It's been a long time since I've posted anything to this blog. Life has gotten really busy homeschooling 5 kids, and homesteading too. But it was time to make a new dog bed, and someone asked me how to do it. So, that is why I am making this tutorial. I hope it is helpful to anyone looking to make a dog bed from upcycled materials you may already have.
Materials:
-I used a piece of foam taken from my baby diaper changing table. Sized 35"x19"x2"
-An old throw blanket (a corner was ripped) 48"x60"
-40lb chicken feed bag
-50lb dog food bag
-3" wide duct tape
With 5 kids it seems like I always have a good amount of supplies to work with. Each time I do laundry I look for t-shirts with stains or holes that I can cut into rags. Sometimes those rags have been used to stuff a dog bed, when my rag drawer is overfilled. Usually I use an old foam mattress topper. I believe the last one I made was 3 years ago. You can see a photo of that dog bed at the very end of this post. It was not an outdoor bed. That bed just got tossed out last year when Nella used it for her 2nd year in a row. Smitty passed away 3 years ago next month. We miss him very much. There are links to two other posts I made regarding homemade dog beds at the bottom of this post.
Hidey wants to keep it for her own.
This is the piece of foam my husband bought to go in the diaper changing table he built for our babies. He made it several years ago. I had made a waterproof fitted sheet for it, that is lost. But I did still have a fitted cover for it that I decided to put on it. Since I made it specifically for this, so no sense in trying to keep it for something else. Might as well let them stay together.
Hidey really does not want to let Nella have it.
The first thing I did was cover it in old feed sacks. I keep them for trash bags, when we clean up the yard or workshop, and other various uses such as this. I like using the feed sacks that are made from tarp like material, because overtime it gets "broken in". Meaning, it gets less crinkly sounding and more pliable, and more like fabric. While retaining the ability to keep stinky moisture out of the foam. This way, at the end of the winter season I can simply remove the cloth outer layer, wipe the bed down and store it in the shed until next winter. Then I will recover it with whatever old blanket or towels we are ready to get rid of at the time.
First I put the chicken feed bag on because it is smaller. It still fits well enough, but a little snug.
Next I used the 50lb dog food bag. I just happened to have this bag due to someone donating this food to us because we take in a lot of stray dogs until we can find their owner or a new home. We do not use this food though. There are a lot of scary reviews for this food on the Consumer Reports website, so we try to steer clear of it if we can. However, I am grateful to have this bag today.
In an effort to add a little extra layer of moisture protection I sealed the bags together with 3" wide duct tape.
Now I fold the blanket in half and sew it together leaving one of the short ends open to make it like a pillowcase.
I used this stitch. A wide zig zag stitch will suffice if you don't have this particular one on your machine.
I used about 5/8 inch seam allowance because I have plenty of room in this cover to spare. A wide seam allowance will be a little more secure than trying to keep it close to the edge.
Finally, slide the bed inside of the cover and sew up the open end.
Here is the finished product, inside of her dog house. It will be more flat when she gets in there. I have no desire to crawl in there and pat it down. lol
I tried to get a picture of her in it, but it's only 26 degrees tonight and she would much rather play in the snow and bark at the coyotes and other farm dogs in the distance. But it's in there waiting for her when she's ready. It's supposed to get down to 17 degrees tomorrow night, so she'll probably use it then. Tonight she's just hanging out on the top of the dog house and running around her kennel.
We keep our Great Pyrenees kenneled next to the chicken coop because she is dedicated strictly to watching over the chickens. If she has too much area to patrol, on her own, the chicken coop might get infiltrated. We hope to get more livestock and another livestock guardian dog this spring.
Thank you for checking out my blog page.
Please leave a comment and share your own dog bed pictures or links.
Sincerely, Steph
Other dog bed tutorials I've done:
This was my favorite dog bed that I've made so far. I made Delsin and Enoch Cowboy bedding and curtains and this bed to match for Smitty, because he became an inside dog during his last days. He slept in the boys room the most. I made a great tutorial for it, but blogger's phone app was having problems and kept deleting it. They no longer have a phone app, and I no longer have this tutorial to share. But if I ever make another one similar to it I will make a tutorial again.
