My dog chewed through her leash and I didn’t want to buy a new one. It had a nice strong clip on it, so I cut off the old leash and made a new one! I also made it a bit longer – the old one was always too short.

I always like to use fabric from old clothes. This shirt and pants were to old and worn out to donate and I liked that they were all cotton and thick fabric.

For the handle of the leash I cut the strip from the shirt that had the button holes in it – I did this because it was finished on both sides and wouldn’t need any new sewing.

I get a little crazy with what I save sometimes – earlier that day I had actually cut the sleeves and neckline off of a sweatshirt. I saved the sleeves and I cut a piece off (seam intact) that was about 1” thick. I will use this for a soft lining inside the handle of the leash. (might as well go for total comfort). I fit the sweatshirt scrap centered inside the strip of buttonholes – with the sweatshirt seam at the bottom. The soft fuzzy wrong side of the sweatshirt faces out – that’s the part that will touch my hand.

I didn’t do any precise measurements here, I could have even cut the seam off the sweatshirt – but as it was, it was the perfect length. I topstitched them together in complimentary color thread. Look at the close up – I trimmed the button hole strip at about 1” below the end of the lining. This is the extra that will be sewn onto the leash. Any lining sticking out was trimmed off after. Sweatshirt material was perfect for this as it doesn’t fray!

For the leash, I cut lengths of fabric from the pants. I made it twice the width of the leash and a little extra for seam allowance.

The pants weren’t long enough to do it with one strip, so I cut 2 pieces and sewed them together.
With the final length, I folded it in half, (right side in) lengthwise and straight stitched the length.

I turned it inside out, ironed it flat with the seam running down the middle. Using matching thread, I top stitched it with large “X’s” all the way down and folded in the raw ends and top stitched them closed. (I just did these “X’s” for added strength of the leash).

I put a few inches through the end of the clasp and topstitched it securely to the leash.
Then I stitched the handle to the leash going back and forth to really secure it good.

As an afterthought, I added a little “pillowcase” near the handle to stuff little doggie clean up bags in. Holds 2 or 3.

Simply a length of fabric folded around the leash and sewn down. See drawing to get an idea. I stuff the bag in the opening and tuck it back under the fabric. Works pretty good.

The new leash didn’t take that long. Looks kinda cool. I now have a longer leash and a doggie bag holder. I suppose many would just go buy another leash, but I get the satisfaction of custom making something and reusing materials. And the sweatshirt really was softer on the hands!