With winter on the verge of coming I wanted to make cushions for our pups cages. While shortly we will be starting to experiment with leaving them cage-free while we are gone (Meeko can be left but we've never tried Tucker), in the meantime they still sleep in their cages at night (or else we wouldn't have a bed to sleep in!) and while we are gone. They always have covers in there but I wanted something more substantial and cushioning for their boney bodies. To make it more comfy I've been contemplating how we could make them fluffy floor mats that they wouldn't tear apart. Before Tucker, we had bought Meeko a floor mat and he thought it was a giant toy to de-stuff. All $40 down the drain in the matter of seconds. I wasn't going to invest in a $80 worth of a possible de-stuffing party for the two so I decided to get crafty and make them for a fraction of the cost therefore if the boys decide to have a de-stuffing party not much was lost! The two are serious de-stuffers hence why they don't get any stuffed animals because they will de-stuff it in a matter of seconds leaving an entire room looking like it just snowed and run around with the remaining cloth carcass'. I wanted to make it as close to our bed as possible because they never try eating or digging in it and knew whatever we used that it had to be wrapped in a sheet so they would think it was our bed and not something to de-stuff. I started off with planning on using a thick piece of squishy foam we could cut to fit and then making a pillow case type enclosure to keep them from being able to get to it. Before we were going to leave for the store it occurred to me we may still have a down pillow top bed topper from back in our college days. Lo and behold we did indeed have one! Perfect way to upcycle something that I know otherwise we would throw away and not use. This project ended up being completely free beyond less than an hour of our time it took to measure, cut, and sew!
Trying it out to see if they would be interested in laying on it. Yup within seconds of putting it on the floor they were rolling all over it....I call that success! This is a twin bed topper and Meeko is not even stretched out, but you can imagine why Mr. Whippets do not sleep in our queen bed with us because they are a bit inconsiderate in sharing space and insist on their paw being in your rib cage, their legs in your back pushing you out of the way, and their heads on top of yours! For sanity reasons and comfort they get their own little contained beds!
Brian measured the cages and cut the pillow topper to fit. Just so happened they were as wide as two panels making cutting super easy.
Then I got super crafty homemaker-like and re-sewed the edges to keep the down fluff in and the pups out. Don't even ask about Nemo, he was there for moral support!
We then took two old sheets again back from college days that we no longer use (amazing what we have laying around in our basement!) and Brian cut them to size to be like a pillow case enclosure. I sewed the two sides and then kept the one big side open. We made sure when it was cut that the one edge is longer so it can be folded into the closure making it seem completely closed. We wanted it to be able to be taken on and off so we can wash it easily. I'm hoping to search our local thrift stores for fleece sheets that I can make into more covers for during those cold winter nights, I know the pups would appreciate it!
I took the picture above and then Meeko came right over and laid right down on it. Looks like he approves!
Here are the two finished products in their respective cages. We wanted them to come up on the side edges a bit because the two like to have their heads propped up and this makes the perfect place for them to have their heads elevated a bit...they aren't prima donna's at all.
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