tropit

I know that a lot of you make pet beds for the local animal shelters. My shelter asks for towels, not beds, so I'm a bit clueless as to what goes into the dog and cat beds. I want to make a few, really nice beds that have removable, zippered covers. For the filling, I have a lot of fabric and batting scraps. I was thinking of adding some shredded foam to the mix. Any other tips that you all can give me? Thanks!

~ Cindy

PaperPrincess

You want to make sure none of your stuffing materials are long strings, such as a trimmed selvedge. Many dogs will eat their way into the cushion and long pieces can be deadly.

bakermom

I don't make fancy ones. I buy fleece (3/4-1 yd), fold in half and sew them around 3 sides leaving an opening for turning then stuff with fiberfill. It works well for my dog. I've bought ones with covers thinking they would be easier to wash. She finds the opening and works the inner pillow out. if she makes a hole in the liner in the process, all the stuffing gets removed. Doesn't happen when they are sewn shut. I can fit the whole thing in my washer and dryer. The kennel does the same when we board her. Now I can't do that for DS's dog, she loves to shred fleece. Doesn't matter if it's her bed, a throw or the kids' pjs.
Personally, I wouldn't use foam because of the mess if it gets a hole. Fiberfill and fabric scraps are bad enough.

tropit

Oh...I hadn't thought of that...thanks. I do have a lot of long strings of fabric. I guess I should run over it with my cutter a bunch of times to make it more like confetti.

Bakermom...you have a very clever little pooch. LOL. I'll keep the fiberfill in mind...thanks.

My dogs are 50+ pounds each, so I need some bigger beds with lots of padding. One of my girls is elderly and she has her moments of incontinence, so I need it to be completely washable. I'm wondering about making a liner that is waterproof.


~ Cindy

ManiacQuilter2

I have been thinking of a redesign but haven't come up with anything yet. It makes sense to make some sort of pillowcase so that the whole bed doesn't need to be washed.

tropit

Yeah...I think that would be good. I want to use the waterproof casing idea too. Even the store bought doggy beds don't have that. I'm always having to wash the foam inserts because they get wet. I have a soggy doggy who won't take her pills to help her with her... uh..little problem. I also want to make a couple of cat beds for my kitties.

~ C.

SuziSew

There are free patterns on allpeoplequilt.com maybe something like these would work...

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/bags-p...ws/3-dog-night
http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/bags-p...eature-comfort

tropit

Thanks...those are both very cute and simple to make.

tesspug

If you are making beds for the shelter, don't go to any great lengths. Beds have to be constantly washed and get torn up. That's why they ask for towels. Basically anything for the shelter is going to be a disposable.

Tothill

Man Sewing YouTube Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0e3ZN3gfFg He is making a dog bed for a smaller dog, but it would not be hard to make it larger.

To handle incontinence, I would make the tube and top layer of the bed out of PUL, the fabric diaper covers are made out of. Them make several small pads that can go inside for your old gal. You would just have to wash the pads.

For stuffing I would not use cotton fabric scraps, if you ever had to wash the bed it would take forever to dry. I would use fleece scraps, poly batting scraps, but mostly pillow stuffing.