Burda Style For people who sew

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27 January

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  Jan 27, 2012, 01.57 PMby shellyscorner

  HI ZOE!!! First, let me say how TOTALLY AWESOME I think you are for making beds for the dogs that visit your hotel! That is SOOOOOOOOO FANTASTIC!!! I can’t imagine ANYONE in the United States doing that for anyone! You almost can’t even find a hotel to allow your dogs to stay!

  But I do think I may have a solution for you! I made pillows for both my dog and my daughters dog. I went to the local Wal Mart…I have no idea if you have Wal Mart where you are, but it doesn’t matter. I bought heavy water proof “sheet pads”. They are what you would place under a child that still wets the bed at night so the mattress doesn’t get ruined. You have to decide ahead of time how big you want your pillow to be. I used the heaviest thread that I could find and I cut the water proof sheet/pads to the size that I wanted. I put the WATER PROOF SIDES together. I sewed up three sides completely and then half of the fourth side together. Then you have to turn the pillow shell RIGHT SIDE OUT. You want the WATER PROOF SIDE ON THE OUTSIDE AT THIS POINT… I then stuff the pillow REALLY full of quilt batting, pillow batting, what ever they call it there. It’s important to WAY OVER STUFF the pillow. The reason is because as the dogs lay on them they will squeeze out most of the air. But over time the batting will just condense and flattening out a fair amount. Continue to finish sewing up the fourth side of the pillow.

  Now for the outside. I went to the fabric store and bought machine washable upholstery fabric. Buy the HEAVIEST FABRIC AND SOFTEST FABRIC YOU CAN FIND! THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT. You want it soft for the dogs to lay on, and you want it HEAVY so that the dogs with long nails and dogs that like to chew won’t be able to chew through it easily! NOW!! IMPORTANT!!! WASH THE FABRIC BEFORE YOU CUT IT…IN THE SAME TEMPERATURE WATER AS THEY WILL BE WASHED IN AT THE HOTEL…MY GUESS IS HOT WATER!! And then DRY IT THE SAME WAY IT WILL BE DRIED AT THE HOTEL!!! The reason this is so important is because you want the material to shrink BEFORE you cut it so that you don’t waste your time and money making a pillow cover that will only shrink and render itself useless! So you’re ready to sew your pillow cover. The simplest way to do this is to sew a pillow sham. No zippers, no buttons just fabric and thread. Cut the material to be the right width and the length should be long enough to wrap around the pillow length wise and then OVERLAP BY ABOUT 6 INCHES!!! Sew a hem on the ends of the fabric then fold right sides together and sew up the edges. BE SURE TO FOLD THE FABRIC SO THAT THE ENDS OVER LAP BY THE SIX INCHES I MENTIONED ABOVE! Turn it right side out and stuff your new pillow inside the sham. You now have a new water proof, pee proof, poop proof, puke proof, almost indestructible pillow! When your guest leaves you take the sham off the pillow, throw it in the wash, and wipe off the pillow with the appropriate cleaner, vinegar and water actually make a great disinfectant pet safe cleaner…and then throw the sham back on after it’s clean and dry. Maybe even put it on wet and let it dry on the pillow, less risk of it drying to small and not going back on! You can make pillows to fit small, medium, and large dogs and I promise they will be a HUGE hit with the puppies AND their owners! Let me know if you have questions! I’ll be happy to help! (If I can!)

  I drew a picture of it buy it would not let me copy and paste it in here…. you can reach me at shellyscorner@yahoo.com if you need help, having questions, or would like me to email the drawing to you…..

  Hope this helps!

  Good Luck!,

  Shelly Cole Greensboro, NC United States