In the Market for A New Pet Bed? Get Crafty!

by Ray Schmitt
Circle City Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Hospital Marketing/PR Rep

Up until today I had never heard of the term "Upcycling." But when I started researching a picture that Dr. Kate Fitzwater emailed me last night that all changed. Here is the picture that sparked my education:

How cool is that!? Someone, somewhere came up with the idea that they could turn a sweater into a pet bed. After I saw the picture I had to investigate and find out how these were made. This led me to a number of websites dedicated to "Upcycling" projects which essentially take old/unwanted/unused household items and turn them into something better. Hopefully the term is a fad that will fade away, but the concept can stick around for a while.

Enough about my disdain for the word "Upcycling," though, and on to the real reason I'm writing this entry. I have shopped for pet beds more than once and they are fairly expensive! So a do-it-yourself project that costs way less money and, in my opinion, looks a good bit cooler and would probably be a good conversation starter is going to grab my attention every time.

I'll admit that I'm not the most handy person around the house, but even this pet bed seems fairly doable. And the supplies are easy to come by. You need an old sweater (obviously), a pillow to fill the body of the sweater and some combination of rolled up towels and/or cotton stuffing to fill the sleeves. That gets you most of the way there but you'll also need some method of binding the sleeves together as well as closing the neck hole. Some versions I found feature zippers so you can remove the stuffing and wash the sweater while others are sealed more permanently by sewing or hot glue. I suppose it's really just a personal preference.

I have not undertaken this project myself just yet because I still wear all of the sweaters I own, my dog is too big to use one and I don't know if either of the cats would actually like it. Although, I suppose I could make one anyway and donate it to a local shelter or humane society. Maybe all of us reading this post could make one and donate them. It would certainly be in the spirit of giving that the Christmas season embodies. We could also make them all out of sweaters like the ones on the right so that the dogs and cats could enjoy ugly Christmas sweaters as much as we all do.

Since I'm no expert (yet) on how to make one of these here are some links to websites that offer full instructions:

http://empressofdirt.net/diy-sweater-pet-bed/
http://www.handimania.com/diy/sweatshirt-pet-bed.html
http://www.mnn.com/family/pets/photos/10-enviable-upcycled-pet-beds/wooly-buddy-bed
http://www.icreativeideas.com/how-to-diy-pet-bed-from-old-sweater/

If you end up making one of your own we want to see the final results! Share a photo with us on our Facebook wall or hit us up on Twitter @CircleCityVets.

Until next time, cheers and happy sweater pet bed making!