a few years ago my retired parents, who had shunned off all pets since my childhood dog had passed away a few years earlier, woke up and decided to get a new dog. so rosie the english bulldog entered our lives.

i feel like you might need a visual to really be with me here.

now that you see the situation we are working with it probably won't come as a surprise that rosie isn't smartest dog in the world (okay she's a total idiot). but she sure makes my parents happy and for that my sisters and i like, or at least tolerate, her.

one day while facetiming i noticed the dog bed still had the same cushion from when we bought it 20 years and two cocker spaniels earlier, and had the wear to prove it. so i asked my sister sammie to measure it and i got to work on a replacement.

materials

1 yard durable fabric (i used canvas for both and it turned out great)
thread
buttons
pipping (optional)
foam

instructions

1. decide on your desired finished size. my measurements were 15 inches wide by 22 inches long by 4 inches tall.

2. embrace your math nerd. okay so it's a cube, you need to determine what sizes to make all six sides, do that by taking the finished size and add in your seam allowance, i did half an inch on each side, which added an inch to each measurement. accounting for the closure on the back side my measurements ended up being: two 23 by 16 inch pieces (top and bottom), two 16 by 5 inch pieces (end side), and one 23 by 5 inch piece, (front side piece) and two 23 by 4 inch pieces (back side).

3. for the back closure i folded one of the long edges of each piece over by a smidge, then over again and stitched into place.

4. then i laid the pieces down, overlapping them so the width of the entire fabric was 5 inches (what the other side was) by 23 inches (what the other side was) and stitched the short sides in place. this left me with a piece whose dimensions were the same as the front piece. i pinned the center overlap for the rest of the construction.

5. for the top and bottom pieces I decided to make it personalized and added an appliqué initial.

6. for pizzaz the i trimmed the whole thing in piping. since i wanted to tie in the magenta color i made my own piping out of the same fabric.