fleece

Snuffle mat, to slow doggy feeding

~ guernseyjane ~ Leave a comment

Love this simple home made craft. It is designed so that the feeder of a greedy dog sprinkles biscuits/kibble/dry food on the mat giving the dog a challenge to find and retrieve the food.

Simply made with an inexpensive sink mat (mine Addis 30 cm approx square) with lots of drainage holes in it. Spend 20 minutes cutting a metre of fleece into 2.5 x 10 cm ish strips. Then sit in front of the tv knotting the fleece through the holes. Thread a strip up and down through adjacent holes and tie a single, simple knot to secure each strip until every hole is filled.

I used a thick fleece so stopped when the back looked like this. I finished by threading and stitching a 20 cm strip of fleece through a corner hole to make a hanger. This mat is washable and easy to make.

‘It looks shop bought’ beanie hat

~ guernseyjane ~ Leave a comment

Maybe not the most flattering hat but certainly one of the warmest.

made from fleece – that ikea throw seems never ending

loads of tutorials you can follow but it is a simple sew:

essentially draw your pattern as a rectangle with the long side measuring the circumference of the wearers head and the short side being half of the distance measured ear to ear ( plus brim and whatever length of fringe you want)

add seam allowances to long and short sides before cutting a double layer of fleece. I chose to have inner and outer the same fleece but contrast works well

cut the fringe to your chosen length along one long side then sew the other long side together

sew all the short sides together, stop just short of the fringe, to form a tube then turn inside out so the seams are hidden

do a decorative top stitch around the non fringed long side, bear in mind that this is on the brim so the bobbin side of your top stitch will be on display

turn the brim up and stand the hat on a table

gather the fringe in a bunch in your hand as though about to form it in a pony tail and tie a thin off cut of fleece around the bunch. Trim the off cut so it blends into the bunch

wear with panache!