Sunday, January 11, 2009

Dog Bed II & Charity Hat Progress

Since I got my sewing machine in November, and made my first dog bed (as shown in previous posts), my husband has been telling me I should make a sort-of dog bed for our puppy's kennel. She doesn't spend much time in there, usually one of us is always at home, but she loves to lay in there and takes naps. Considering how much she LOVES fleece (seriously, she goes nuts over it), I finally decided to buckle down and sew a sort-of dog bed for her. At first I was just going to sew a nice fleece cover for the plastic liner pad that was in there, but then my husband suggested sewing a pillow, stuffing it, then sewing a liner for the pillow. Geez. I'm not a factory! Anyway, after some consideration, I figured his idea was best.. it would be soft, warm, cushy.. and I could remove the cover if she got it dirty and wash it (always a good idea with dog beds!).

I pulled out a box of my scrap fabric remnants and got enough fabric together to make a patchwork pillow (measuring 24"X19" when fully stuffed and finished) and a lovely, soft, fleece cover (measuring 25"X22"). The fleece cover was purposely left longer because I was going to sew the ends over to create a smooth hem.. but as I was attempting to finish it, all hell broke loose on my sewing machine and it refused to sew ANYMORE. I don't know what the issue was/is, most likely tension related, but it is still a new machine and I don't know the ins-and-outs of it yet. Either way, I figured, it's a fucking dog bed, does she really care if I sew her a smooth hem? Not likely. So voila! Dog bed part deux!

The pillow that's inside the cover
The other side of the pillow...
One side of the cover (with flash!)
The other side of the pillow (notice UNHEMMED EDGES!), no flash.. so the colors are a little more true.
The finished product, inside her kennel.

She investigated it a bit, sniffing and walking around on it before running off to play with the cat. I have no worries though, because I know how much she loves fleece, and I know she'll get a lot of use out of it in the future. Further more, I was very happy with how it turned out. My husband was even impressed at my work (it was a v. simply project, but he doesn't know that!), and commented that he loved it. The absolute only thing I would change, if I could change something, would be the unhemmed edge. And really, like I said, it's not a big deal at all.

In other news, I still haven't made any god damn progress on my second charity hat. It's been stuck at about an inch and a half since Monday due to the dog eating the yarn. I've spent countless hours trying to untangle it, and getting nowhere. Even my husband, who is awesome at helping me unravel things because he has PATIENCE, has given up. I don't know what to do. I might end up cutting my losses and throwing it away. The yarn is a 'cheap' acrylic.. just Bernat Satin.. and only cost me $1.50, but it's more the point of the matter. I HATE wasting things, even $1.50 yarn! I'll give it another go this week, but if I can't make anymore progress, it's going in the garbage and I'll then have to make an emergency trip to JoAnn to replace said yarn. Sad times.

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