen home-style dog treats that look like real food. From meatballs to jerky, they make all sorts of treats that your dog will love.

These home-style dog snack not only look like jerky, sausage slices, and meatballs but they are actually 100% real jerky, sausage slices, and meatballs. Milo’s home-style dog treats are free of artificial flavors or colors and are made in the USA from domestically sourced ingredients. I picked up Milo’s Kitchen home-style dog treats at Meijer. Take advantage of this mPerks offer of 30% off Milo’s Kitchen home-style dog treats now through 10/7 (while supplies last) before you head into Meijer today!

Cooper’s old dog bed has worn out. Since he is so adorable and is great about being photographed, I decided to put him on Instagram. An Instagram dog bed that is! I created this classic Instagram logo cover to go over a foam cushion which makes up the dog bed.

DIY Instagram Dog Bed

Supplies

22″ x 22″ x 2″ foam cushion
3/4 yard of beige or tan fleece
22″ x 25″ scrap or 5/8 yard of brown fleece or felt
19″ x 12″ scrap or 3/8 yard of black fleece or felt
scraps of red, yellow, green and blue fleece or felt
measuring tape
scissors
sewing machine with black thread

Directions

Cut the fabric to get the following:

25″ x 25″ square of beige/tan
(2) 25″ x 16″ of beige/tan
25″ x 8.5″ strip of brown
13.5″ circle of brown
12.5″ circle of black
6″ x 6″ square of black
6.25″ x 2″ strip of black
(4) 9″ x 1.5″ strips of each color

Sew the top of the cover first.
Place the brown strip across the top of the beige square and zigzag stitch into place.
Center the black circle on top of the brown circle to create the lens and zigzag in place.Center the lens on the cover with the top edge touching the brown strip and zigzag in place.
Place the black square on the right side of the brown strip and zigzag in place.Lay the colored strips out on the left side of the brown strip and zigzag into place.
Place the black strip across the bottom of the colors and zigzag into place.

The top of the cover is complete.
Lay the cover out with the design up and lay the beige strips on top, matching the side edges and overlapping the edges in the middle.
Straight stitch around the edge to attach the layers. I used a 1/2″ seam allowance.

Turn the cover inside out.
Insert the foam cushion to complete the dog bed.

Look how cute the Instagram logo turned out. My daughter wants me to make a smaller one for a throw pillow in her room. It would be very easy to scale the directions down for a smaller cover.

Treat Your Dog Well!

Cooper does a great job of posing for photos, so we treated him with Duck Jerky and Steak Grillers from Milo’s Kitchen home-style dog treats. The savory Duck Jerky is slow-cooked to bring out the natural flavors. The Steak Grillers are tender strips of real Angus. Nothing says “I love you” more than something made with love and care, which is this Instagram Dog Bed and dog snacks for Cooper.

Who is your special member of the family? Do you post pictures of them on Instagram?

DIY Cat Condo from a Stool

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser.
All opinions are mine alone. #CatsLoveNutrish #CollectiveBias

Want to create a Cat Tree for your cat? Make this Cat Condo from an old stool.

My son got a cat. This adorable tabby cat is named Jasmine. My son is so in love with her. We are quite smitten with her too. We wanted to get Jasmine a cat tree, but my son has a limited amount of room in his small apartment.

He only has seating for a couple of people, so we decided to make Jasmine a cat condo out of an old stool. It allows for someone to sit on top but gives the cat a lot of options for lounging and playing.

DIY Cat Condo

Supplies

Stool
Pad
Cat fabric (I used fleece)
Jute
Hair brushes
Cat toys on a stick
Hot glue gun and sticks
Scissors
Hand saw
Staple gun
Measuring tape

Directions

Heat up the hot glue gun.
Tightly wrap the jute around one leg of the stool, gluing in place as you go.

Saw the handle off of the hair brushes.
Sand the back of the brushes and the side of the stool leg.
Glue the brush onto the sanded area.

Cut out a circle to cover the seat of the stool. I just used the pad that came with the stool as a guide and added about 4″.
Using the staple gun, attached the seat cover to the underside.

Remove the stick from the cat toys.
Glue and/or staple the toy to the underside of the stool so that it will hang down for the cat to play with.

