You’ve met Zac & Reg, right? Well Mummy Ask really loves her dogs and they like to sit right by her. Mums likes to sit at her dining room table and her boys like to sit at her feet. One of my first sewing projects was a bed for Fang but her bed was made for one and recycling it felt wrong anyway. To me, the joy of sewing is having what you want and so we decided to begin – project dog bed!
I asked Mummy Ask to explain the perfect dog bed. She said it would be round, have piping and wouldn’t show dirt/fur too badly. I know Mum loves her black but I told her it will show fur. I find that a mid grey will hide the fur pretty well. I have a black and white cat and one that is sort of grey and brown and marmalade and grey is the best for hiding their combined fluff. If you rub over the fur in your house and have a look, mostly it will look grey when all combined, if you come up with a different colour then let that guide your colour choice. Cotton drill is the right weight but in my experience, it’s like a fur magnet! A similar weight canvas or duck will release the fur better. I wanted to mention fur because Mummy Ask was shocked at how this new dog bed didn’t look furry but heaps came off with a clothes brushing. Don’t let your fabric choice add up to another chore!
We decided on a circular bed with piping and side gussets. I had the grey and white chevron and plain grey fabrics in my stash, they are both light weight canvas/cotton duck from fabric.com. We decided the bed should be 80cm in diameter and 3″ high. You can make any size you like but everything I’m going to say is based on our dimensions. We got a circle of medium weight, dog safe foam cut at Clark Rubber. I won’t lie, it wasn’t cheap, in fact it was $64.64! But it will last for years and can have many covers. Obviously, you’ll need about 1m per circle (so 2m) plus about 0.5m for your gusset. I used pre made bias for my piping but if you want to use one of your fabrics for the piping, you’ll need extra for that. See my bias post for the how to. My bias was 1″ wide in it’s folded state. I used 2 packets of 3m and grabbed 7m of piping cord. The circumference of my circle was 2.51cm, I just made two lots of 3m piping for simplicity and cut off what I didn’t need.
Step 1. Make the Piping
[break]
You’ll need to make two lengths of piping that are 10cm longer than the circumference of the bed. Just multiply the diameter of the circle (80cm for me) by 3.14 to work out the circumference.
[break]
Press the bias open and wrap it around the piping cord. I leave a tail of piping cord at the beginning. I just put two or three pins in at the beginning to stop everything from shifting and adjust as I sew. I use a zipper foot to sew as close to the cord as I can, without sewing over it.
Step 2. Cutting Out
[break]
My piping was 1/2″ wide from the stitch line to the open edge, so for simplicity I went with a 1/2″ seam allowance. I used a water soluble fabric marker to trace around the foam and mark out the circle. I marked out the 1/2″ seam allowance with dots, I didn’t bother to join them with a line but you can if you want. Fold or layer the fabrics, pin and cut out both at once.
[break]
I knew I wanted the zipper to be just over half the diameter of the circle, so the cover is easy to remove, so I didn’t cut the gusset sections to the perfect length. I cut the the right width but the length of the fabric. You can cut yours to the exact length you need, plus seam allowance or you can do what I did.
[break]
I cut the gusset section that has no zipper with a width of 4″ – the height of the foam (3″) plus two lots of 1/2″ seam allowance. I cut two of the gusset section that has zipper with a width of 2.5″ – half the height of the foam (3″) plus two lots of 1/2″ seam allowance.
Step 3. Sewing the Piping to the Circles
[break]
I pinned the piping to the right side of each circle, raw edges aligned. Overlapping the piping where it joins. With my zipper foot, I stitched the piping to the circles, once again sewing as close to the cord as possible but not sewing over it. This can feel tricky but just go slow and you’ll be fine!
Step 4. Sew the Zipper into the Gusset
[break]
I put the two skinnier gusset sections right sides together. I was super carefully to check that the chevrons lined up neatly. As my strips were the length of the fabrics full length, they had selvedges at each end. With my machine on a regular straight stitch, I sewed about 1″ of the seam, backstitched a couple of times and changed to a basting stitch and then changed back to a regular stitch for the last 1″. I pressed that seam open and aligned the zipper, right side down, over the seam and pinned. I made sure I only had one zipper pull on my length of continuous zipper first!
[break]
I used my zipper foot to topstitch down either side of the zipper. Then I used a seam ripper to remove my basting stitch and open the zipper. Then I joined the zippered part of the gusset to the non zippered section by laying them right sides together and sewing a seam just past the selvedges. You should have one long gusset section now.
Step 5. Putting it all Together
[break]
I pinned one of the raw edges of the gusset to the raw edge of the circle, right sides together. Where the open gusset edges met, I sewed a quick seam and trimmed any excess fabric. Yet again I used my zipper foot and sewed as close to the cord as possible but not sewing over it. You are sewing blind but you can feel the cord.
[break]
Then I made sure my zipper was open and repeated with the second circle and the remaining raw each of the gusset. Turn everything right side out and put the cover over the foam and voilà! Your designer dog bed is done!
I am really pleased with this! It looks awesome and like it belongs in the house and Zac and Reg are big fans! Mummy Ask loves it because it looks great and it doesn’t get in the way like a rectangular bed would. Initially, she was going to have the grey side up but in the end, she loved the chevron. Of course this is a dog bed but you could make these up as floor cushions too. Mum was definitely more than a help on this project! I did all the sewing but Mum was the queen of pressing and pinning. I love chatting to her while I sew and not having to stop and pin was lovely! I am kinda impressed with my pattern matching. Some was very much by design and some was happy accident! I really hope you find this tutorial useful and if you make one of your own, I’d love to see pics on Facebook, Instagram or email.
Leave A Reply