Dog Bed Upcycle?

I love my pets, but at the end of the day and the end of my budget we have to sometimes get creative with their items. At almost 90 pounds of lovable lap dog, our princess Joi Boo, tracks in a fair share of muck.

We have been reusing the stuffing from the same bed for the last 2 years, and replacing the outside by buying the couch cushion covers from the Ikea as is bins. Blessed with out a flea problem, all we had to worry about was the dirty cover. 

However, keeping the floor plan as open as possible to ensure easy wheelchair access has been one of the challenges. I purchased a black dog bed cover last month for a whopping $2.00 at Ikea. It looked plenty big in the store, but once home and stuffed with only half of the dog bed stuffing our Boo could not fit on it. And she was not pleased one bit. 

I decided to toss the old stuffing and opt for using a queen size fleece blanket from our bed. It has been used for several seasons and no longer was as snuggly as I like them. 

Pulled from the Goodwill pile, I folded it in half length wise and then in thirds to get a overall space of 2ft x 3ft. Just enough space for Boo to lay and play with yogurt containers. (another bit of a reuse, she will clean them and then carry them around  but will not put them in the recycling bin) Knowing dogs like to ruffle up on beds and paw up the blankets, I knew this needed a cover or I would be constantly folding the bed back up. 

I grabbed one of the small fleece blankets from a the closet and created a no-sew cover by cutting 1 inch strips and knotting them on the 2 shorter ends. This left one end open, and makes this bed very easy to wash in our small washing machine. 

By reusing a few items that have been kicked around here, I was able to build this bed for Boo in less than 20 minutes.