Check out Humphrey with his giant stash of DIY squeaky stuffed pizza slice dog toys. A feast of fun! Baking up a slice of squeaky fun? Get creative with your favourite toppings on a single slice or create a whole pizza of toy slices. I went a little crazy and made a whole mix-and-match pizza. Here are all of our homemade squeaky stuffed DIY pizza dog toy details from Humphrey’s birthday bash.
Pizza Party Squeaky Stuffed Dog Toys
Humphrey’s pizza slices were created as a special homemade gift for his 6th birthday. Instead of a birthday-themed toy, like last year’s squeaky stuffed sprinkle cake “birthday bonenut” dog toys, I got a little crazy and made an entire pizza of separate squeaky slices. It had been a while since I made Humphrey a squeaky and I decided to go big. Humphrey was very excited!
Sewing DIY Dog Toys
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.
How to Make a DIY Stuffed Pizza Slice Dog Toy
Supplies and Materials
To make a similar stuffed squeaky DIY pizza dog toy, you will need:
- Sturdy beige or brown fabric or other pizza crust colour of your preference
- Yellow fabric for the cheese
- Scraps of fleece for the sauce and toppings (optional)
- Stuffing for filling for the stuffed toy
- Squeakers (optional)
- Complimentary coloured thread
- Sewing machine (affiliate link)
- General cutting / sewing supplies
Material Notes:
These slices are based on our triangle toy shape and made with a base beige version of the super sturdy green fabric I’ve used for some of our past toys like our Halloween witch and Christmas elf. Because fleece is colourfast and doesn’t fray, it’s an easy option for embellishments, like these accents, on dog toys. I keep fleece off cuts from other sewing projects and tug toy ends for embellishment supplies. It’s also very forgiving to sew, since the stitches of coordinating thread often seem to disappear into the fluff, but it’s important to make sure that any embellishments are very securely attached. No matter what the material or technique, safety trumps looks for toys.
The stuffing and squeakers were all reclaimed and recycled materials via our DIY dog toy hospital. Yay! I try to salvage squeakers when possible, but I also have purchased packs of replacement squeakers in different shapes, sizes, and sounds. Squeakers can be tricky to find. Try the toy section of large craft shops, specialist suppliers, or large retailers like AliExpress or Amazon. Check out the replacement dog toy squeakers on Amazon (affiliate link) for product examples and ideas.
One Slice? Two Slices? A Whole Pizza of Toys?
I might have gone a little crazy on the toy making… I made eight slices (two of each topping combination) for a full pizza. Well. Almost. If you’re going for a full pizza, learn from my error, pizza making peeps. Don’t forget to include extra for your seam allowances when calculating corresponding slice dimensions for your circle or you’ll end up a slice short of a full pizza. Ooops. Not that Humphrey noticed or cared!
Triangle Dog Toy Making Fun and Efficiency
Our love of triangle toys came about by chance. Humphrey’s first triangle toy was his squeaky stuffed Halloween witch dog toy. A basic triangle was an easy-sew option for the witchy shape. As luck would have it, Humphrey absolutely loved playing with the triangle shape, and it’s an efficient shape to cut, easy to sew, and looks great, too. I’ve since used it for making other toys including our Christmas tree, Santa Claus, and matching Christmas elf toys, these slices, and a few other fun toys that are yet to be posted here on the blog. Stay tuned for more triangle fun. And if you have a triangle toy suggestion, Humphrey would love for you to let me know.
With the pizza slices, I cut a long strip of folded fabric into triangles for the base crust pieces with minimum off cut waste. Some slices are folded on the crust edge, and others are joined, but the difference is negligible in the full pizza set. If matching is important to you, you can sew a seam on the crust edge fold so they’re all the same. Easy!
Making a DIY Pizza Slice 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 crust edge instead of having a seam, as noted above in how I cut my multiple slice pieces.
- Cut a slightly smaller triangle of fabric for the cheese
- Cut pieces of fleece for the decorations. The wiggly red line of fleece sauce covers the seam between the cheese and crust on my slices, which was important for quick sewing with my materials since the sturdy yellow wasn’t a no-fray edge.
Toppings for a DIY pizza dog toy? Anything goes, but make sure that they are very securely attached to your toy for safety. In addition to the sauce, I made four different pizza topping combos (two of each). Pepperoni pizza with little pink circles, all dressed with some onion and capsicum mixed with the pepperoni circles, anchovy and bacon, and a vegetarian pizza with mushrooms and olives. I also used black decorative stitching for some added herbal pizza topping pizzazz on the anchovy and vegetarian pizzas.
Adding embellishments to decorate the pizza slice(s):
- 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!
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!
