So.. what can you do with it? I see it at Jo-Ann’s all the time, and honestly wonder what the heck could possibly be done with it. This post lists everything that I could find, with tutorials!
Actually, I made this stocking with some faux fur for my fiance’s niece. I hope she loves it!
Yesterday, I wanted to make my kitty, Tobor, a pet bed. Why? Because during the night, he’s always sleeping on the floor, or on something hard like cardboard or books – and he doesn’t ever look too comfortable. During the day, he’s usually sleeping on the bed, and always seems irritated at night when he’s kicked off!
I looked up and printed about 7 different tutorials on making a pet bed. After reading through them, I didn’t find one tutorial that was easy to understand. None of them had step by step pictures to illustrate what they were talking about, and the wording was horrible.
I did make a previous bed for my previous kitty, Zula, by following an online tutorial, but it came out extremely tiny with really high walls. Fortunately though, Zula loved it! However, she did have to sleep with her arms out of it every time, just to give you an idea of how tiny it really is!
Zula and her Tiny Bed
Tobor, however, is a much bigger kitty, and didn’t fit into Zula’s old bed. He only stayed in it for 30 seconds, and never went near it again. It was WAY too tiny for this beefy boy!
Tobor in the tiny bed
Since I didn’t want to do the above tutorial again because it came out all weird and took a good 5 hours to figure out what the lady was talking about, and all of the new tutorials I found seemed beyond confusing with wording and pictures, I gave up on them and attempted to make Tobor’s bed on my own.
I also wanted to provide an easy to follow tutorial for anyone wanting to make their own. I’m not a tutorial expert or writer, but I gave this written tutorial my best shot. I hope it is easy to understand, and if not, let me know if you have any questions so I can answer them! Let’s go!
Materials:
1 Cat or Small Dog (You could make one for a big dog too – just add more fabric to your list!)
1/2 yard of fabric for the first side
1/2 yard of fabric for the reversible side
1/2 yard of fabric for the walls
12 oz. of Polyester Filling
Newspaper or other paper to make your pattern out of
Thread
Needle
Sewing Machine (or you could sew it by hand, but it’d take a long time!)
Scissors
Step 1:
This may sound silly, but I measured how long Tobor was when he’s in his sleeping position.
He loves to stretch out, so I cut a rectangle out of my paper that measured 24 inches by 18 inches.
I then folded the rectangle in half, and then folded it again in half the opposite way, so that all of the corners were in one place.
Then, I took my scissors and rounded the corners. When unfolding it, I had a perfectly even rounded pet bed pattern.
Step 2:
Pin this pattern to both the top and bottom fabric pieces, and cut them out.
Pin the pattern to the fabric
I had leftover fabric from my scratching post project and from Zula’s old bed, so I just used what I had already. Here are the two pieces cut out from the pattern:
Top and Bottom Pieces Cut Out
Step 3:
Cut a long piece of fabric for the walls that is 12 inches wide. My 24″ bed took a 72″ x 12″ strip, so you may have to sew some fabric together to be able to make the strip long enough.
Cut a 12 inch Wide Strip of Fabric
Step 4:
Fold the strip in half, lengthwise with the right sides facing out. A right side of the fabric means that it’s the side of the fabric with the design on it. If you have a solid colored fleece like I do, it doesn’t matter either way. Pin it along the edges so that it stays together and even.
Pin the edges together
Step 5:
Put one of your round pieces down with the right side facing up. Pin the wall all the way around the round piece.
Pin the wall to a round piece
Keep pinning!
If you notice that your strip is too long (which is much better than it being too short!), simply cut off the excess fabric. Make sure that you leave enough room to tuck some of the fabric into itself to hem up the wall.
I understand my wording can be really confusing here, so I thought I’d include some extra photos, and a video that attempts to show you what I mean.
Oh no! Too much fabric!
It's ok, just cut it off!
Be sure to leave a little excess to tuck the fabric in
...and pin it in place!
Step 6:
Make sure that the walls are facing inward towards the center.
Add your second round piece of fabric on top of it, right side down.
Then, pin it to the other two pieces that you’ve already pinned together. Make sure that you are using the same pins and not adding any more pins. All right sides should be facing each other.
Make sure that the wall is facing in towards the center
Place the second circular piece on top, with the right side facing down
Here it is, pinned!
It should look like this, from the side
Step 7:
Stitch around the pinned edges, making sure that you leave enough room (about 3-4 inches) in order to turn all of the fabric right side out after sewing.
Stitch around the pinned fabric
But make sure you leave enough room to flip it out!
This is what the opening should look like
Step 8:
Pull the walls and everything else through the opening. At this point, you should be getting super excited. lol.
Ta-da! Side 1!
Ta-da! Side 2!
Step 9:
Stuff the opening with polyfil until you’re satisfied with the fluffiness. Then, sew the opening shut by hand. I used a whip stitch.
Stuff the circles!
Circles are all stuffed and sealed
Step 10:
Now, stuff the walls. Push the first handfulls of fluff to the far side of the wall and work towards the opening on each half until you are satisfied with the amount of fluffiness that is in it.
