Grouchy Girl Does Life: Easy DIY Pet Bed

I actually did this project a while ago, I just never got around to getting all the photos off of my phone.

What can I say? I'm lazy.

Anyway, are you ready for a super easy project? Good.

I have to start by saying that our kitty LOVES fleece. Absolutely, positively, if you have something that is fleece around the house, he will lay on it. He loves the stuff. So, most of the time we just left an old fleece blanket dedicated to him on one end of the couch. It would probably be impossible to get all of the cat hair off of that thing. The blanket was just kind of blah and people would come over and try to use it as a lap throw, not knowing that they would leave covered in cat hair *embarrassing*.

So, as I was perusing Joann's one day I noticed that they had 50% off their remnant fabrics. I went to take a look and found 3/4 of a yard of really cute fleece. And it matched our living room stuff! So an idea was born: I'll make a pet bed for Scar, it will match our decor, AND people won't mistake it for a lap throw. Yay!

I created it as a stuffed inner pillow with fleece as the outer cover. And you could even remove the fleece later and wash it if you wanted to.

Here's what you'll need:

less than 3/4 yard fabric - This will be what you sew up and stuff, I used an old pillow case - FREE
~3/4 yard fleece (or something that doesn't fray, like a knit) - Obviously, you should adjust fabrics to the size you want the pet bed. Since its a simple rectangle, its easy to adjust. - $3.00
Filling - I used standard poly-fill, but you could use old towels or whatever you would like. - FREE
Thread - it doesn't even have to match because it won't show. :) - FREE

Easy, right? No complex supplies here. Plus, if you count all the items I already had as free, it only cost me $3.00!

First, lay out your fleece and pillow fabric. You want there to be an extra 3-4 in. of fleece all around your pillow fabric. You will need two pieces of pillow fabric and two pieces of fleece. Pin and cut fabric to size if you need to.

Because I wanted to use every bit of the fleece, I laid out my fleece (folded in half), then adjusted my pillow fabric to size.

Now, go ahead and sew up the pillow part, leaving a 3-4in opening for turning and stuffing. I only had to sew up two sides since I was using an old pillow case.

Once you've sewed your sides, turn the pillow fabric right side out (seams in). Use your filling material to stuff your pillow. I didn't stuff mine to the brim, since I wanted it to be easy to snuggle down into.

Sew the opening closed. I just did a quick hand sew, since I was too lazy to go upstairs to my sewing machine.

Your pillow part is done! Now onto the fleece cover....

If you've ever made a fleece "tie" blanket, you can make this cover. Center your pillow on both pieces of fleece (its easier to cut them together).

Cut out the corners of fleece, like above. This is extra material. You want the corner of the square to come just up to the corner of the pillow.

Once all of your corners are cut, go ahead and cut strips along each of the sides, like you are making fringe. The strips will be as long as your cut out corners (if that makes sense....) I made my strips about 1/2 in. wide. I usually don't measure, just kind of try to keep them even as you go around.

Now, leave one piece of fleece under the pillow and lay the other over the top.

Start tying! You'll tie one top fringe to one bottom fringe. I tied the corners first, then worked my way down each of the sides.