Saturday, January 25, 2025

Kitty Sleep Sacks

cat bedsIt's been high time for some new cat beds for over a year.  I made some last year that were fleece but I made the horrible mistake of using black fleece which is too much of a magnet for everything, not just cat hair.  I should have thrown them away after the first time they used them.

I also did a terrible job trying to make the covers removable and they were just a hot mess.

I saw this idea for fleece sleeping bags that they could crawl into and I thought that would be fun and easy.  And then I remembered these cats like to stomp down any kind of bed that I've ever bought where they were supposed to climb in and hide, so after I started my planning, I changed course.  My edited on the fly design makes a lot more sense for these bed stomping fools.  

In my mind, each bed would house a cat and they'd sleep the nights away all curled up in row but it's rare that all 3 of them sleep in them at the same time.  And nighttime is high time for shenanigans so they have no time for sleeping.  

They've never had designated beds.  They seem to allow each other to sleep in whichever bed they come upon.  This maximizes getting ALL of the hair all evenly over ALL of the beds.

The tutorial on the site gave me enough to get started and then I went a little nuts.

cat on a saddle pag
I had this saddle pad that was clean but stained and I've never liked it.  I wanted to get rid of it on Facebook but that never happened.  I realized I could get 2 of the 3 bases I'd need out of this saddle pad and then I could make something for the 3rd one.  That would take care of upcycling the saddle pad and I knew they liked it because they'd been taking turns sitting on it for weeks while I'd been deciding what to do with it.

Making the circle and then figuring out how much fleece was needed to go around it required math.  This is that math that never ceases to amaze me.  The kind where you apply a formula and it works EVERY TIME.  You'd think I would love math with its formulas because formulas are a certainty and I like certainties.  But I can never remember how the formulas work because I don't use them enough, so math remains elusive.

The tutorial already had the math done for me but I wanted a bigger circle, so I had to redo the math.  Get yourself a pen and paper because I'm going to share the simple formula: take the diameter of the circle (that's the line across the circle) and multiply it times pi (3.14).  Factor in how much of a seam you're going to add when you sew the piece together and there you have it.

When I bought the fleece that I thought would be a better color to hide some of the cat hair, there were two bolts that had the same print but neither had the 3 yards that I wanted.  I took them both to the cutting counter and said I would need 3 one yard pieces, however she wanted to make that happen.  

The next thing I knew, she had cut me 3 one yard pieces and I was shocked.

Many years ago, at that very cutting counter, I needed to buy a lot of batting for some pillow quilts I was making with students.  I told the woman I would like it cut in 2 yard increments and she very sternly told me she would not do that because that was making her do my work.  I said "if I walk in  a bunch of times and get 2 yards each time, you'd have to do that, right?  So why can't you do this for me here, where you have all this space and the ease of rolling it out?"  She refused and said they don't do that.

Apparently in 2025, they do! 

Quilted fleece
The original tutorial had you making these out of felt.  This made me think I should use felt between the two layers to help the sides stand up a little so they could sort of have walls around the bed.  I knew they'd crush them down, but at least they'd come back up if I fluffed them and not look like deflated doughnuts.  

I happened to have some felt left over from a costume I made a long time ago, so I got it out, did some more math and put it between the layers of fleece.  But... never turning down an option to make an easy project that much harder and more time consuming, I decided to quilt the layers together.  That way, the felt won't shift around and when they get washed, everything should stay where it belongs and hold up over time.

cat bed
Once I quilted the fleece/felt sandwiches, I sewed them to the circles of saddle pad and the extra bottom that I made.  I decided they were too tall because I had used the original dimensions, so I folded them down.  

I wanted to tack them into place by hand because it would cover the seam, but at this point, I had 4 layers of fleece, two layers of felt and the saddle pads had fabric, batting AND foam, so there was no way a hand needle was going to get through all of that. 

I had to use my jeans foot on my sewing machine which allows the foot to rock back and forth over the layers so you don't have to use a hump jumper and all of the layers can fit.  This was just about the maximum amount of layers that machine will handle, though!  It was easy for it to get through, so it wasn't like 8 layers of denim, which would tax the machine, but it was just so thick!

These cats have never met a new textile that they have sat upon within 5 minutes of it entering the house, so I was sure that as soon as I laid them out, they'd be in them and I could get some pictures.  

It took all afternoon but eventually, Bo gave one a whirl.

First, he had to sit in one and think about it.

stomping down the sides

luxury accommodations

I couldn't get a picture of Daisy enjoying them, but Luke tried one out.

snug as a bug

Happy kitty

These are a much smarter idea than the first set that I made.  And this style didn't need a removable cover because there's no filling so they won't take up a lot of space or take forever to dry when I wash them.  

They'll still collect all of the hair (theirs and mine) but it might look a little less hideous with this cute plaid print.





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