Dog pillows

Finally I made it to the sewing room. I have a bag of very old clothes that a friend was going to throw away , but I asked for them with a plan in mind. This was a   pink polyester skirt that has streaks down the side where the sun had bleached it out, but that does not bother me one little bit. So I start by cutting the zipper out , thinking that I might find a use for it later down the road. ( Waste not- want not- remember that old saying)

I take all the darts out of this one , lay it out flat and then position the very dirty pillowcase that fits one of the old pillows onto the skirt and using it as a pattern -just cut up the sides . Then I take it to the serger and serge around 3 sides.

You can see why they need new pillows .The old ones are just plain wore out and Little Bear worked hard to get this one rolled up like a pillow under her head!

There is a secret to these pillows- Two years ago I made my first set and stuffed them with cedar shavings. That first night NOBODY slept ANYWHERE near those stinky pillows, but after a few days each pillow had been claimed and I made pillowcases to fit them so I could wash them weekly.

But the REALLY great thing that happened -WAS- for all of those two years we have not had ONE flea on any of the furbabies! Now I cannot guarantee that is what is the secret to our success, but that is just what has happened in our case with our 8 furbabies ! So I am not going to take a chance.

This is the new bag of cedar shavings that I picked up to stuff the pillows with. I got this at Tractor Supply, but Walmart carries them too.

I carried it all out on the front porch so I would not have such a mess to clean and this is the way the pink one has turned out. I decided that if I was going to put new pillows in one of the crates then I should pull it out and clean behind it where I know "crud" likes to hide from me. In the process I discovered that a mouse had been having a field day in his new "digs" so I pulled the drawer out of the dresser beside there and sure enough - a nice big fat "mouse - party -pad" . I ended up pulling out all of the drawers and cleaning the terrible mess up.

In the process I ran across  some old pictures I had stored in a couple of those old wooden bible chests and that was a big mistake . I cannot resist PICTURES. You know, they contain fragments of my life captured in pictures. Like the baby pictures that I love so much. Then I got the wild idea that I should write names on some of these because nobody would know who was who after I am gone.

Proud of myself for my accomplishment I put everything back in place only to discover it was getting dark on me! Where did that time go to?????????????????????

I boogied back in the sewing room and ripped the second old skirt open and proceeded to sew a blue pillow - then run out of the porch and stuff it with the cedar quick.

At least I have something to show for my effort. I will leave these two out on the porch to air-out tonight . That way everybody will not abandon ship on me again! LOL

Which one would you rather sleep on ? The pretty pink and blue ones or this pitiful looking one. Well, I guess it has a good reason to look so pitiful. It was originally a  hospital gown  before it was transformed into a pillow . LOL  I will also make new pillowcases for the new pillows so I can wash them . When we have spells of lots of rain -no self respecting pillow could put up with the abuse that the furbabies give them!

I will put it back for tonight , but be glad to replace it  tomorrow . Then I will take it to the barn to reuse the cedar shavings into animal bedding .

I think tomorrow I can raid that bag once again and see what else I can turn into two more pillows. LOL