Metadata

Saturday 29 September 2018

Dog Mattress

Gosh I've been away a long time. I've been crazy busy on a non-crafting project, which has slowed down progress on absolutely everything else in my life. But it's finished. Hurrah! It's over, and I feel like a huge burden has been lifted from my shoulders. It's a long story, but it's finally done and dusted, and I'm really excited about moving on to other things.

One super-quick sew that I have managed to knock out was this little mattress for the dog's bed. I measured the exact size that would fit inside his basket, added a 3 cm seam allowance all round, as I was planning on sewing in a very thick wadding, and quickly cut up some fleece that I'd bought in ages ago.





I pinned the fleece - right sides together and sewed it along three sides with the wadding on the back to make an open-ended envelope. I reckon that it's important to make your calculations so that you catch the wadding in your seam allowance to hold it in place when everything's done.

I trimmed my seams and turned the envelope - inside out so that the right sides were out, and the seam was on the inside. Then I hand sewed the last seam (using a ladder stitch) to close the final opening. Then, to tidy the whole thing up a bit, I top-stitched all around the outer edge.

It was only possible with the assistance of a walking foot. I didn't have one before I started, but a speedy order on Ebay delivered this wonderful gadget to my door. Attached to the machine it provided feed-dogs on top, which worked brilliantly in combination with the normal feed dogs on the bottom to ensure that the mult-layered wadding sandwich fed through evenly and without any huge distortions. I've never quilted, so I didn't have this tool in my arsenal before the get-go. Having used it I'd advise everyone who sews to get one. If you're doing something with lining and lots of components this little gizmo could well be the saving grace that snatches victory from the jaws of multi-layered defeat.



Mr Max, the WonderDog, loves his new mattress so much that whenever I drop a piece of this fleece fabric on the floor he immediately races over and sits on it. The combination of extra-thick wadding and a double-sided envelope of super-snugly fleece ensures that his little bottom is cosier than it's ever been before - and he's really, really happy with that outcome.

This was a really, quick and easy make. But it's also really efficient, and if you were looking for some chair cushions for the terrace going into the autumn and the chillier weather the combination of super thick quilt wadding and fleece would work really well in the keeping cosy stakes.

I've not made a lot of progress on the knitting front. I've got a pair of Fair Isle fingerless gloves on the needles, but I just haven't been able to get my head around how to make my colourwork  fit the dimensions of my hands yet. My socks have lengthened a little, but I'm not going to win any speed-knitting challenges with my progress on that front either.


Wishing you sunshine and glorious autumn colour,

Bonny x




No comments:

Post a Comment