DIY Pocket Dog Bed – Cozy Comfort For Your Pet

Whats One More Dog Bed?

Our Chihuahua tribe is spoiled!  We have dog beds ALL over our house.  We have one dog bed in our master closet, two in the master bedroom, two dog beds in the family room plus two fleece blankets on the sofas.  So you might be asking yourself, “Why did you make another dog bed?”.  Great question.  Well as I said at the beginning of this post, our Chihuahuas are spoiled and I love to spoil them all the more!!

Two of our Chihuahuas, Percy and Oliver love to burrow under blankets.  Oliver digs under the covers then twists and turns until he has himself all bundled up like a burrito.  He is so cute!  Percy isn’t as dramatic but he insists on sleeping under the covers with me at night.  When I saw all the different dog beds on Pinterest: envelope beds, sleep sacks, snuggle sacks, etc.; I just had to try making one for my boys.  Now I will put a disclaimer on this before I give you all the details.  I am not a seamstress in any way shape or form.  There were many phone calls to my mom asking basic questions.  (I didn’t even know how to thread the sewing machine.) Let me tell you she was shocked that I was giving this project a try :).  Thanks mom!

To begin, here is the list of items that you will need:

• Bed Fabric – 2 pieces cut to 23″ x 36″ each. I used a cotton blend fabric with colorful paw prints.
• Pocket fabric – 1 piece cut to 22″ x 30″. I used a soft flannel in a modeled blue color.
• 1 standard pillow
• Sewing machine
• Velcro strips

You can make your dog bed any size that you want, but I chose to work with a size that would fit a standard pillow to make things easier.

1. I cut my base fabric (the paw prints) into 2 pieces, each one is 23′ x 36′.  The top fabric (the blue) will be the pocket piece.  I cut this one into a 30′ x 22′.  I wanted the top piece to be a bit wider and a bit shorter than the two bottom pieces so that the pocket had extra space and wasn’t to tight for a pup to crawl into for nap time.
2. Take the top pocket piece and fold over and sew about a 1 to 2 inch seam across the top.
3. Next, lay out flat one of the base pieces, print side up.  Take the top pocket piece and lay it on top of the base piece.  Because the pocket piece is wider then the base you will need to gather and pin up the pocket piece in a couple of areas, creating little pleats.
4. Then, take the second base piece and lay it flat on top of the pocket piece with the print side down.  Your essentially making an inside out pillow case.
5. Carefully line up the edges of all three pieces and pin together.  You should now have a sandwich made up of all three pieces of fabric.
6. Carefully sew together the two sides and the bottom of your sandwich, leaving one end open like a sack.  Use your standard pillow as a guide to determine how big of a seam you should allow.  I made a 1 inch seam for mine.  You should have an open end that is made up of just the tops of the two base pieces and looks like an inside out pillow case.  Remember your pocket piece is shorter so it will not be part of the unfinished open end.
7. Before turning your pocket bed right side out, take the unfinished open end and fold it over a few inches and sew a nice finished seam.
8. Flip your case right side out. So far so good?  Now stuff your pillow inside of your case.  At this point you can leave your case with an open end or fold it in for a secure closure.  I chose to fold mine in like I was wrapping the end of a gift.  I then sewed a Velcro strip onto the ends to hold them closed.
9. Ta Da!! You should now have a completed Pocket Dog Bed!!!

I hope that you and your fuzzy friends enjoyed making this project.  Let me know what you think down in the comments.

I am also always happy to see pictures so feel free to include them.