Molly loves her bed. When she is ready to relax she can always be found resting in the same bed that she has had since she was a puppy. Since she really loves her bed, I didn’t want to take it away from her by buying a new one. I decided to give re-covering it with Realtree Xtra fleece fabric a try. I think that it turned out really nice and to be honest I really feel that Molly likes the bed even more than she did. The softness of the camo fleece fabric makes what was turning into an old, ugly looking dog bed into a new, softer experience for her. Here are the steps I took making this DIY dog bed.
Step 1: Purchase Camo Fabric
The first thing you need to do obviously is to purchase some fleece fabric. I love the vibrant colors of our camo fabric and extremely soft feel of our fleece so it was a no-brainer to go with one of our great fleeces. The size of your dog’s bed will determine how much fabric you will need. Below is a list of some of our available fleece fabric.
Step 2: Measure and Cut
To measure Molly’s bed I folded the fabric over to create two layers. You want the two layers to be the same size so that you can cut the tie fringes evenly. Be sure to have the inner-side of the fabric facing upwards so that when you mark it with a Sharpie it’s not on the outside portion of the fleece fabric. Outline the bed leaving around 6 inches of room on the outside for the fringes and thickness of the bed. This can be adjusted smaller or bigger depending on the size of the dog bed. Once you have it marked with a Sharpie cut the fabric along the mark you just made. I found it easy to cut using a rotary cutter that I found at my local fabric store.
Step 3: Cut Fringes for Tying
You can cut the fringes to whatever length you want but I found that 3-4 inch long fringes look really nice. Using the rotary cutter, simply go around your two layers of fleece fabric and cut the fringes to even length and width. Since I was cutting the fringes on my floor I used a self-healing mat that I moved along the edge of the fabric to cut on. This saves damage to the floor as well as saves the sharpness of the cutting blade.
Step 4: Tie the Fabric Around the Dog Bed
The last step is to tie the two layers of fabric around the existing dog bed. Lay the dog bed in between the two pieces of fabric that you just cut the fringes on. Be sure to make sure that the outside of the fabric is facing toward the outside on both the bottom and top. (You will be able to tell because the fabric is brighter and more vibrant on the print side.) Start tying. The knot is a simple knot to secure the fabric. I tied every other fringe to give it a more”fringy” look.
