Cozy Upcycled Human Dog Bed

I recently ran across this warm and fuzzy human dog bed.

I can totally picture myself relaxing in one of those with my dog! Even better, maybe I can make my own and avoid the huge price tag by reusing old clothes!

No sewing necessary, and I also get to give some of my favorite clothes a new life in this human dog bed!

1.    Lots of cardboard

2.     Lots of old clothes (e.g. T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, sweatpants, etc.). I used 3 huge bags of clothes!

3.     Packaging foam, used pillows, and/or old blankets.

4.     Carabiners/connecting clips

First, flatten the cardboard boxes into 36”x24” rectangles. Stack 25-30 layers on top of each other. (If a flattened box is not big enough, arrange multiple pieces to make a single layer. Tip: Just like working with Legos, you may want to have pieces arranged in different patterns to make the structure sturdier).

Next, cut the clothes into strips as shown. Tie the strips into loops if they're not already loops. Connect multiple clothes strips with square knots. (You can and should connect as you go rather than connecting everything together right now). 

Loop this first layer of clothing around the stack of cardboard tightly as shown to create horizontal lines. Then, weave the other strips on (alternate over-under-over-under and under-over-under-over). You can weave different color patterns and highlight key features of your clothes. We chose to emphasize the “Life is Good” text on one of the shirts, as this is exactly what you should feel while on the human dog bed!

We planned to make 3 of these base boards. We used a used pillow to filling the first board (Board 1) and foam for the other two (Board 2 and Board 3). The flat foam padding allows us to fold these two boards together. 

Now that we have three base boards, we can connect them so that they form a chair when folded up and a bed when expanded out.

To connect two boards, take 3 strips. Lay two boards next to each other. Attach one strip at the top of each of the two boards secure the third one connecting the two boards. Connect the two boards by braiding the three strips as shown, making sure to pull the strips through the nearby loops on each board to secure the connection.

Make sure to connect Board 1 and Board 2 at the bottom long edge and connect Board 2 and Board 3 at the top long edge. This will allow us to fold the base boards.

We used the filling from old blankets, but it would probably have been easier to use used pillows directly, as then we wouldn't have needed to make a padding cover.

Cut old clothes as shown, with shallow parallel cuts at any opening. Tie up the split fabric ends to cover the holes, but leave one hole open. Now we have a padding cover with one side open.

Pack the filling into the padding cover directly or fold a used pillowcase into the shape of the cover. Close the open side by tying the split fabric ends.

Currently, we don't have a "human dog bed" so much as we have a couple of cushions. To finish the dog bed we need one headboard, one foot board, and 2 sides for each base board (6 in total). Each side will have a padding board, as shown. (The next step will go into further detail.)

Dimensions for each board:

Headboard (1x): 36”x18”, padding board 36”x12”

Footboard (1x): 36”x12”, padding board 36”x6”

Sideboard (6x): 24”x12”, padding board 24”x6”

That's 8 side padding boards in total. With the remaining material, make as many pillows as you want!

Prepare padding boards with the dimensions given in the previous step by laying cardboards sheets together. Squeeze the padding and padding board together by looping strips around them in one direction as shown, similar to the base boards.

Next, make sideboards with the dimensions given in the previous step using the same process.

Secure each padding board (with padding) to its corresponding sideboard by weaving in strips perpendicular to the existing strips as shown.

Connect a sideboard, the foot board, and a sideboard together in that order using the braid weaving technique shown in Step 2.

Arrange the connected structure around Board 3 as shown. Start looping these together with cloth strips.

Flip the structure over to secure the connection of baseboard, foot board and sideboards as shown to finish securing them together.

Repeat the process for Board 1 with two sideboards and one headboard, and connect the remaining two sideboards to Board 2.

Install connecting clips on the sideboards for Board 2 and Board 3 as shown. This way, when the human dog bed is expanded, we can connect these sideboards to reinforce the edge of the bed.

If needed, reinforce the structure with additional strips at any particularly weak connections. Finish by covering up any exposed cardboard with strips.

You're done! Time to enjoy your cozy new human dog bed!