DIY Christmas Cat Collars {Caturday #8}

Today’s post is the last Caturday post before Christmas, so we’re gonna get all Christmas-y up in here today with some DIY Christmas cat collars! Look how cute this thing is!

Now our cats can have some Christmas spirit too.

They’re simple to make, and completely customizable with different fabrics or embellishments. Here’s how to do it:

Christmas Cat Collars

You need:

• Christmas fabric
• elastic
• embellishments (I used gold cord and tiny jingle bells)

First, figure out how long your elastic needs to be. The easiest way to do this is to measure it against the normal collar your pet wears. You want the elastic in it’s normal, un-stretched state to be exactly the length of the collar. This way the elastic can stretch to go over their heads, but it isn’t tight or constricting while they’re wearing it.

Once you have your elastic cut to size, cut out a rectangle of fabric. Your rectangle should be 2-3″ wide and about 125% of the length of your elastic. That way it will bunch up nicely once it’s all put together.

Fold your fabric in half length-wise, right sides facing in, and sew all the way down the long edge with a small seam allowance.

Turn the fabric right side out. This part is difficult because it’s basically a long skinny tube, but if you use a skewer it’s much easier! Start turning the tube inside out, then gently push the fabric through with the non-pointy end of the skewer to help force it right-side out.

Once your tube is right-side out, press it flat. Then thread the elastic through the tube. Sew one end of the tube shut, making sure to include one end of the elastic as well.

Pull the other end of the elastic through the tube towards the other opening until it is flush, then tack the elastic in place. (The fabric will be a bit gathered up at this point.) Then take the sewn-shut side of the collar and stick it inside the open, tacked down side of the collar. Sew across both ends to make the collar into a full ring, and you’re done!

The cats put up with them surprisingly well! Usually they are not okay with me dressing them up, but they don’t seem to mind the collars at all.

Do you dress your pets up for holidays? I love dressing my cat up because everything looks so striking and fancy against his black fur. (And by dressing him up I mean tying fun colored ribbons to his collar for different holidays; I’m not full-on dressing him up as Captain Jack Sparrow or anything. I’m not a crazy cat lady, promise!)

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Want to see the rest of the Caturday posts? Here they are!

 

I link up at these awesome parties!