O squeaky Christmas tree! This stuffed squeaky DIY Christmas tree dog toy is part of our three-piece set of DIY Christmas triangle dog toys. Triple the squeaky holiday fun! Woofs! Of all the toys, the tree arguably is the easiest to make, with simple decorations as shown. There are also plenty of wants to mix things up for a different look or style.
Sewing DIY Dog Toys
Dog Toy Safety
Stuffed dog toys follow the same basic principles as you would use if sewing (or buying) for a small child – no loose parts to nibble free and everything securely stitched into a sturdy toy. It is particularly important to know your pet and how they play before making or buying toys. Not all toys are suitable to all pets. Check out our post on toy safety for helpful links and resources.
Creating Your Own Custom Dog Toy Designs
One of the great things about making your own toys is that’s is a fun opportunity to get a little creative. We share DIY ideas, but you can take those inspirations and adapt them to your own unique crafts to suit your skills, pet, materials, and style preferences. Just like Santa looks different around the world, Christmas trees and traditions vary. Get creative and make your own special design. Your imagination is the limit! My DIY Christmas tree dog toy has pretty simple decorations, but you can be as colourful or crazy as you’d like when designing your toy.
How to Make a DIY Squeaky Stuffed Christmas Tree Dog Toy
Supplies and Materials
To make a similar DIY stuffed squeaky Christmas tree dog toy, you will need:
- Sturdy green fabric or other colour of your preference
- Scraps of mixed fleece for decorations
- Stuffing for filling for the stuffed toy
- Squeakers (optional but so much fun!)
- Complimentary coloured thread
- Sewing machine and general cutting / sewing supplies
All of my tree decorations are fleece as part of the matching triangle toy set. For a different look, you could swap the fleece garlands for sturdy ribbon instead, like we did for our Easter egg DIY dog toys. Because fleece is colourfast and doesn’t fray, it’s an easy option for embellishments on dog toys. No matter what the material or technique you choose, security and safety trump looks for toys. It’s important to make sure that any embellishments are very securely attached.
I try to salvage squeakers in our DIY dog toy hospital for reuse when possible, but I also have purchased packs of replacement squeakers in different shapes, sizes, and sounds. Squeakers can be tricky to find in shops. Try the toy section of large craft shops or look online at specialist suppliers or large retailers like AliExpress or Amazon. You can check out the replacement dog toy squeakers on Amazon (affiliate link) for product examples and ideas.
Designing the Christmas Tree Dog Toy
The triangular shapes of the toys in this set was inspired by our original triangle toy, the DIY witch dog toy. Humphrey loved that toy shape! Triangles are easy to sew and efficient to cut, so I’ve used the shape again. Trees are a natural fit for the triangle.
This DIY replaces our old DIY Christmas tree dog toy. That tree had a yellow topper and a brown trunk, but was otherwise similar in look and decoration. I’ve omitted both from the triangle toy so that it has a consistent shape with the other toys in the set and to make it an easier sewing project. You can, of course, use either as part of your custom toy creation, if you wish.
Making the DIY Christmas Tree Triangle Dog Toy
Cutting and shaping the materials:
- Cut two identical triangular pieces from sturdy base fabric. Don’t forget to include seam allowances. You can shape and scale your toy to best suit your fabric and your pet. If you are working from a large piece of fabric, you can also cut the toy as a large diamond and fold at the bottom instead of having a seam.
- Cut pieces of fleece for the decorations.
It is recommended that you use green for one (front) or both sides of this design so that your Christmas tree is green, but you can use any colour combinations you wish. I used one triangle of green and one triangle of red for each of the three toys in this coordinating trio, so the back of my tree toy is red.
Adding embellishments to decorate the tree:
- Incrementally layer your decorations in position to best suit your embellishment placement
- Incrementally sew the embellishment pieces securely to the base.
Sewing and stuffing to finish the toy:
- Layer (or fold) your triangular pieces so that the toy is right/embellished side in. Pin to secure.
- Sew together along the seam allowances, leaving an opening gap for inverting and stuffing.
- Trim any excess threads and/or material if/as needed. For thick materials, you can trim or notch excess material in the seam allowances at the corners if you want them to turn pointed.
- Invert to right-side-out
- Add stuffing and (optional) squeaker(s).
- Sew to securely stitch closed the gap.
- Trim any threads if/as needed, and enjoy!
There were noplay pictures in this post when it was first shared. Humphrey was still counting down the days until his Christmas morning squeaker fest at the time. When the post was updated for transfer to the new website, I went back into my family photo files and pulled out some behind the scenes photos of the blog dogs of Dalmatian DIY on Christmas morning. Such a happy day, so many happy memories!
The Christmas Triangle Toy Collection
Our squeaky toy trio is not only a cute combo. It was a very efficient way for me to cut multiple triangles with less fabric waste. Win for momma, win for Humphrey! Merry Christmas, indeed.
Safety first, furfriends! Remember, no matter what a toy is made of or how it’s made, toys are meant for supervised interactive play. Know your dog before giving him or her any new toy. Some dogs try to eat toys or parts (whether bought or handmade) and that’s doggone dangerous. Toys are for playing, and playtime is always safer (and more fun!) with you involved. You can read more in our dog toy safety post, including tips and helpful links for safer playtime. Have fun and play safe!
