Hi! I’m so sorry I’ve been away from my blog for so long. Thanks for sticking around! It feels like everything has gotten in the way of sewing and blogging the last couple weeks. We’ve had family in town, family in the hospital, full day power outages, full day internet outages, and we had our town’s annual festival along with some small town drama… Plus I’ve started working on websites a few hours a day to help out with my husband’s consulting company and those few hours always seem to be in the middle of the day interrupting my best light for taking pictures. (Although, I’m learning more about WordPress, so that part is pretty cool!) But you don’t care about that! You want to know what I’ve been sewing, and when the pattern will be done, right? The Two Zip Hipster pattern is almost done. I have a few more photos to take and it is supposed to be sunny tomorrow! (I really need an actual photo studio not just a window!) It’s very detailed and there are a ton of pictures. I’m struggling with it because every shot has to be perfect, and I feel like I need to have pictures of every step because I want it to be accessible for people of all skill levels. I do wonder how many people get annoyed that I’m showing step by step how to do simple things? I would rather save the intense photos for the more difficult steps, but since this pattern is almost done, I’m just going to go with it. Next pattern is going to be MUCH simpler! Please don’t misunderstand, the bag is not difficult at all once you see how to assemble it with the zipper, it just has a lot of steps that (for me) each involve sewing, stopping, taking lots of pictures, downloading pictures to make sure they are OK, photoshopping pictures, etc. On to the sewing… I made a quilt for Loki and a quilted dog bed with a zipper. Everyone is asking for Big Dog Beds so this was kind of my prototype. It was veryeasy. I will share how to do it soon. I already had a few cute neighbor pups volunteer to model. Loki’s quilt is fabric that I’ve had for at least a year. I have enough blue monsters for another quilt but I only had small amounts of the other fabrics. I got some blue flannel for the backing and I just decided to make a strip quilt because I didn’t want to chop the novelty prints up into tiny pieces. It was super quick and easy. I made the quilt top in an afternoon and sewed the binding on while I watched TV the same night. It’s about 40″ x 50″.
Love his ears!
He loves posing for me!
The little one taking her nap in the window.
I got this really cute twill at JoAnn Fabrics a while back and I’d intended for it to be a dog bed, but I have plenty of fleece too so I didn’t want it to be the same style. I quilted it with batting and some scrap backing and then added a zipper. The zipper was really easy to install. I totally cheated but it was fast and easy. I boxed the corners to make this really pouffy since my dogs like to sink in, but the next one will be with home dec fabric and I’ll just make a rectangle. Tutorial coming soon :)
Zippered Dog Bed
Loki says, “Can I have my cookie now?”
SUPER easy zip! Promise!
Sweet Loki – I’m guessing the modeling “pay” is based on the various expressions produced!
Ha! I guess it should be but usually it’s the opposite. If he cooperates he gets a treat when he’s all done. If he doesn’t, I end up bribing him with more cookies than usual. He hasn’t figured that out yet so don’t tell him, OK? :) If he’s extra super cute like he was for these I make sure he gets a yummy treat and a snuggle. I have to make up for saying all the words he knows (walk, car ride, cookie, grandma, banana, breakfast, etc.) to get him to turn his head!
Looking forward to the zippered dog bed tutorial…I just know my dog Channing would LOVE that! Cute ideas!
I’ve been wanting to make a doggy bed for my girls and after seeing this one that you made… I wanted to try the same design with the boxed corners. I loved the fabric that you used, the design and that it was heavier than quilting cotton… and today while I was making good use my JoAnn Fabric coupons… I found the same fabric you used and will be attempting a doggy bed of my own!! Just wanted to share:)
I do like this fabric a lot. It’s really cute :) I will be posting a tutorial really soon for a bed with a zipper!
I am sooooo looking forward to the doggie bed tutorial! You are fantastic at this stuff! Keep it coming!