Are you wondering what to do with old sweaters? Keep your animal friends comfortable by making a sweater cat bed from a sweater and cotton scraps.
I saw a photo on Facebook that suggested turning an old sweater into a homemade cat bed, and I immediately thought of the purple 1980s sweater I had bought at a thrift store for the lovely, big purple buttons on it. I decided to convert the sweater into a cat bed and my cat, Izzy, adores it.
The bed only took about two hours to make, including the time to cut up fabric scraps for stuffing. You’ll only need a minimum amount of sewing experience to complete this simple project.
Materials:
- Fabric scraps (for stuffing)
- 1 unwanted sweater
- 2 old towels
- Wool thread
- Needles
- Scissors
Instructions:
- Cut your fabric scraps into small pieces.
- Fold the towels into squares so they’re nearly the size you want for the base of your pet bed. 3. Pile half of the fabric scraps on top of one square towel and then place the second towel over the scraps.
- Loosely sew the towels together in an oval shape, with the scraps contained within the oval?–?this will hold the two towel bases together.
- Turn the edges of the towel over, toward the inside of the circle, and loosely sew them in place. Your base should now be roughly oval-shaped.
- Place the base of the pet bed inside the body of the sweater, and sew it in place with thick wool thread.
- Stuff the arms and neck of the sweater with the rest of the fabric scraps, tuck them around the base, sew them into place, and then fold the bottom of the sweater up and over the arms, stitching as needed.
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Embellish as desired!
Elizabeth Atia
Shetland, Scotland
