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Okay, so I decided to try making some braided dog toys the other day. My dog, bless his heart, goes through store-bought toys like nobody's business. Seriously, sometimes they last minutes. Felt like I was just throwing money away. Plus, I had a pile of old t-shirts I didn't know what to do with. Seemed like a good way to recycle.

Getting the Stuff Ready

First thing, I rummaged through the closet. Found a few old cotton t-shirts that were stained or stretched out. Perfect. Color doesn't matter to the dog, right? I also had some leftover fleece scraps from another project. Fleece is pretty sturdy, so I thought I'd mix and match.

Then came the cutting. This part is kind of tedious, not gonna lie. I grabbed my fabric scissors – forget the rotary cutter, too much fuss for this. I just started cutting strips. Aimed for about 1.5 to 2 inches wide. Didn't measure perfectly, just eyeballed it. Cut them along the longest part of the shirt body to get decent length. You need fairly long strips, especially if you want a good-sized toy. I ended up with a decent pile of colorful strips.

The Braiding Part

Alright, time to braid. I took three strips – maybe two t-shirt ones and one fleece for toughness. Lined them up. Then, I tied a really tight knot at one end. Like, super tight. You don't want that coming undone first thing.

Then I just started braiding. You know, the basic three-strand braid. Left over center, right over center, repeat. I tried to keep the braid tight. Pulling each strand snug as I went along. A loose braid just gets destroyed faster, in my experience. My hands started to feel it after a bit, pulling that fabric tight.

I kept going until I got near the end of the strips. Left enough room to tie another knot.

Finishing Up

Once the braid was long enough, I gathered the ends together. Tied another big, strong knot. Pulled it as tight as I possibly could. Gave it a few good tugs myself to make sure it felt solid. Trimmed off any super long straggly bits from the knots, but left a little bit of a fringe. Dogs seem to like the dangly bits.

And that was pretty much it. One braided dog toy, ready for destruction. Made a couple more while I was at it, using different combinations of strips.

The Verdict?

Gave the first one to my dog. He immediately grabbed it and started whipping it around. Success! He seemed to love the texture, probably better than hard plastic. It's holding up okay so far. Definitely longer than some cheap store toys. It won't last forever, nothing does with him, but it felt good to make something useful from old junk. Cheap, easy, and the dog's happy. Can't complain too much about that.