VIDEO: Rope Bowl Cat Bed
Time for a Cat Nap!
There are so many everyday household goods, like linen tea towels or a basic zipper pillow, that you can easily make yourself rather than buy at a home goods store. Another good example of this is making a DIY cat bed! We made ours as a rope bowl design so that your kitty can really curl up inside. You can also use the same technique to create rope bowls for storage. Once you finish, customize with different colors of paints or illustrations to make it your own.
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Crafting your Cat Bed
This DIY cat bed uses the same easy technique as our cotton clothesline baskets. Use the photo tutorial from that post for reference, or watch our full video tutorial below! Shaping the bed is very simple to do with your hands as you run the clothesline through the sewing machine, and adding the kitty ear handles is easier than you might think.
As you will see in the video, the base of the cat bed is 16 inches wide. If you run out of your first length of clothesline as you coil, it is really easy to continue sewing the bed with a new piece of clothesline. The cushion inside the bed is very basic, and you can make it with any soft fabric. Start by measuring the stuffing for the cushion – we sewed together 8 layers of batting with a zig-zag stitch around the edge. Sew together a cushion cover in the same size, and leave a small opening to add in the batting after you finish sewing.
Once you finish your cat bed and cushion, you have the option to paint a sweet kitty face on the outside of the bed. We recommend drawing an outline before adding any paint. Use a water soluble fabric pen to draw two circles for the eyes, a heart for the nose plus a mouth and whiskers. Then, go over it with black acrylic paint. Simple! Just make sure to let the paint absorb into the clothesline as you apply it.
Get Inspired
If you love the idea of making projects for your furry friends, browse through all of our DIYs for pets. We love seeing how our tutorials inspire you, so please share your photos with us on Instagram using #DIYDreamingWithLia so the team and I can admire your work! Head over to our membership page to start crafting with us, or follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for daily glimpses of inspiration. Always feel free to leave your project requests and suggestions in the comments below so that we can try to bring them to life! See you soon ~ Lia & Team
Cotton Clothesline | Quilt Batting
Tools
- Sewing Machine
- Sewing Pins
- Scissors
- Small Paintbrush
- Water Soluble Fabric Marker
Materials
- 7/32 inch Cotton Clothesline
- White Thread
- Fabric of your choice (for the cushion)
- Quilt Batting
- Black Craft Paint
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Discussion
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13 Comments
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Sasha
August 23, 2018 at 12:24pm
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Lia
August 23, 2018 at 1:24pm
@Sasha
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Marlene
July 17, 2017 at 10:53am
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Jennifer
April 30, 2017 at 7:53am
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Lia
May 2, 2017 at 8:36am
@Jennifer
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Elise
April 18, 2017 at 1:29am
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Lia
April 18, 2017 at 7:25am
@Elise
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Séverine
March 30, 2017 at 2:02am
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Lia
March 30, 2017 at 10:26am
@Séverine
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Gennai
March 25, 2017 at 5:36am
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Lia
March 25, 2017 at 4:06pm
@Gennai
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Sarah
March 24, 2017 at 11:15am
Leave a CommentThis is so delightful! As we get into cooler weather (read: more indoor project time) I can’t wait to sew this for my cat. (And make similar decorative baskets for plants and such.) Thank you for sharing this!
Yay! Have fun 🙂
This was an amazing project. I could see if it a little larger being a very useable shopping bag. How cute to add the face! Thank you for sharing your creativity. Loved it!!
I’m in the middle of making this and don’t know how high I should make the walls. I know I can do whatever I want but I’m curious how high this one is. Thanks!
Ours is about 12″ high 🙂
This is soooo cute! I absolutely love it! 🙂 🙂
Thank you! We love how it turned out, too 🙂
So lovely !! What length of cord did you need for that kind of basket please ?
We used a little less than 2 packages of the 100′ cording.
Where do you guys find the cotton clothesline? I can’t find in my town.
At our local hardware store! Something like this works too 🙂 https://www.amazon.com/Wellington-Cordage-10712-x100-Clothesline/dp/B00004Z1UG
This is so adorable! If I win the trip to Portland I really want to learn how to make baskets like these with the clothesline cord. I love the post from awhile back showing the baskets with the little leather tag. “Totes” adorbs! LOL
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