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Aww! Thanks everyone! :D I'm so happy everyone likes the dog bed. That is probably the most popular thing on my site. Maybe because dog beds are so expensive and making them is so easy? Or because Loki is cute? I really think he sells it. Napping is very important to him!

Quote:

Originally Posted by miabellaamoure (Post 3667834)

Erin, I adore this bed and would love to make it! Do you think it would be hard to have a lined inner ball and the outside cover with a zipper for washing purposes? Where would you suggest a zipper?

You could totally make the cover removable. I don't because even the "big" one only took two pillows to stuff so the whole thing fits in my washing machine. (I have a medium sized front loader.) My dogs usually make a big enough mess either with their Kong, or puking in their bed (I know, gross, but I also know you ALL understand!) or insisting on doing that "your bed is not a face towel!" thing after coming in from the rain... or whatever, so the whole thing needs to be washed all the time anyway. But if you have shedding dogs or cats or for whatever reason need to JUST wash the cover, yes you could do that. I would put it between one of the circles and side pieces, and just call that side the bottom. I have four of these ready to make, I could totally try it and let you know how it turns out! I'm making two to ship off to family with little dogs who asked for them, and I was going to leave the side open and let them stitch it up on their end, after adding their own stuffing. I will try a zip on the open end instead! Probably not the best choice if you want to have an inner bed as well, but fine if you just want to remove the stuffing to wash. If you are going to wash the stuffing, just wash the whole bed anyway :)

I'm also going to be making rectangular beds with zips in the next week or so. Our Big Dog friend is going to be staying with us for a weekend soon, and I want to make him a new bed before he comes. My neighbor with Weims have been asking too. It will have a zipper like the one I made here: Zippered Quilted Dog Bed | Flickr - Photo Sharing! and it's SO SO easy to install the zipper. I totally cheated, but it's a dog bed. I make sure my purses have nice linings and no raw edges and everything, but do you care what the inside of your dog bed looks like? No! So I cheated. :) You could use home dec, quilted cotton, fleece or whatever you want for this one. It's better to use a stretchy fabric to get the cuddle ball effect on the fleece bed, but this new one could use any fabric. I know sometimes fleece doesn't always match everyone's decor, so this way you can have a cuddle bed upstairs and a nice looking bed downstairs :) (We have 2 bedrooms and 1 living area and 6 of these dog beds, so clearly my dogs have priority over color scheme!) Also a warning: Loki will rarely sleep in my bed anymore because he LOVES his bed (it's next to our bed). He comes up to snuggle if he's cold or tell me he's hungry. Otherwise he's all about his fleece bed. This may or may not be a good thing for you, depending on if you like having dogs in your bed!

PS. If you have a Kohl's nearby, I just got an email that their "Big Ones" pillows are on sale for $5.99, and if you are lucky enough to get their 20-30% off coupons brings them under $5. I've gotten them as cheap as $3.50 before, but this is still a good deal. They are a little loftier than the $4-5 pillows from Target and WalMart, so they are my first choice for cheap pillows!