I decided that our new cat Sirbie should have a bed to sleep in as soon as we brought him home from Maryland. Well, I decided to buy him one. It was Jeff who suggested that I make him one.

I ran a bunch of errands the week before we flew out to Maryland to meet Sirbie. I bought him a scratching post, some toys, etc - everything was for Sirbie. I stopped at the fabric store before going to the pet store. I picked up some cute kitty cat fabric (and was a little annoyed that they only had "girlie" colors and styles for cats), some stuffing, and thread. I then went to the pet store and noticed that the beds there - although not as "fun" - were a heck of a lot cheaper than what I paid for the materials to make his bed.

I had no pattern to follow, only an idea in my head. Unfortunately, that idea didn't transfer into the real world (sometimes my brain and my hands aren't on speaking terms). I ended up with something that didn't quite work as the bed I had imagined. There were two parts - a top, framing pillow and a bottom, base pillow. I wasn't quite sure how to attach the two so I decided to make a new base for the top pillow frame. That bed turned out to be a little smaller than a big cat might find comfortable.

I then took the original base and made a frame to go around it. When that was finished, I stepped back and realized that this bed was 4 feet by 4 feet. A little bigger than the other bed and certainly big enough. It was almost, well, definitely too big. I whittled it down another couple of inches and rounded off the corners. Rounding the corners took several inches off each end but it was still a lot bigger than I had anticipated. Since I had been to the fabric store two times in three days, I was not going back again to buy more fabric to make another bed. I decided to leave well enough alone.

I began stuffing the monstrosity and soon realized that the two bags of stuffing I had purchased were not nearly enough. I went back to the store and bought two more bags. That was not enough, either. I went back to the store and bought two more bags. Again, I discovered that this was not enough. I called Jeffrey and asked him to buy two more bags. I was not going to another fabric/craft store for many, many more days. I could have used half a bag more.... Neither one of us went to get it.

I sewed up the stuffing holes and glued a ribbon around the hand-stitched section so that the bad sewing job wasn't so obvious. I bought iron-on letters but when they didn't want to stick with a little heat, I ended up gluing them on instead. The bed now clearly was labeled "Sirbie."

So that's how Sirbie's bed was made. It took four days and four trips to the fabric store to make a small version and a big version. Hopefully he's not Goldilocks and will find one them just right (and not need a third). I did discover that Wensley likes his bed. I found her sleeping in it when I came home one day. It's so big that if the two of them did decided to sleep in it at the same time, they'd probably not even notice that there was another cat.