Leashes

A great way to reuse or replace all of those chewed up or frayed leashes laying around

Ingredients

  • 1/4 yard of thick (heavy weight woven) fabric such as canvas, duck or twill with a 55” width or wider

  • 1” swivel hook (or carabiner - see Maker’s notes)

  • 15” strip of leather about 1.5” in width (optional)

  • Sewing machine and supplies (thread, needles, etc.)

Maker’s Notes

I have a drawer full of these swivel hooks - my GSD used to tear through her leashes as a puppy. I’d often get her back from the vet with a knot tied in the leash. Rather than trash it all, I’d cut off the hardware and make a new one. If you didn’t have the experience I did, you can find swivel hooks through Wawak, your local fabric/crafts store, through Amazon or you can consider using a carabiner. Please keep in mind though, that you should use materials that can withstand your dog’s pulls on the leash. This is different for anyone, but I highly recommend testing the leash out before taking these out on the road and getting stuck.

I also highly recommend using a stronger thread that you can still use in your machine. I used a quilting weight cotton, but there are also nice upholstery threads on the market. Serger or spool thread may not be strong enough for this one.

1. Cut

Clean the top edge of the remnant by cutting along the top grainline. cut two 4.5” strips horizontally to your remnant creating two strips that measure 4.5” by 55" (or whatever width your fabric is.) Do not cut off the selvedge.

Note:

The selvedge of the fabric is the woven end at each side that keeps the fabric from fraying (see picture)

2. Sew and press

Sew both strips down the selvedge. I used a straight stitch at 3 for this. Press the horizontal edges of the strips toward the center of the strips. When you get to the connected strips - press the edges in the same direction. This will cause a lot of bulk, but will provide more strength when you sew the leash together.

3. Press and press and more press

When you are finished pressing both ends toward the center, fold the strip in half and press again. Pay special attention to pressing where the two strips connect. This will help the strip go through the machine when you move to sew.

4. Sew

Sew the strip using a straight stitch, I am using a 3 stitch on my machine at about a 1/4” seam. Be very careful and go slow over the bulk where the seams connect. If your machine appears to struggle, try helping the machine along by rotating the hand wheel toward you rather than trying to push the motor.

(Optional) Take about 3” of the strip of 1.5” leather, wrap it over the side of the start of the strip, and sew the section down where you stitched previously. This 3” section will be used to connect the swivel hook. Since this stitching is decorative, I’m using the longer 5 stitch on my machine.

Take the remaining leather and using a rotary cutter, cut the leather down to the width of the fabric strip. Sew this to the other end of the strip. This will become the outside of the decorative handle.

5. Make the handle

Fold the handle in half at the length you are most comfortable with. The handle for my leash is 8”. I’m overlaying some of the leather over the raw edge of the strip to keep the edges enclosed in the closure that we will be sewing. If you are skipping the optional leather, then you’ll need to turn under the canvas to enclose the raw edges.

Close the handle by sewing a square with an X in the center. I typically start this by starting stitches across the layers, run diagonally to the other corner, running stitches across again, running then running another stitch diagonally to the opposing center. I may run over an additional stitch or two, but that’s ok. Life is imperfect too, it doesn’t impact the strength of the new leash.

6. Close the handle

7. Add swivel hook and close

Finally, we’ll push the strip through the swivel hook and run the same box stitch through the other end of the leash. Clip any last threads - and enjoy!