Dog Bed/Cushion Cover

This year, our classroom inherited a little cushioned bench for our "cool down" area.  The bench, though, has seen better days.

My teacher asked me if I could sew a cover for the cushion.  The bench had a skirt around the bottom that was red and white chevrons, so I looked through my fabrics for something that would match.  After sifting through tons of options, I found this adorable dachshund print that I got at a craft show earlier this year!

As luck would have it, this piece was just big enough to make the top and bottom panels of the covers.  So I found a red and white polka dot cotton for the sides.

I had to get a bit creative with the layout of the sides since I didn't have enough full pieces to fit.  I had to trim the two side pieces and construct the back piece from four smaller cuts.  This worked out okay since I had to add in a zipper to get the cushion in and out.

To start, I sewed the front piece to the long side of the dachshund fabric, right side to right side.

Next, I sewed on both sides, letting the corners overlap a little.

Next, I joined the corners, forming a box.

Now for the hard part, the back panel.  I took two smaller pieces that were the same length as the zipper and sewed them together.

I ironed the seam flat.

Then I sewed down the zipper onto the closed seam, making sure to sew down the opening and closing edges of the zipper to keep my seams from unraveling.

With a seam ripper, I opened the seam in between the opening and closing edges of the zipper.

With that done, I sewed it onto two smaller pieces of the polka dot fabric to get the correct length.  Then I sewed the whole thing onto the back.  Finally I finished up the last two corners.

After that, it was just sewing on the bottom panel.  This was simple since the zipper allowed me to flip my cover inside out.

Now, long story short, I misunderstood the idea of the bench.  The cushion on top doesn't come off!  I made a cushion cover where the cushion needs to be put inside.  Whoops!  So instead, I turned this into a makeshift bunbed for my dachshunds.  I just put two pillows inside, one on either end, leaving a small gap in the middle.  For some reason, they love sinking into the indent.

For the bench at school, I just did the same thing, except instead of adding a bottom panel, I made the sides long enough to cover the bench from top to bottom--almost like an extra long table cloth.  That way, I didn't have to match with the red and white chevron pattern; I used a cute brown swirl fabric for the top, and a brown plaid for the sides (which you can see in the picture behind my doggie)!


~Buttons