The crinkly bottle

This is an incredibly easy peasy but very effective toy to make.It can be made in 10 minutes flat, but will be played with often.

Gather together a small plastic bottle, a piece of fabric enough to wrap around the bottle and apart from a needle & thread or a sewing machine, that is it.

Lay out your fabric ( I used fleece) and place the bottle on top. When you measure your fabric allow 2″ extra each end.

Wrap around the bottle and pin in place. Remove the bottle and sew up the length that you pinned.

Open the lid and squeeze just a little of the air out and replace the lid tightly. Then slide the bottle back in it’s sleeve.

Cut a ring of fabric off each end a bit like an elastic band. Then centre the bottle before wrapping your loop around each end so it resembles a Christmas cracker.

Now depending on the size of your dog and if it’s destructive or not depends how well you have to make it. If they are like mine, they don’t really destroy many of their toys, only if they are played with frequently, the way I have said is adequate. But if you have a bigger dog, you may want to use a bigger bottle and wrap the fabric 3 or 4 times before stitching. If you have a destructive dog, one that loves to rip everything to pieces then it’s worth firstly removing the lid and then wrapping the bottle in some really heavy fabric first, something like deckchair fabric. Then put another layer on top. He will still be able to ‘crinkle’ it.