A new Leash for Doggie (or Kitty) from your Quilt Scraps!

Have you ever wondered what to do with those long strips of leftover fabric that you trim off after quilting your quilt top?

You know the ones I mean.

Those 2”-6” strips that are still good (practically new) fabric. And there’s so much. Especially if you make a lot of quilts.

I was staring at these pretty scraps from my Sweet Caroline quilts one day and that was just a couple hours after thinking that we need a new dog leash.

Suddenly I put it together – those long scraps are perfect for making pet leashes!

And… I could use the batting scraps for stabilizer instead of the interfacing that I used in my Scrappy Pet Leash tutorial.

Less than an hour later it was done and I was so proud of myself! Our old boy Indy will LOVE his new leash, don’t you think? He he.

Do you want to sew a fast and easy pet leash? Here’s how:

You will need:

• left over strips of fabric at least 3” wide (wider is fine too)

• left over strips of batting

• a swivel clasp

Cutting:

Cut and stitch together the quilt scraps until you have a strip 3” x 7 feet long. 

Trim down the leftover batting strips until you have 7′ of batting strips (total) that are 3/4” wide (1/4 as wide as the fabric strip).

Tip: If your pet will pull on the leash during walks, press the seams to the side and then topstitch them – to reinforce each seam.

Preparation:

Fold and press the long strip bias tape style – in half, then edges to the center.

Lay the strips of batting inside one of the folds. Assuming that you don’t have one strip of batting 7′ long – place the ends of the batting strips together, they don’t have to overlap. 

Trim the batting so that the fabric strip has no batting inside it for 1/2” from each end.

Re-fold the strap.

Sew down each side of the strap 1/8” from the edge.

A walking foot really helps with this step so the fabric doesn’t pull funny.

At one end of the leash, fold the end over by 1/2” and then about 6-8” to make the handle.

Sew in a square to hide the raw edges and secure the handle.

Slide the swivel clip through the other end of the leash, fold the raw edge under, and sew another square (or rectangle) to secure it.

All done! If you don’t have a dog or cat, this would make a great gift. Or sew them for your favorite pet shelter, I’m sure they’d really appreciate it! (like the cage comforters)

Here’s the video that goes with my original Scrappy Pet Leash tutorial. I used interfacing instead of quilt batting and that leash was a different width, so you’ll see it’s all so easy to customize! 

Happy sewing!