Aren't both of my models above just gorgeous! Small, Medium, Large - all Beautiful! As someone who leans on the large size I often think of animals, and how their sizes, shape, colorings, all differ, but we - humans, who constantly seem to be searching for the perfect/ideal everything have a much harder time putting man's best friend in to this same small little box of perfection and tend to be more accepting of all the variations and differences. If we could only extend the same to each other. But well that wasn't really the topic of this post....
Usually I make a new dog bed every 6-9 months when the previous one becomes too worn for yet another wash. Good for my dogs, but bad for me they have a dog door that leads onto our outdoor patio which has trees, a small patch of grass/dirt, many plants, rocks etc. which they love to carry in when I am not looking and the outdoors usually end up in the dog bed. Just recently, I replaced the latest worn out dog bed with a new version of the same pattern. I didn't post pictures since you have essentially seen it before.
However, the Mr. asked me why I didn't make several dog beds for different areas of the house and because we have more than one dog. As you can tell from the picture above, they certainly do not mind sharing, but they do the love the dog bed(s) and they are easy and inexpensive to make. So, Operation: More Dog Beds has commenced.
For the dog beds, I usually just purchase fleece from Joann's either when it is on sale or I search through the remnants for larger pieces. I got lucky and both of the fabrics purchased above were large remnants and almost a full yard each. This makes for a really inexpensive project if you are debating make vs. buy.
I also decided to try a new pattern:
Simplicity 2297 Version A. which is No Sew like the other dog bed but I got to learn the skills of using an Awl to punch holes in the fabric and then weave and gather to form some structure. It was easy, but the other dog bed takes less than an hour and this one probably took several between marking all the holes for punching and then using the awl for an initial once around punch, I found my holes were not large enough to weave the safety pin and fabric through so I had to punch each hole again before moving to the next.
One really good thing about this pattern is that all sizes are in the one envelope and they are on different tissue - so, if you plan to make multiple sizes you don't have to buy more than one pattern or spend your time tracing a dog bed!
For those of you, that are pet owners and looking to make something like this, you might worry about the stuffing. What dog doesn't like to rip all the stuffing out of their toys? And I know from experience with the other dog bed, if the double knots are not tight enough they can find away to dig-in and have a free for all with the "guts" of the dog bed. I can report that this weave and gather method has enough structure to be solid and after a week of wear the dog bed has remained intact.
Special thanks to my Sewing Helper - Pandora & the World's Largest Lap Dog - Hope for being such well behaved models! :)
