Accessories for Your Doll's Pets: Dog Bed and Leash Tutorial

The other thing that Eliza really wanted for her doll, besides the bed, was a dog. Well, a dog, and a bed for her dog, and a collar and leash for her dog, and a pink tutu for her dog. She saw all of those in the American Girl catalog and, other that the pink tutu, she got all of them. The bed isn't exactly the fancy princess dog bed that she saw in the catalog and the collar is just the one that came sewn onto the dog, no sparkles or rhinestones or anything fancy like the ones that she wanted but when she opened it up Christmas morning she didn't seem to mind at all.

The pets that American Girl sells are kind of pricey in my opinion, pretty much everything they sell is more money than I want to spend on it. I think the dogs and cats are around $30. I was looking in the toy section of Walmart one day and I saw that they had pets for their 18 inch dolls. I had never seen them before so I don't know if it was a Christmas thing or something they always carry, it seemed like they had a lot more doll stuff than normal. Anyway, they were only $5. A much better price. We picked one out for her and I made plans to make some doggie accessories to go with it.

I started with  a dog bed. I don't have exact measurements but to make the bed I set the dog on a piece of paper and drew an oval around it. I made it big enough that I thought the dog would fit inside even with the stuffed edge around it. I would say it was probably about 10" long and about 8" tall. I cut two of those ovals out of some scraps of minky. I made one pink and one blue so that there was a contrasting color on the inside. I also cut some batting the same size. Then I cut a strip long enough to go around the oval about 5-6" wide. I sewed the short ends together to make a circle, folded it in half, wrong sides together, and pinned it around the edge of one of the ovals. I layered one oval right side up, the strip, the other oval right side down and the batting. I pinned it all really well and then sewed around the edge, leaving an opening a couple inches wide. Then I turned it right side out and stuffed the ring. It was a little difficult to get it all the way around the ring through a small hole, using a big crochet hook helped. After it was stuffed I hand sewed the opening closed, being careful to catch all of the layers.

I tossed in a simple little pillow made from a small minky scrap. I just cut two circles 4 1/2-5" in diameter, sewed around it leaving an opening for turning and stuffing, turned it, stuffed it and sewed the opening closed.

For the leash I cut a length of ribbon about 18" long. I found a little mini carabiner type clip in my sewing stuff that I used on one end. I folded the clip end over about 3/4" two times and sewed close to the fold leaving a little loop to slip onto the clip. The other end I folded down about 1/2" and the about 2 1/2". I sewed a little square and x over the folded part leaving a larger loop for the doll to hold.

I wasn't really sure how to make it easy to attach to the collar. At first I thought that maybe she could just clip it directly onto the collar. It was doable but difficult and I was worried about whether or not a little kid would be able to do it. My husband suggested putting a keyring on the collar that Eliza can then clip the leash to. I found an old keyring we weren't using and we tried it out. It worked a lot better, much easier to get it on and off. I think it looks a little too big but it worked so I just left it. I could have tried to go find a smaller ring but I figured this one worked.

Now Emma can take her dog on walks and when she is done the dog has a bed to sleep in.