Stuff the wall
Step 11:
Stitch the wall closed by hand. I used a whip stitch.
Stitch it up!
Step 12:
Finished! How awesome is it that it’s reversible and made from scraps?!
Tiger Side
Checkered Side
Stick your pet in it, and hope that they sleep in it! Luckily, Tobor likes his He fits!
Tobor irritated that I'm photographing him while he's trying to sleep
Finally getting some sleep
I hope this tutorial was easy to follow and understand. Let me know if you have any questions or comments!
Spoon gets all of his work shirts dry cleaned every couple of weeks, and when we get them back, there’s a white wire hanger on each one. We have accumulated more wire hangers than the clothes we have, so I started thinking about what could be done with them.
So far, all we’ve done with them involved cutting them and bending them to make stakes to hold down our Halloween decorations into the ground. They worked really well and none of our stuff blew away. Yay!
But hey – I still have a TON left, and more are coming. I did my homework – here are some fun and awesome things that you can make or do with your wire hangers. Yay!
Click on the photo to go to the tutorial.
Contents:
Home Decor Tutorials
Hanger Cover Tutorials
Mobile Tutorials
Toy Tutorials
Baby Shower Tutorials
Valentine’s Day Tutorials
Easter Tutorials
Halloween Tutorials
Christmas Tutorials
Home Decor Tutorials:
iPod Dock from a Metal Hanger: Instructables
Hanger Lamp: Instructables
Make your own vintage Wire Basket out of Coat Hangers: Associated Content
Tissue Box Hanger: Instructables
Tissue Paper Butterfly: San Diego Zoo
Wire Hanger Lamps: Cut out and Keep
Coat Hanger Wine Rack: Guardian.co.uk
Wire Coat Hanger Toilet Roll Holder: Instructables
Lion Face: San Diego Zoo
Wine Glass Dryer from Coat Hanger: Instructables
Simple Book Light: Instructables
Ergonomic Laptop Stand Made from a Coat Hanger: Instructables
Dream Catcher: San Diego Zoo
Multi-Purpose Clothespin Hanger: Instructables
Make Your Own Razor and Shaving Brush Stand: Instructables
Recycled Wire Hanger Yarn Dog: Thrifty Fun
Denim Jeans Windsock: Craftbits
Wire Hanger Book Rack: Someday Crafts
Hanger Cover Tutorials:
Yarn Covered Hangers: Exploring Womanhood
Handsome Hangers: Family Fun
Braided Coat Hanger: All Free Crafts
Stylish Cardboard Clothes Hangers: Instructables
Coat Hanger Cover: Craftbits
Personalized Wire Hanger for Baby Clothes: Instructables
Mobile Tutorials:
DIY High Contrast Baby Mobile: Instructables
How to make a stable Airplane Mobile: How Stuff Works
Pac Man Paper Mobile: Instructables
Whale Mobile: Enchanted Learning
3-D Fruit Craft: Enchanted Learning
Butterfly Mobile: Craftbits
Toy Tutorials:
Make a Whirligig in a Box: ThinkingFountain
Baby Shower Tutorials:
Baby Shower Room Wreath: Craftbits
Baby Shower Announcement Wreath: CraftBits
Baby Shower Baby Towel Pram: Craftbits
Valentine’s Day Tutorials:
Wire Hanger Fabric Wreath: San Diego Zoo
Key to My Heart Hangup: Craftbits
Easter Tutorials:
Baby Bunny Baby Basket: Craftbits
Halloween Tutorials:
Making Halloween Corpse Hands: WetCanvas
LED Spiders: Instructables
Wire Hanger Pumpkin: San Diego Zoo
Ghost Halloween Decoration: Cut Out and Keep
Recycled T-Shirt Door Witch: Craftbits
Fall Scarecrow Decoration: Family Crafts
Bat Mobile: Family Fun
Butterfly Wings: Cut out and Keep
Halloween Fairy Wings: Knitting
Fairy Wings: Cut Out and Keep
Fairy Wings: Cut Out and Keep
More Fairy Wings: Cut out and Keep
Bat Wings: Cut out and Keep
Wire Hanger Bow: Instructables
Christmas Tutorials:
Wire Hanger Christmas Ornament Wreath: eddieross
Glow Ball Ornament: Instructables
Recycled Coat Hanger Christmas Tree: All Free Crafts
Coat Hanger Christmas Tree: Kaboose
Christmas Card Mobile: How Stuff Works
How to make a Christmas Coat Hanger Wreath: Do It Yourself
Make a Christmas Wreath: Little House in the Suburbs
Wreath from Recycled Bags: Craftbits
Wreath from Fabric Scraps: Craftbits
Coat Hanger Christmas Wreath: All Free Crafts
Candy Wreath: Family Crafts
Pine Cone Wreath: Family Crafts
Wire Santa Mini Wreath: Family Crafts
I <3 the vintage wire basket. I must try it!
And, OMG – the corpse hand is genius. I mean.. how freaking creative! I will definitely mess around with that project for next Halloween
If you know of ANY other examples or tutorials, please comment below so I can add them to this list. As I’ve said above, I have hangers coming into the house every week, so I need to keep up with them in crafts – thanks!
