DIY Fleece Dog Bed

Today is my first day at home alone with our new puppy. My husband took vacation most of last week to work on getting him housetrained and as result I have never been by myself with Gil for more than a few hours time. As I mentioned earlier I'm not much of a dog person. Unlike my husband I've never had a dog at all, let alone a puppy who's constantly trying to get into things and eat them, so I'm a little bit nervous about the whole thing. Right now he's napping on my feet while I type but I'm really not sure how to keep him entertained or anything when he wakes up. Luckily he and Curry cat are starting to become friends and learning to play together.

So in honor of new puppy bonding day I'm going to share how to make a quick dog bed.

Materials: 

 1.5 yards of fleece or other heavy material that will stand up to dog pawing
a couple of old bed pillows or piece of foam

Step One:

Cut the fleece in half along the fold line so that you have two pieces 1.5 yds by about 30 inches.

Step Two:

Lay one piece out and place the pillows you are using on top. Cut the fleece so that it is just a few inches bigger than the pillows on all sides.

Step Three:

Cut the second piece of fleece in half again so you have two 30 by 27 inch pieces. With the right sides together, lay them on the first piece, overlapping them in the center. This should make the outside edges match up with the larger piece of fleece.

Step Four:

Pin everything in place and sew around the outside edge.

Step Five:

Turn everything right side out and stuff the pillows inside the overlapping flap.

Since I just used old pillows we had hanging around the entire thing can be machine washed whenever needed. The overlap is to help keep Gil from being able to pull the pillows out and chew on them. I ended up with a bit more overlap than I really need so you could probably get by with a shorter piece of fleece. You also end up with an extra scrap from trimming the first side that is large enough to use of other projects.

Puppy Approved!