Measure the space between the bottom rungs to determine hammock size.
Adding 4″ to the rung measurements, cut two squares of the cat fabric.
Sew the two layers together by stitching a square along the rung measurements.

Cut out a 2″ square from each corner.
Cut 1″ strips along each side of the hammock.

Tie the hammock onto the stool rungs using a double knot.

Homemade Cat Tree

Didn’t it turn out great? It’s a fun cat condo that offers a scratching post, a place to rub, a hammock to lounge in and bat toys from above, and a top perch for the cat or a human.

We took the condo over to my son’s and the cat knew it was for her. She climbed up on the top perch right away. Jasmine just loves her new cat tree!

In addition to a place to hang out and play, we want to make sure our grand-cat is eating right. That is why we bought her some Rachael Ray™ Nutrish® Indoor Complete Chicken with Lentils & Salmon Recipe. Real U.S. farm-raised chicken is always the #1 ingredient, plus real salmon. It contains a real superfood blend to meet the complete needs of any indoor cat, including Jasmine. Nutrish Indoor Complete is for adult cats only (1 year or older) and it addresses the indoor cat concerns of weight, digestion, and immunity.

Nutrish Indoor Complete is made with wholesome, delicious ingredients. We picked ours in the premium cat food section at Meijer. Right now you can save Save $2 with this coupon on Nutrish Indoor Complete. You can print this coupon 2x, but have 30 days from the time you print to redeem. The coupon is good through the end of the year.

What sort of activities does your indoor cat like?

DIY Dog Crate Organizer

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser, MARS Incorporated.
All opinions are mine alone. #PedigreeMoments #CollectiveBias

Create a dog crate organizer to keep your dog supplies handy.

Our Cocker Spaniel, Cooper, is a special member of the family! He’s a rescue pet that has been with us for 9 years. He loves us all equally, but he has a very special connection with our middle child. He has helped comfort him through some difficult times my son has experience over the past 15 months. Cooper loves going in the car. He shakes with excitement when he realizes that he’s going somewhere with us. He stays in a dog crate in the back of our vehicle. We take supplies for him, but they are often all over the car. I have created a dog crate caddy organizer to keep everything for Cooper together. Follow these instructions to create one for your pet.

DIY Dog Crate Organizer

Supplies

Fat Quarter of dog print fabric
1/2 yard of contrasting fabric
1/8-1/4″ elastic (not pictured)
one 11″ dowel (I used a 1/4″ dowel, not pictured)
sew-in hook & loop tape
measuring tape
collapsible dog dishes
water
PEDIGREE® Pouches
clean up bags
dog crate

Directions

Cut the following:
Two pieces of fabric 15.5″x12.5″ (back piece)
One piece of interfacing 15.5″x12.5″
Two pieces fabric 15.5″x6.5″ (top pocket)*
Two pieces fabric 15.5″x8.5″ (bottom pocket)*
One piece of fabric 2.5″x20″ (strap)
*There isn’t enough fabric in a fat quarter, so I cut the back of the pocket in the contrasting print.

Sew the interfacing to the wrong side of one of the back pieces. I serged mine.
With right sides together, sew the back pieces as shown. Leave an opening for dowel casing and an opening to turn.
Turn the back right sides out and press.
Top stitch around the edges of the back piece to finish edge and form dowel casings along the top.
Create the straps by folding the strap fabric in half longways and stitching along the open edge. Please note, I had to stitch two 10″ pieces of my dog print together to get one strip.
Turn the strap right side out and press.
Cut three 5-6″ pieces of the strap.
Sew 1″ of hook and loop tape to the ends of each strap piece.
Carefully sew the strap pieces in place along the casing lines. Place one at each end and the other in the middle.
With right sides together, sew around the edge of each pocket piece leaving an opening to turn and casing for elastic.
Turn the pocket right sides out and press.
Top stitch around edge and form elastic casing.

Using an elastic threading tool to pull the elastic through the casing of each pocket.

Sew elastic in place along both side edges of each pocket. Make sure it is well gathered but can be stretched out the entire width of the pocket.

Carefully snip off the extra elastic.

Pin the pockets to the front of the back piece lining up the outside edges.
Stitch along the outside edge of each pocket, making sure you don’t catch any other parts of the pockets or the dowel casing.

Lay your pet supplies on top of the pockets to figure out where to the separator lines are. Mark the sewing lines with pins.

