We’re back with another crafting blog! This time, we thought we’d show you a really simple but cute craft – a William Morris dog bandana! Adorable for your own dog or as a gift for someone with their own pooch in a fabric you know they’d like. Not to mention Christmas in October, but if you’re writing your Christmas list already, it’s a craft they’ll love and you know you could make in time!

The bandana just slips onto the dogs collar, you’ll have seen them before but we just wanted to give them a Morris twist – we hope you agree, they look pretty adorable. Photos of our own little Labradoodle pal, Oscar and a little Pomeranian (tagged by @minkymole on Instagram) both wearing their Brother Rabbit Blue bandanas.

You’ll need:

• Fabric – as you can see in the photos, we’ve used a few different fabrics in our projects for Oscar. He looks very handsome in our William Morris Brother Rabbit fabric above and also has modelled our Strawberry Thief blue fabric which he seemed to like too. The thing to remember here is that the size of our bandana will depend on the size of your dog. These measurements are for a small- medium dog (Oscar is a labradoodle and under a year old.) We’ve got a whole range of Morris fabrics in our collection to check out.
• A piece of card for your pattern – we’re very professional and used the back of a cereal box. Waste not want not.
• Ruler
• Cutting board
• Fabric scissors
• Sewing machine or sewing kit with thread that matches your fabric

How to:

You first need to work out how big you want your bandana. You don’t want it too big or it could annoy the dog – it’s going to either be down their back or chest so you need to take into account how long they are so it doesn’t get in the way of playtime or walking. The width too will depend on the length of their collar so take that into consideration when cutting out your pattern. We like using our William Morris cotton fabric for this because it’s soft fabric for them – only the best for our dogs right!

Then, let’s cut the pattern. We used a cereal box to reduce waste cutting out cardboard for just a few bandanas. You can see that it has the two sides so that the collar would go down the middle (vertically in the below photo.)

Then, we’ll cut the actual fabric using your chosen fabric. Here, we were using Brother Rabbit in Red. Press in .5cm of hem either side – this is where the collar will go through. Then sew down each side.

Then, fold it in half, point to point and top stitch the two triangular sides in. Back stitch to start and finish.

Your dog will be playing and naturally get his or her bandana a little muddy, so remember you can wash your cotton fabric. Just wash at 30 degrees and allow for slight shrinkage which may occur on all cotton fibers.

If you make this easy craft, let us know! Tag us in your photos on Instagram or send them to our email; laurasbeaufabric@gmail.com and we’ll send you a 20% discount code in return for use on your next order on our website!