Pet Beds and an Etsy Sale

One of the things I like to do every year is make pet beds for charity. My church takes donated items to the local no-kill dog and cat shelter at Christmastime. 

I make pet beds using old repurposed denim jeans on one side and soft fleece on the other side. In inside is stuffed with batting scraps that I save up throughout the year. It's a great way to keep the scraps out of the landfill.

They aren't the prettiest pet beds around but they are very practical.  And I am happy to be able to complete them in time to turn them in at church considering I just had surgery.

And just when I thought I could relax, I sold a quilt on Etsy. Here we are three days before Christmas and I'm packaging up a quilt to ship. I don't mean to sound like I am complaining but it was a little stressful getting it out the door quickly. I am always grateful for my Etsy customers and I hope the recipient likes it.

Charity Pet Beds

Every year my church has a Christmas tree dedicated to pets. It's a thing that started many years ago when the pastor's beloved dog, Harley passed away. The tree was named after Harley and parishioners and visitors alike are encouraged to donate new pet items and make monetary contributions that will go to a local no-kill pet shelter. 

Each year I make homemade pet beds. I save fabric chunks and batting scraps all year in order to make them. I sew the scraps together to make the top then add old blue jeans that get cut into large pieces to make the back. The jeans add a nice sturdy base to them and the fabrics for the top are usually fleece or flannel for softness. 

Once the top is sewn to the back, I then take all my batting scraps and cut them up into small pieces. I also stuff the leftover fabric scraps inside as well. Nothing is wasted. What a great feeling. I love recycling and repurposing old things. 

This year I set one of the beds where my cat lays. I thought it would be a good test to see if a pet actually likes them. At naptime, he laid on it and stayed there most of the afternoon. Since I wasn't sure whether he laid on it because it was his space or whether it was the comfort of the cat bed, I moved the bed to a different location. He chose to seek out the bed and again napped on it. 

Now I'm in trouble. How can I take it away and send it to church when he likes it so much?

Flannel Pet Beds

I've been saving up my batting scraps to the point where I had two plastic bags overstuffed with the scraps. If I put any more in the bags would burst. I guess that means it's time to do something with them.

I want to make pet beds. So I took the batting scraps and cut them into small squares. Lots and lots of small squares.

My daughter had some scrap flannel left over from pajama pants she made so I took her scraps and cut them into 22" x 26" pieces. If the scraps weren't big enough, I stitched pieces together to make the right sized pieces.

I sewed the pieces right sides together and left an opening big enough to get my hand through. I flipped the pieces right side out and ironed it flat.

I sewed another row of stitching about an inch away from the edge to make a finished edge making sure I did not stitch the opening shut.

The batting scraps were stuffed into the flannel pillow until the entire thing was full but not so full that they were stiff. The opening was machine stitched shut then edge was finished off.

Once I finished one, I wanted to make more. I ended up with enough flannel to make a total of four. I got them all done and I still had one half of a bag of batting scraps left.

Yesterday I took the pet beds to church and put them under the pets' tree. Everything under the tree will be taken to the local animal shelter closer to Christmas. They look cute under the tree with all the other donated pet foods and toys.

I wish I would have taken a photo of the tree while I was there.

Repurposed Denim and Leftover Batting Scraps

I've been keeping my batting scraps for a year or two now. I don't what possessed me to start hoarding them, but I did. They make the nicest stuffing for large floor pillows and I guess I thought that since I have so many jeans to repurpose that someday I would put the two together.

Apparently today is that day.

As I sat sorting through my fabrics, I came across a few pairs of jeans that needed to be cut up into pieces. So I took out my jeans bin and started cutting then sorting. I was inspired to make a few new floor pillows just from going through that process.

I decided to make a floor pillow with the seams exposed to give it the rag quilt look. I had so many larger pieces left when that was completed that I sewed them together using some decorative stitches to make a second floor pillow. With this second one I chose to do some stitching around the edge to make a nice finished look as well. 

There were enough batting scraps to fill both of these large floor pillows. I did take the time to cut the long batting scraps into small pieces so the pillows will get a nicer contour. Once I had them completed, I felt very resourceful. I think the larger one will make a nice dog bed and the smaller one will look great once the seams are more frayed for that raggy look. Now I have two empty white plastic storage bins. I bet they won't stay empty for very long.

Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose

A co-worker of mine was crazy about his favorite pair of jeans but they were wearing out. He hated to give them up so he asked me if I could turn them into a dog bed for his precious pooch. He thought that since his little doggy weighed in at a whopping 10-pounds, that there would be enough fabric to make a nice little snuggly spot for the dog.

So I got the jeans, bought 3 shades of blue thread and a bag of fiberfill. It was most difficult to make that first cut into these jeans; if they were mine I would consider them still wearable. So I started slow, took the waistband off, then cut the legs off. As I worked my way around them, it got easier to cut them into logical pieces. Then the fun part began. I stitched them back together into pieces of fabric. I wanted to make sure the pocket with the Ralph Lauren Polo label was in tact and the focal point of the top piece of fabric. (It would also make a nice place to store doggy treats.) After I had a main center piece, I felt it needed contrast so I dug out pieces of jean fabric from 3 other pairs of old jeans I had cut up previously. It made nice little alternating shades of blue patches around the center fabric. I then reversed the fabric on the back, making a piece of darker jeans the center of the fabric and placing the Polo jean pieces around it.

Once I had a nice 25 by 25 inch square for both the front and back, I stitched them together, turned it, stuffed it and hand sewed the opening shut. I also had stitched my custom label on the back to give it a nice designer look. Doggy can squish down nicely in the middle of the soft, lofty cushion since I made sure not to overfill the thing with stuffing. It is much softer than it looks and it should be snuggly for his treasured pet.