With the Christmas season fast approaching, I know you all are probably scrambling to find the "perfect" gifts for your family. With all the hustle and bustle don't forget the furry loved ones! I have a fast and super easy tutorial to bring you today for the beloved dog (or cat!) in your life.
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| My puppy Jack. Who could get mad at a face like this?!? |
My puppy is teething badly right now so I needed a dog bed that if he chewed on it, I wouldn't care. Let me add that he has already ripped to shreds chewed one bed that I spent lots of money on thinking it would last forever. Surprise, surprise, it didn't! lol. After throwing lots of ideas around in my head I came up with a great bed that is easy to make, doesn't require sewing (because who wants to sew EVERYTHING), goes together quick, and doesn't cost a fortune. My 3 year old daughter had a blast helping me make this bed!
Difficulty Level: Easy
Materials Needed:
- Fleece
- Stuffing
- Scissors
Cutting Chart:
The size of the bed you make depends on the size of your dog. When trying to find formulas to help you determine what size bed your dog would need I cam across this handy dandy page that tells you exactly how big your bed will need to be for the breed of dog you have! Can't get much simpler than that! If you aren't sure what breed your dog is, just choose a breed that is similar in size to your dog. Once the size you need is determined, add 6" to both the length and width so you have an allowance for the knots you will be tying. For example, my dog is an Australian Shepard, so the bed I need to make is 28" x 48". When I add 6" to both of those numbers I get 33" x 53" and that is the size I need to cut out for my dog's bed.
Step 1: Place the fleece pieces wrong sides together and pin around the entire rectangle. Make sure the pins are at least 3" away from the ends or you will be very annoyed with this project in a few minutes! lol. Once pinned together, cut out a 3"x3" square in all four of the corners. 
Step 2: Cut strips into all 4 sides of the bed that are 1"-2" wide and 3" long so that they are even with the 3" square we cut out in Step 1.
Step 3: Now comes the fun part....knotting all of those strips. Match each top strip with the corresponding bottom strip and double knot them so that they are nice and secure! If you are lucky enough to have a child who can make knots, I envy you! I would think that if your child can tie shoes than they could learn to do this easily enough with you supervising them so they don't mix up the strips.
Step 4: When you are coming to the end, be sure to leave at least 6 rows of strips untied so that we can stuff it! Once it is stuffed to the fullness that you your dog likes, tie off the last remaining strips.
I went through 1.5 of these giant 32 oz. bad boys. My 3 year old daughter had more fun playing with the "clouds" than she did actually stuffing the bed, but it was fun to have her "help". And she was so proud to have "made the dog bed"...I let the comments that she made about only her making the bed slide because we all know who really made the bed I'm just that great of a mom!
And here is the final (obviously unedited!) product with my dog who promptly climbed on top of it and tried to sleep. And when I say "promptly" I mean he was scared to death of the thing until I picked him up and forced him on it. lol.
Much like my daughter when I try to get her to smile, here he is not smiling and not understanding what I want him to do.
Finally, here he is, just "over" this shoot. He's still cute though!
I hope you enjoy this bed as much as my dog (and children, lol) do! If you're really ambitious--unlike me--you can make one of these beds for every season/holiday and they will last you forever!
Happy Sewing Knotting!
Shannon
Shannon
