With getting a new puppy, my FIRST puppy, actually, there was a lot of prep. We gave a lot of Winston’s things to my vet as donations, so I had to purchase new stuff for Pixel – a few things I’d given away but mostly stuff I’d never had before, specific to a very small puppy. I decided that bell training would be great (it’s basically a bell the puppy is trained to ring to go do her business outside). I had seen many of them on Pinterest and thought it was a terrific idea, but none that I really liked. So I decided it couldn’t be THAT hard to make one myself.
I started by pinning some, then finally looked up instructions. I got inspiration from a few pins on Pinterest and kind of riffed on it myself once I knew I was going in the right direction. Like most the pinners, I didn’t feel like lugging out my sewing machine (mostly because I did this project at 4:00 AM the night morning before we drove to pick her up) so this is all hand sewn. Which is just as well considering the jingle bells needed to be sewn by hand anyway.
I had previously ordered some Jingle Bells 1-3/8-Inch and had grabbed some Offray Disappearing Dots Grosgrain Ribbon that I liked for this project. Between the bells and the ribbon, I probably spent about $10 on this. I already had purple thread, Dritz Fray Check, and the little bit of lace that I added. The lace and Fray Check is basically where I went off in my own direction from Suzanne’s very well laid out instructions.
I eyeballed how long I wanted it, then put the ribbon against a tape measure to even out the size. I cut it at 20 inches, knowing that once I added a bit of a seam on each end it would be slightly shorter. I used the fray check on the ends, then once it was dry I basically made wide seams on each end so that they’d form loops. One would be for hanging, the other for the bottom bell.
Most of the models I saw had 3 bells on them. The package I bought came with 4, so I decided that I’d evenly space two of the bells along the ribbon and then add the last two both to the very bottom. I made little marks with a pen on the back side where I wanted the bells. I used the tape measure a bit, but like I said, it was also pretty approximate because using just math to divide up the measurement didn’t look quite right to me. I hand stitched the two bells along the ribbon, but when it came to the bottom bells I used a small zip tie to affix them through the bottom loop. I was running short on patience and it seemed like a good solution.
At first, I was thinking that I’d add another zip tie to the top for hanging, but then I remembered that I had this wide eyelet lace in my sewing kit that’s been in there FOREVER with no real planned project. I don’t even remember where I got it from originally. So I looked at it and decided that it would make a fine hanger. With a little bit of elegance. So I cut a little piece, just enough so that when folded over the eyelets would match up to form something I could put onto a thumbtack or Command hook or whatever would work best on my back door frame. I fray checked the ends and then sewed it on.
I think it came out really well. I hung it slightly off the ground and it’s stayed there dutifully for months. At first, I was concerned that the cats would find it to be a toy and continually ring it, but they never had any interest in it, so it’s there solely for Pixel to ring to let me know that she wants to go outside to do her business.
Now… if I could just teach her how to do that… 🙂
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