How To: A Dog Bed for Basil

I will admit something here - Tim and I made a dog bed for Basil before we even knew we were getting him. We knew we wanted a dog and had been on the lookout for some time without much luck - this didn't stop us from preparing though.

One weekend this past summer, yes - summer, we decided to make the bed with some of the fabrics we'd picked up along the way including a burlap coffee sack from Blanchard's Coffee (like the one I used to make this laptop sleeve) and heavy duty canvas from an army tent we came across at a local flea market.

It's a simple square design bed consisting of the following basic steps:

1. Cutting and sewing upper and base fabrics in matching square shapes. 2. Sew lining onto each fabric backing. 3. Face outer fabrics against one another and sew securely around edges leaving a small opening on one side. 4. Flip fabric inside out from opening - you should now have your basic unstuffed dog bed - like a giant pillow. 5. Fill bed with desired stuffing. We chose a mixture of cotton and cedar chips to keep the bed both comfortable and fresh smelling. 6. Fold in edges of opening and pin together. 7. Sew opening closed.

The finished bed sat empty in our basement corner for months and we always talked about whether or not our future dog would like it. Now we ask ourselves if he will ever leave it.

We love the fact we were able to make something together from recycled fabrics that turned out to be so much more meaningful than picking up one of the generic mass produced versions from the pet store. We think Basil agrees.