Sweet Dreams Chloepants (DIY Dogbed Cover)

Remember that project I mentioned way back when?  The one that was taking longer than I thought it would? Well I finally finished it. 

The princess got a new bed this weekend.

You're not tired of posts about my dogs, are you?  This one is only dog-adjacent so it won't be too bad.

Our dogs have too many dog beds.  I'll say that up front.  One in every room.  Sometimes more than one. But that doesn't stop me from wanting to buy more.  Have you seen the ones at Costco?  They are so nice.  The dogs wear them out fast because of the necessary "fluffing" that must be done, and the fact that one little dog still thinks she needs to remove the zipper and piping whenever possible. 

We just replaced our curtains - you know about that - and I thought the material from the old ones would make excellent dog bed covers.  It's thick - almost like a brocade.

The bed I chose to cover first is a thick, cushy, orthopedic jobbie.  It did have a fluffy, sheepskin-like side.  Now it has see-through netting.  And it did have piping.  Now it's more like fringe.

So Chloe and I got down to making the new cover. 

It's nice that she likes to help.

I cut the hem off one curtain all the way around and was left with 51x62 inches of material.  Being the math nerd I am (I'm an accountant dontcha know) I played around on a piece of paper to get the most use out of the material.  Here is my template (drawn in Excel of course):

The bed is a simple rectangle with piping all around.  And I wanted to put a zipper at one end so that I could remove the cover and wash it easily. 

With this configuration I only needed to cut two more side pieces from a new curtain, and some more lengths for piping.  After cutting it all out I realized that the hems I had already cut off would make excellent piping, I would just have to feed rope through them, no sewing required.  That saved a lot of time, and headaches (and swearing). The swearing came later.

Then began hours of pinning and sewing.  I sewed the piping onto one side of the material, and then sewed the second piece to it.  I tried to attach all three at the same time but I just wasn't coordinated enough.

I also had to go out and buy a new sewing machine because mine crapped out.  Just as I was about to attach the zipper.  Not exactly confidence-inspiring for someone who's never sewn a zipper before. This is where the swearing figures in, in case you were waiting for that.

So huge delay.  But my new machine is a beauty.  That zipper went on with no problem.  Remind me not to be so ambitious as to attach a zipper right at the piping next time.

Of course by this time I was getting tired of all the pinning and fabric wrestling, so I decided against piping on the bottom.  Yep, I'm a bad mom. 

Finished product! I must say, I'm pretty darn proud of it. 

And I think Chloe likes it. 

It's hard to tell because I finished it at 11pm and she just wanted to go to sleep.

She was nice enough to let Sasha have a turn on it.

Now I just have 3 more to do.  I should have an update around October. :-)

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I'm linking to these parties this week!