A Pet Pillow From Your Bathrobe

Are you one of those people who asks for a new bathrobe every year for Christmas?  I’m not, but my mother is.  She is seriously disappointed when one of us kids doesn’t get her one.   Sorry mom we were all sick of it this year!  At any rate, if you now have a slightly used robe that was replaced with a fuzzy new one this Christmas, don’t toss that old one!  They make super simple and fabulously cozy pet pillows.  I picked up several thrifted robes in an effort to coax the cats out of bed at night, placing several cozy alternatives all around the bedroom.

This is another one of those silly posts that really doesn’t warrant a full blown tutorial.  If you can sew three straight lines (heck they don’t even have to be straight, your pet doesn’t care…really) then you can make this pouf!  So, in a nutshell:

1.  Cut the bathrobe around the girth just under the armpits
2.  Turn the right sides together and sew the original robe opening shut
3. Now sew the remaining openings shut (two sides), with the exception of a few inches on one of the sides to enable you to stuff the pillow
4. Pull the right sides of the fabric out of the small opening so that the right sides are now facing out and over stuff that puppy!  Yes you’ll want to overstuff it because it’ll flatten pretty significantly in a couple of days’ time
5. Hand-stitch the small opening shut and voila!  El cheapo Upcycled pet pillow sure to keep ‘em warm and cozy all winter long.

I chose to keep the pockets intact on this pillow.  After sneaking some catnip into the pocket opening, this was the reaction from Angel and Destiny:

Green it up even more:  Be on the lookout for fabric and foam outlet stores where you can pick up “non-virgin” poly fill.  This is essentially brand new stuffing but when the factory makes pillow forms and the like, they toss all the mistakes into a shredder, pillow cover and all.  You can get enormous bags of the stuffing for about 40% off what you’d pay for the virgin stuff.    If there weren’t a market for this material, it would end up in the dumpster. 

As for getting the cats off the bed at night….let’s just say that’s a work in progress.  But at least they are having some fun during the day!