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  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

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Because Of The King + For The King

July 19, 2011

Backtrack to 2009 to me finding Cody gnawing on the guest room Urban Outfitters comforter. He left a sweet not-so-little and not-so-reparable hole in it, although I have to admit that maybe (and by maybe, I mean definitely) I was the one who originally screwed up the blanket to begin with by putting it through the washer and dryer instead of dry cleaning like the product tag instructed me to. That’s why the filling you see is wadded up like a used tissue and not fluffy like normal exposed quilt fill.

His fault or not, Cody still looks guilty two years later, right?

Cody, still looking guilty.

Aside from being tattered and full of holes, I still loved the fabric, which is why I hadn’t tossed the whole thing out yet. Or maybe because my hoarder tendencies were kicking in.

No signs of distress on the other side.

Fortunately, I think he chewed in the best possible spot, only destroying the corner of the inset section on the top of the quilt. I found this to be when I chopped apart the blanket to salvage the fabrics and figure out what I could make with the remaining materials.

Guess where he chewed.

The back panel of the quilt was that soft, lightweight cotton that I drool over routinely at Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters. It was in reasonably good condition still, and despite being washed roughly in the machine, it wasn’t pilled at all.

Sheer panel from the quilt. Because there was a 12″ trim that went all the way around the quilt in a more colorful fabric (bring on the pinks and oranges!), I also had salvaged as much of that as I could – it’s shown in the next photo. At this point, I decided that I might have enough fabric for a much-desired pouf or, if I could make it large enough, a nice-but-totally-not-masculine-for-my-masculine-dog dog bed. (Did you read that right?)

I was leaning towards the latter because the boy had been really good lately. And he’s been working his way up to a big-boy bed after spending a year napping on two layers of towel. Without chewing them. Atta boy.

Because of the hole in the large flowered piece of material I showed you earlier, I was limited to a diameter that maxed out at 36″, so I taped together a few pieces of newspaper and cut a perfectly round template using a DIY’ed protractor with a pen and a piece of wire that formed an 18″ radius.

Extra strips of salvaged quilt fabric, and a 36" circle template made from newspaper.

With the round pieces of larger fabric cut into 36″ circles, it was easy to see how large this bed was going to be.

Big, round template yields big, round dog bed.

By measuring with a string around the entire circle, I learned of the true circumference, which translated to me knowing how long the piping for the top and bottom of the bed needed to be. (I know there’s a math equation for this, but you don’t really expect me to remember it, right?)

I sewed the piping myself (not made of traditional or DIY’ed bias tape like any seamstress would recommend); my strategy was to make a simple sleeve sewn shut lengthwise, looking a bit like a piece of sausage casing. The sausage-sized casing itself was then stuffed with (wait for it) old cut up t-shirts. That’s right, I sewed it right into place. The two sausage pipes (if I can call them that) were then sewn along the length of the more colorful fabric strips evenly and and in parallel form to become the center band of the dog bed slip cover that provides height to the whole thing. Yes, rolled out completely it extended the the length of the living room.

Long strips of piping stuffed with t-shirts and sewn to the circumference of the bed. There weren’t many photos between the piping step and the finished piece step because I was madly attached to the sewing machine with a whole lot of dog bed jammed in my lap. There was nothing complicated about the whole ordeal, just a lot to hold onto and not a lot to be seen. The slip cover was sewn inside out as I carefully attached both 36″ round pieces to the piping strips, sewing in a circle. Once it was almost completely sewn together, I flipped it so that the exposed piping and colorful fabrics were on the outside, and I finished off the bed by stuffing it by hand.

I did use an old foam dog bed as the core means for filling, although it was smaller, thinner, and rectangular than the slip cover I had (and too small for Cody to use by itself) so I included extra rolled up and spread out bath towels and old beach towels to pad and round out the whole bed. Sneak peek inside?

Inside the dog bed.

I swear, the best part of it is that it’s almost entirely machine washable (only part that wouldn’t be is the foam cushion). And because I want to be able to wash it easily, I’m planning to button shut the opening in the side (just making sure he doesn’t try and eat it after a few more days).

Although, having been entirely made of recycled materials, it’s his to destroy and damage; if it lasts a year, that’ll be amazing. Every material used was free to me.

He sure looks comfy in this photo, and has been sleeping on it intermittently, for the record. It’s the kind of bed that you can just melt into.

Happy boy.

If it lasts 2 weeks, at least I didn’t drop $100 on a nice one from L.L. Bean. Know what I’m sayin’?

 

 

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Decor  / DIY

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

12 Comments


Holyoke Home
July 19, 2011 at 9:41 am
Reply

SQUEEEEEEEE!!!!! This is awesome. Also? I didn’t know about Cody and his soulful, penetrating eyes.

I am now completely under his control.



    Emily
    July 19, 2011 at 9:57 am

    Yes, yes. He knows how to get what he wants.

Lisa Parenti
July 19, 2011 at 10:23 am
Reply

Great idea Emily! I love it. Im definitely using this for at least ONE out of my FIVE dogs! Simple – but would have never thought of it myself. Thanks!



    Emily
    July 19, 2011 at 10:36 am

    I think at least FOUR of your FIVE dogs (wow!) could snuggle together on a single bed the same size as this one. Glad you liked it!

Cait @ Hernando House
July 19, 2011 at 11:53 am
Reply

Great job! Cody looks like he loves it :)

Sewing and I get along about as well as Dots and the ocean (read as: not very well at all), so sadly she and Freckles are going to have to just be wicked jealous.



    Emily
    July 19, 2011 at 7:44 pm

    What about hand sewing? It’s a big job but not impossible. Did Home Ec not do the trick for y’all? I was a sewing maniac!

Kate
July 19, 2011 at 4:16 pm
Reply

I love this! That’s one good looking dog bed! It’s so great that you were able to re-use something too. Cody definitely looks like he’s making the most out of his new sleep spot :)



    Emily
    July 19, 2011 at 7:45 pm

    Thanks Kate!

Ashley @ DesignBuildLove.co
July 19, 2011 at 6:05 pm
Reply

too cute! And totally a stylish alternative to most dog beds, not to mention a great re-purposing of an otherwise “ruined” bedspread!



    Emily
    July 19, 2011 at 7:47 pm

    I’m all about the F-R-E-E. Glad you liked it Ashley!!

Jami Graham
July 20, 2011 at 12:44 am
Reply

That is awesome!! You did a great job! I’m sure Cody is loving it and hopefully it’ll last! The pipping is amazing too!



    Emily
    July 20, 2011 at 8:02 am

    Thanks Jami!

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