An Upcycled Dog Bed for Naughty Kitties

Did you catch that? A dog bed for the kitties? Well, sort of.  I was forced to make my little man a new bed because I have such naughty kitties!  The kind that have tempertantrums when I come home from a few days away for work or won't let them go outside or when they are jealous of Chico.  They take no pause in showing their displeasure  while I watch them take it out on Chico's things.  Chico used to have a very nice, plush bed that came with him when he first "moved in."  But the constant marking (by the kitties) and then washing of said bed left it quite lumpy and misshapen.  It also didn't wash very well as it was quite large. 

So I came up with another solution.  Now, I know it doesn't look like much but there's a hidden secret in that bed!  First of all, I hate to sew so this had to be near to no-sew!  Secondly, it had to be easy to clean. And finally, it had to be upcycled!  I accomplished all three of these things with an old toss pillow, fused plastic grocery bags and some liquid stitch.

Here are the supplies you'll need to create one of your own:
1.  An old toss pillow, couch cushion, etc. with a zipper
2.  Several plastic grocery bags
3.  Iron
4.  Parchment or wax paper
5.  Felt (Eco-fi is made from recycled plastic bottles) and other embellishments
6.  Sewing Machine
7.  Liquid Stitch



The first thing that you want to do is make your fused plastic material.  There are plenty of tutorials on the web for fusing plastic so I will not go into that here, but here's one from Etsy.  I will note that to make one long continuous piece you can take the edges of several layers and weave them amongst each other as the picture shows.  Once you have your continuous piece fused together you'll want to measuure out two pieces that can be sewn together to form the internal pillow.  Don't forget to add a seam allowance. 

Right about now you're probably wondering why I'm going to all this trouble fusing plastic and sewing together a pillow.  Remember the bad kitties?  This plastic pillow will allow me to clean the surface of the pillow without putting it in the washing machine while it protects the internal fibers from holding onto any displeasing aromas and liquids.  All I have to put into the washing machine now is the slip cover. 


Now put your two pieces together and sew three sides of the "plabric" together.  Continue sewing on the fourth side but only go about half way. Turn your plastic pouch inside out so your seam is on the inside.

Now fill 'er up and sew it shut....you may want to use a needle and thread to finish up the opening.

Now you can cut up some felt or scrap fabric pieces and "stitch" it to the pillow with Liquid Stitch.

I will admit that this is my fist time using Liquid stitch and I was a little skeptical of it's promise to hold up in the laundry. So once I slathered on the glue and placed all of my pieces, I covered it with a piece of wax paper and put a book on top of it for a couple of hours just to be sure. Then I let it set for 24 hours as the package instructed. It seems like a nice bond but the first tempertantrum will be the true test.