Back To The Drawing Board

This weekend my mother was in town, and we decided that there was little else we wanted to do more than visit our little guy, Scout, at Puppy College. The trainers have been wonderful about posting pictures of him on their Facebook page, so we knew that he was not only being well cared for but also that he is having a great time. Nonetheless, we had to see him! He looked fantastic - so happy and so well-adjusted. And in need of a groom! The best part of the visit was when his trainer said that he should be ready to come home in a week! That's a whole week earlier than we'd expected! That's my smart puppy!! They've been doing a lot of work on getting him to be more comfortable and more at ease in his crate, something I'd exhausted all my resources to try to do on his own. My failed efforts left him only in his crate when I leave him alone and with much protest on his part. So the trainer suggested that he stay in his crate at night for a while before transitioning him to a bed on the floor next to my bed. So what's a crafty mama to do? I knew I had to make him his very own, one-of-a-kind Happy-Graduation-from-Puppy-College dog bed.

Initially, I searched the Net for inspiration and found that the patterns and tutorials were all essentially big pillows of some sort or another. So one evening I sketched out an idea I had for a dog bed with a built-in half bolster for cuddling and head propping. I decided to make the internal part out of an old sheet then make a cover that can be removed for washing. Just to test drive my design, I cut out the pieces that would make up the bed out of grid paper, and it seemed that my to-scale model demonstrated a very feasible project. Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time with my rotary cutter cutting out all the pieces for my dog bed design. Today I sat down to do all the sewing. As I sat at my machine and all the pieces went together so well, I started to think about writing up my pattern with pictures and detailed instructions to offer as a PDF on my blog for sale to other crafters who wanted their doggies to be pampered by my ingenious design. I could barely contain my excitement when I finished the sewing and sat down to stuff the beg with PolyFil. That's when the trouble started.

Upon stuffing the bed, I discovered that the sheet didn't have enough body to help the bed hold its shape. I took a break and returned to the bed with a new idea. I used a long upholstery needle to sew some reinforcing stitches, which helped tremendously. The shape was really coming together! Then I started filling in the corners in the bolster with PolyFil and redistributing it to make it the perfect shape. It was at this point that the reinforcing stitches started popping. The looser weave of the old sheet just couldn't support the tension on the stitches. I sat in the floor with my mental wheels turning. This is so not going to work.

Now I'm washing some fabric from my stash for a new idea - one that I think Scout will actually enjoy more than my previous dog bed idea. And hopefully this one will come together with fewer bumps along the way. I don't have much time to spare if Scout really gets to come home this weekend!

When I've not been planning or cutting or sewing, I've been working on my Tea Leaves cardigan. I'm at the point where the rows seem almost unbearably long as I'm knitting to the yoke length at which I can separate the body and the sleeves. It takes me quite a while to get through just one row! Still, I keep telling myself that slow and steady wins the race. And the Malabrigo is really knitting up to be a lovely fabric. Very soft. I feel a little guilty about the socks waiting in my knitting basket with less than an inch left before the bind off, but I know I'll return to them before much longer. Maybe I just needed a little break from them for now.

I just heard the washing machine stop. I'm off to put the fabric for the new project in the dryer. And I think I'll go get a Chai Tea Latte' from Starbucks while it dries. I think I need a little treat to soothe my wounded ego from the failed dog bed expedition.