Sewing

pet bed

And her first appearance on the blog….our Beagle Pepper!  Sorry if there aren’t a lot of dog fans reading this, but I had a really fun opportunity pop up!

I’ve been volunteering for my local Humane Society, the Coulee Region Humane Society for almost five years now.  Each year they have a banquet that raises funds for yearly activities and supplies.  It’s a really heart-warming event because they invite families who have adopted pets from the Humane Society and ask them to share their happy stories of how the pet changed their lives. 

I was able to donate this pet bed to their silent auction.  I had actually hoped to make a quilt, but just couldn’t squeak out enough time to get one going.  I had seen a cool pet bed in a BHG magazine earlier this year, but couldn’t bear to spend the $10 or whatever it is to actually buy the magazine.  Lucky for me this tutorial from Sew4Home showed up!

I stayed up way too late the night before the banquet making it, but I’m really please with how it came together.  The only difficulty I had was with the gusset section stretching and then not aligning with the top and bottom parts.  I had planned on this happening, so I started stitching at a point where I could take in some extra fabric if I need to (and I did).  If anyone has ever done a project similar to this, I’d love to hear if there’s a good way of avoiding that problem. 

Anway, the bed raised a nice chunk of money and I was pleased to see the new pet bed owner walk away with a smile!

23 thoughts on “pet bed

  1. Sarah says:

    Oh that’s excellent! Love the fabrics you chose too. And your Pepper looks like a lovely friend.

  2. Awesome! I need to make my doggies some nice beds, I’ll have to check out that tutorial.

  3. Care says:

    FABULOUS doggie bed — and Pepper looks so soft and sweet! Pets make life better! :o)

  4. T-rexy says:

    This is wonderful, fellow beagle owner! My beagle, Ruby, is such a good (bad) dog (you probably know what I’m talking about; the barking, the food stealing, the adorable wickedness). We love her- she’s an old girl (16 going on 17), but still beautifully wicked as ever! Great cause and kudos!

  5. Mary says:

    Oh I love this! There is one very lucky puppy out there getting a new bed! 🙂 Well worth all your hard work, I’d say!

  6. Kylie says:

    Lovely bed for a furry friend. Well done:) We are a dog owner here too. An English Springer Spaniel.

  7. Jeannie says:

    What a nice bed and the cutest doggie!!
    You did a great job.

  8. Sonia says:

    very cool! Pepper is a cutie! I love beagles. My dad got a beagle for the purpose of hunting when I was a kid…and well, let’s just say I turned our Beagle (Penny) into a pet 🙂 She became too domesticated to become a good hunter. LOL. I love the petbed. Maybe i’ll make one and donate it to our local shelter. Thanks for the idea 🙂

  9. Jane says:

    The fabrics are adorable. Very nice idea!

  10. Christine says:

    That is wonderful! We have adopted all our doggies and I love to see other people helping out as well. It is an adorable pet bed!
    coveredbydesign at hotmail.com

  11. Jill says:

    OH, I am a dog lover and your Pepper and the dog bed you made are wonderful!

  12. Leslie says:

    this looks so great. i love how your dog is sitting so nicely, not on it.

  13. Heather says:

    I love dogs! That’s a beautiful bed. I’ve had the same issues with gusseting, and the only fix I’ve ever come across was using a ton of pins! How’s that for a non-answer? But it’s super cute!

    feathertysews.blogspot.com

  14. Joanna says:

    I love your picture of Pepper. I had a beagle, Spot, who was the gentlest dog we ever had. When I was making chair cusions, I had the same problem with the corners not matching up when sewing on the second section. I ended up sewing it on by hand and that worked perfectly. I wish I knew what the real secret is to making them match using the machine, unless a walking foot is used, but that won’t work with cording.

  15. dana says:

    very cool! I’m not an animal person. But this is great! I like the color scheme.

  16. paperseed says:

    Pepper’s a cutie and nice job on the bed!

  17. Kari says:

    Adorable dog bed! Our big lovable mutt is a rescue and I love that you help out the Humane Society. Nice work!

  18. Valerie says:

    Caught a comment under the dog bed post back on Sew4Home — the author said the gusset IS too big. She’s made changes in the tutorial to reflect the new measurements. Were you the commenter?? *grin*

  19. sewtakeahike says:

    It’s so very cute Anna! hmmm, I did a custom order for some bench covers with gussets last summer and I don’t remember them stretching at all, but I was using home dec material. Maybe that was the difference since you used fleece on one side? Maybe if you serged the fleece edge first, it would turn out a little more even next time?

  20. Southern Gal says:

    We had a beagle named Annie. She passed away last year. We miss her so.

  21. I was going to suggest using a walking foot to avoid that stretching of the gusset issue- but it could be tricky with the cording. Some machines have a functiong where you can reduce the pressure on the machine’s foot- that may help as well. You could also try iron on interfacing to help stabilise the gusset and stop it stretching. Love the dog and the bed!

  22. Jenniffier says:

    I have been looking for a doggy bed to replace the puppy version for my German Shepherd. It went in the trash a few months ago since he chewed up a couple times and grew out of, even though it was the largest we could find at a pet store. Thanks for sharing, I may have to make it much much bigger but your inspired me to try. Yours looks wonderful.

  23. Katie says:

    Just saw this, Anna…It’s great! I had to figure out a way to make a pet bed with no zipper. Our Great Dane has a thing for zippers. I just ended up making it like an overlapping pillowcase.

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