How to make a vine

NatalieD sent me this in a message, and it's so nice and easy that I thought it could be useful to share! Took me about 5 minutes.

Pic first, NatalieD's message after!



"Hi! This is easiest and fastest with a sewing machine, but can be done by hand if needed. Please let me know if my directions don't make sense and I will send photos.

1. Cut the fleece. I use 4-5 pieces. Less is also fine but the vine is less fluffy. They should be about 5 inches wide and however long you want the vine to be. Stack them right on top of each other. They can be the same or different colors.

2. Sew a tight line lengthwise right down the middle of all pieces of fleece -- attaching them together. You can use short (1/2" x 2") pieces of fleece as hangers, and if you do that attach them as loops now to your ends as you sew all the pieces together.

3. After you sew the stack of fleece together, you start cutting. This is how you turn the stack into a vine. Make a cut from the short edge to just before your sewn line, every half inch. You want to cut almost up to your line, but if you cut across it you'll cut your vine in half so be careful here.

That's it!"

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I don't have a sewing machine, so I did the no-sew method. All I did was make some holes up and down the pile of fleece, and threaded a thinner piece of fleece from top to bottom, tying it off in a loop.

Nice!

Very nice!

I just love these vines.. very easy to make

I must be dumb cause I can't figure this out! Could I get pictures? I would do the no sew method

Simply braid it like you would hair or a rope.

Since I was going to make a vine today for a new cage set, thought I'd take pics for you. I made mine with 4 layers of fleece, you can use 3 if you'd like. Don't use too many layers as your machine may not be able to sew through them all. I cut mine 6" wide by 30" long. You can adjust the length to fit your cage.


Cut strips and a tab (you can put a tab at both ends to hang as a swag).


Place the layers on top of each other.


Place the tab between the layers in the center of the strips.


Sew a straight stitch the entire length.


Cut fringe on one side making sure you just to up to the seam. If you cut the seam it will ruin the vine.


Cut the fringe in approximately 1/2" strips.


Cut fringe on both sides of the seam.


Fluff the vine and hang in cage.

I know you mentioned you don't have a sewing machine - so exactly what Shelly did, but when you're at the part to sew down the middle, just cut a hole through all four layers of fleece every 3/4" or so, and then weave another 'stringy' piece of fleece down the entire thing. Same idea, just want to hold the four layers together from the center!

I really need to read better! I didn't even see that part where she said she would do the no sew method.

Here are the instructions for the No Sew Braided Rope

Oh, hey! Thats not hard at all! I should have guessed that lol

I want to make a vine like this, but I would like mine to look like leaves. Any suggestions how I might go about doing that? Maybe cutting wider strips and making it pointed on the ends? I have seen some like leaves, but I don't know how they make them.

A great way to do that is to cut each piece to form a double leaf - then slip each one through each link of the plastic chain. It will work as a vine, and a reset toy as the gliders will pull the leaves out and you have to put them back.

Or, as you mentioned, you could just hand cut them in a leave shape instead of the straight cut method I used.