Stitch the pocket separator line, making sure to give extra reinforcement to the top edge.
Gather the bottom edge of each pocket by hand and stitch into place.
Insert the dowel into the casing to complete the caddy organizer.
Attach the organizer to the outside of the dog crate and fill it with dog supplies.
This tutorial can be adjusted to make a different sized dog crate caddy. I’m really pleased with how ours turned out. We will be using it a lot when we travel.

Since we camp frequently, we need simple solutions for taking care of Cooper. We take extra care because Cooper is such a treasured member of the family and he’s getting older. Treating and eating on the go just got a whole lot easier with PEDIGREE® Pouches. They can be served as a treat or as a mix of wet and dry with “treat topping”. Just replace ½ cup of PEDIGREE® Adult Complete Nutrition with 1 pouch (1 pouch = 3.5 oz., 1 cup = 8 oz. measuring cup).

PEDIGREE® Pouches come in an 8ct of Beef, Bacon, & Cheese/Hearty Chicken and an 18ct of Meaty Ground Dinner with Beef, Hearty Chicken/Beef, Bacon & Cheese. Find these as well as PEDIGREE® Dry Complete Nutrition Chicken, 50 LB or PEDIGREE® Dry Complete Nutrition Chicken Large Breed, 36.4 LB in the dog food aisle at Walmart.

Do you take your dog with you when you travel? Learn more about PEDIGREE® here.

DIY Dog Heating Pad

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser, MARS Incorporated.
All opinions are mine alone. #PAWsomeGifts #ClausAndPaws #CollectiveBias

Create a dog heating pad for your pooch to keep warm as the weather cools down this fall.
It’s fall, which means that Thanksgiving and cold weather are on their way. It’s time to make sure man’s best friend is ready for the colder weather. I fashioned this homemade dog heating pad for our Cocker Spaniel, Cooper. Here are the instructions for making one for your dog.

DIY Dog Heating Pad Tutorial

Supplies

fleece fabric – I purchased a $3 fleece throw with a dog print on it at Walmart. That 50″ x 60″ throw can be enough to make an entire heating pad. Since I doubled over my top layer, I needed more fleece. I used a contrasting fleece so that you can see how this tutorial is done.
soft heat packs – I purchased twelve that measured 5″ x 7″.
scissors
sewing pins
sewing machine

Directions

Double the fleece over to make the top of the heating pad measuring approximately 32″ x 27″.
Lay the top layer out flat and arrange the heat packs on top. The heating packs were laid out in three rows of four, so I cut out three 32″ x 11″ strips of contrasting fleece.
Fold over just over an inch of the top of each fleece strip and sew it down along the outside edges. This forms a lip in the top of the pocket strips to help hold the heat packs in place.
Use straight pins to pin the pocket strips in place on the underside of the pad.
Sew the pocket strips in place along the sides and bottom of the pad.
With the bottom side up, lay out the rows of heat packs. Mark vertical sewing lines between the heat packs.
Stitch along the marked lines, making sure to catch the folded under top edge of each pocket strip.
The heating pad is complete.
Heat the pads according to directions and place in each pocket of the pad.
Turn in over and lay it out for your dog to enjoy.
We always joke that our dog isn’t very bright, but he sat on the pad right away as if he knew it was his. This nice behavior need to be rewarded!

Thanksgiving Dog Treats

I love my pet and I want to treat him to a happy Thanksgiving season, that is why I created this pad for him. With guests coming and going for big feast, it means a lot of cold air will enter the house as the door opens and closes. This heating pad will help keep Cooper warm. I also picked up some treats for him while I was at the store. These included PEDIGREE® DENTASTIX™ Original Flavor Treats for Small/Medium Dogs, 10 count and PEDIGREE® Marrobone® Mini Beef Flavor Dog Snacks, 15 oz.

You can pick up PEDIGREE® treats in the pet aisle at Walmart. They are perfect for the Thanksgiving holiday. Check out the Stocking Solver tool on Walmart.com.

Cooper loves PEDIGREE® DENTASTIX™! We use them to help train him.

How do you keep your pet warm during cold weather? Visit HappyPetHappyHome.com for more ideas on how to treat your dog to a great Thanksgiving holiday.
posted 17 Nov 2016