CONFETTI
dog’s bed
The flurry of spots in
this patchwork dog
bed might well reflect
the character of your
cheeky pet! You can
easily adjust the size
of the cushion for
a smaller or larger
Top tip!
MATERIALS:
• 11 fat eighths different coloured spot fabric
• 0.5m dark blue, base
• 0.5m stripe, binding
You will need stuffing in
• 1m Thermolam 272 (Vlieseline)
quantity so buy inexpensive
• polyester toy stuffing
pillows and rip them open!
You buy the same thing for
HOW TO MAKE: more money in a
1 Start by making the top (so put the smaller bag
base fabric aside for now) with your spotty
colours, cut 59 12cm-square pieces.
2 Make a patch panel that is 5 squares
wide and 7 squares long using a 0.5cm
seam allowance. (Use this seam allowance
throughout.) Be very sure to keep your
joins aligned at the seams – this is a simple
construction so there is nowhere to hide!
(See Pic A.)
3 Iron and pin it to a piece of wadding a
little larger than the patchwork panel.
4 Quilt in a pleasing pattern of your
choice. We went for a simple either side of
the seam quilt pattern. (See Pic B.)
5 Trim the wadding back to the patches.
6 The end sides of the bed are only one
square high so make two strips of squares
5 long and again pin them to a slightly
larger piece of wadding. Quilt as before
and trim. Ensure the end and corner
squares are all different colours if you want
a random colour effect in the completed
bed.
7 We’ll call the remaining sides the front
and back. Working to the same directions
as the end sides, make two strips 7 squares
long, quilt and trim.
8 With RST, attach the four sides together,
alternating between short and long sides.
Don’t sew the full seam allowance when
you do this; stop about 0.5cm from each
end so when you join the sides to the top
and base it will keep the corners sharp!
9 For the base, cut a 75x55cm piece of
fabric. With RST, attach the base to
the sides and back.
Attach the top next but pin with WST
this time and sew all the way around,
leaving a 15cm gap for stuffing – then you
won’t need to turn the bed out the right
way! A B
Stuff the bed well and then close the
gap by hand.
You’ll now have a raw edge on top,
which will look nice bound in co-
ordinating fabric. Use the chalk stripe to
make 2.5m of bias binding or alternatively
you can use shop bought binding.
Settle down with a good cup of tea
and hand-sew the binding into place
around the top.
TUTORIAL
1 To make your own bias binding,
cut 3cm-wide strips on 45˚ diagonal
(also known as the true bias). (See Pic
C.)
2 For this project you need enough
to go around the entire border to
maximise the amount you can get
out of your fabric.
3 Join the strips by placing them RST
on a 90˚ angle and sewing from the
top-right corner to the bottom-left
corner where the pieces overlap. (See
Pic D.) Trim then press open the seam
allowance.
4 When you have one continuous
strip, fold it in half lengthwise and iron.
(See Pic E.)
5 Fold the raw edges into the centre
and iron. (See Pic F.)
6 Instead of steps 4 and 5 you can
feed the continuous strip into a
29mm bias binding maker and iron
the strip flat as it comes out of the
folded end of the tool. (See Pic G.)
C D Shopping list
Makower Spots collection:
1572/S grey, 1572/Y yellow, 1572/R7 red,
1572/G green, 1572/N orange, 1572/P7
pink, 1572/L6 lilac, 1572/T5 jade, 1572/B5
E F G blue, 1572/T4 turquoise, 1572/R3 peach
0.5m Makower 0.5m Makower
1572/B8 dark blue 1634/P chalk stripe
for the base from the Flo’s
Friends collection
