DIY Dog Bed for Jackson

It's been a few weeks since Jackson announced his brilliant plan, and I finally got my act together this weekend to make him a new bed to replace the one he completely destroyed. In case you missed that post, here's some evidence of the damage:

{You can't tell in this one, but he also started ripping the pillow itself apart too - stuffing was everywhere!}

I started from scratch with a new pillow and fabric. This time, I went with a square Euro pillow (his old one had a standard rectangular bed pillow) just to change it up.

Before starting the sewing part, I got Jackson's approval of the new pillow:

I think he likes it :).

I wrote up a little tutorial for this in case you've got some basic sewing skills and you're in the market for some new euro pillow covers - this applies to non-dog bed euro pillows too. Same steps and results! (P.S. there are tons of tutorials out there on this, so I know I'm not the first one to do this. In fact, Katie Bower posted about one on Friday, ha!)

Supplies needed:

• Fabric. Three pieces: One 28"x28" and two 19"x28".
• One euro pillow: 26"x26".
• Sewing machine.
• Iron (optional).

For this project, I used two different fabrics from my stash - a chevron and a square geometric - to make a simple envelope pillow cover. And yes, by "stash" I mean my little hoard of fabrics I keep handy for projects like this. I love a good remnant sale, so if I see a good one at a fabric store, I snatch up a couple of yards. I wish I had names for these, but since they were remnants, I really have no idea what brand they are. They are the exact same gray and white though, so I think they're made by the same company.

Step 1: Cut out your fabric pieces.

Here are mine:

{Sorry about the weird glare at the bottom.}

I made a little diagram to show you the dimensions of my fabric since sometimes that's easier to understand.

In the diagrams, "A" represents the front piece (the chevron pattern, in my case), and "B" (the square geometric) will be cut in half to make "C" and "D" to form the envelope closure on the back. The reason "B" is longer than "A" is because the "C" and "D" will overlap with each other, making the final dimensions of the back piece the same 28" square that makes up the front. Make sense?

Step 2: Hem one side of each back piece.

It's hard to take photos of sewing in process, so I'll just explain this part in words.

Hem one edge each of pieces "C" and "D". Fold over about a 1/2" or 1" of the 28" side to form a hem. If it helps you to keep your hem straight, you can iron down this fold. That part's optional (I was lazy and just eyeballed it. It is just a dog bed after all). 

Step 3: Line up your pieces on top of each other so that the "right" sides face each other on the inside. Pieces "C" and "D" should overlap, and the hems you just finished should be parallel to each other in the middle of the fabric. (You should only see one of the hems.)

Step 4: Sew around the outer edges. I had about a 1/2" seam allowance on each of the four sides.

Step 5: Flip your now complete(!) pillow cover right-side out.

Here's what mine looked like on the front side:

And on the back side:

See where the chevrons meet up and there's an opening? That's the "envelope" closure part.

You can iron the seams down for a crisp finish, but I was lazy and didn't do that part :).

Step 6: Stuff your pillow into the cover, and admire your handiwork!

Yay!

Then the real test came - the Jackson test...

I think this one goes in the books as a win. Hope you enjoy it little buddy. You better not tear this one up!

As always, if you have any questions about this tutorial, leave me a comment below!

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