Toy Box Repurposed into a Raised Dog Dish

Years ago this toy box came with a wooden train set inside. Since the set out grew this box it has mostly been unused. I finally have an idea for repurposing it. My sweet puppy is 13 and has all kinds of aches and pains. This make over is for her. I wish I had thought to do this years ago.

I sprayed a coat of primer onto the outside of the box. This helps to cover the design and for the final coat of paint to stick to the laminate surface.

The lid had particle board under the fabric and padding. Particle board does not take spray paint well. It basically soaks up all the paint. I wanted an easy to clean surface so I used contact paper instead of paint for the lid.

I marked the hole for the opening using the top rim of the dog dish and drew a circle inside those marks. Once I cut the opening I sanded down the whole board and removed all the saw dust. I cut the contact paper large enough to wrap over the edges and onto the under side of the board. I trimmed off all but about 2 inches of the inside circle and then cut slits to fold the contact paper over the inner circle. The above picture shows the under side of the lid. I cut another piece of contact paper just smaller than the outside edge of the board and to the edge of the hole in the center. I also cut a long thin strip of contact paper to cover the inside of the circle.

The end result. The bowl does not sit all the way down in the hole we cut because we wanted to be able to easily remove the bowl for cleaning. This also means that we didn’t have to make a finger hole or a handle to be able to lift off the lid.

Oh and another bonus to this make over is that I can store her canned food inside! My pampered pooch needed no encouragement to use her new raised food dish. I think she is grateful for the easy reach and that she no longer has to chase the bowl around as she licks it clean. ;)

Katrina

I interrupt this blog.................

I have a tooth that has been really bothering me since Christmas Eve. When I finally got into a dentist (any dentist) on Monday they told me the tooth needs a root canal. I was given antibiotics, pain killer and a referral. Thursday morning I had a root canal. Which was a piece of cake by the way. Unfortunately I found out I have another tooth that needs one too. It looked like it was a wait and see situation. Now that the general has worn off, I realize that most of my pain was actually from the tooth I didn't get done. Now I need to hurry up and schedule a second root canal. Why does this stuff happen over the holidays?! I usually respond to all comments pretty much as they come in. You will have to forgive me because I am not sure how much I will check in on the blog over the next few days (till I get this fixed). All I can say is that I am glad I have had this post waiting in the wings for months.

Also, for the month of January, I plan to take a little blog break. I am in much need of some craft blog down time. (Anjeanette and Rebecca will be working on posts this month.) My family has no idea how mine is doing because I have been seriously neglecting my personal blog. I haven't posted since before Halloween! I am going to take a little break to update my blog for my family (and because it is like scrap booking to me) and get to some other things I have been putting off. It also looks like I will be getting lots of dental work done as well. That is what I get for putting off finding a new dentist. I had one I love be he is out of network now.

Katrina

~~~

Anjeanette here,

Katrina, please do take care of yourself! We love you! No worries here guys, we will be filling in for Katrina while she rejuvinates and takes care of herself and her family.

We linked up here and here and here.

Technorati Tags: dog,recycle,raised food bowl,storage,organization,makeover,repurpose,toy box

A Reversible Quilt Coat for a Dog

I have an old dog with lots of aches and pains. This year I decided she could benefit from a coat to keep her joints warm.

I found a fantastic tutorial that shows you how to make a dog coat out of a woman’s jacket. What a great way to recycle! Using a woman’s coat to make a dog coat is brilliant! Go HERE to get the coat pattern.

Thank you Diana for allowing me to use your pattern and post about it here.

I decided to use the pattern to make a Halloween quit coat that reverses to have a side that would be for Christmas.

Making my Halloween quilt template…

Once you have printed out your coat pattern and adjusted the size you will need to:

1. Measure the width of the back coat panel (not including the straps).

2. Decide how much of the width you want your quilt blog to cover.

3. Be sure to account for the border strip that will go around the center block. Mine was a finished border of 1 inch. My cut fabric was 1 1/2 inches to allow for 1/4 inch seams.

4. Be sure to allow for 1/4 to 1/2 inch seam allowances. Your finished quilt block will be smaller than the original template.

5. Cut a square piece of paper to the size you decided upon.

6. Fold your paper in thirds. I have marked my folds so that you can see them.

7. Fold the other side into thirds.

8. Draw diagonal lines from the corner of the middle sections through the center point to the opposite middle corner. Do the same with the other center section.

9. I have colored in the sections to make it look less confusing. For your template you will cut out one black corner section. For the candy corn template you will cut out one gray section.

10. For the Pumpkins I used the template from my Pumpkin Garland Tutorial. Use only half of the stem pattern. Set aside for now.

11. Measure the triangle from top to bottom and divide into thirds. Cut fabric strips adding 1/2 inch for seam allowances.

12. Sew the strips for your candy corn to make one long strip. Always iron seams to the darker fabric. Be sure seams are ironed flat.

13. Place your triangle template over your fabric strip. Be sure the tip of your triangle is over the fabric you want to represent as the top of your candy corn. I flipped the triangle for the next cut to make another triangle in the opposite pattern and am saving it for another project. Flip your triangle again and cut another candy corn. Keep working down the strip till you have 4 candy corns or have used up all of the fabric strip.

14. Sew each corner piece to one triangle. I recommend ironing the seams before sewing the next sections together. Keep sewing pieces together till you have the whole square. Iron it to make sure it lays flat.

15. Trim your quilt block to make sure that it is square.

16. Sew on the trim fabric. Start with matching up the corner. The strip should be long enough to over hang at the end. The next strip will start at the edge of the previously sewn strip. Work your want around the quilt block. I found it helpful to iron the seams after I added each strip.

17. Iron on a sewable adhesive to the back of your pumpkins and stems. Position your pumpkins on your quilt block and iron them down. Top stitch around the edges and sew in any details onto the pumpkins and stems.

18. Fold the raw edges of the trim fabric under and iron them down.

19. Appliqué your quilt block to your base fabric by: 1: Ironing on a sewable adhesive and or 2: top stitching the quilt block all the way around the edge on to the base fabric. If your quilt block didn’t turn out completely flat don’t use the sewable adhesive.

20. Assemble the layers of the coat with right sides together with the batting on one side. Sew around the edges, leaving an opening to turn it right side out.

21. Turn right side out and top stitch around the edge. For the center pattern I stitched over the seams (stitch in the ditch) and around the edge. For the straps I quilted a random cris-cross pattern with meandering lines.

Note: I chose to use a solid Christmas fabric of the reverse side to simplify things but a poinsettia quilt block would look lovely.

Katrina

As always if you decide to make a quilt coat of your own, please let us know, we would love to see it. Pictures of your projects are always a welcome addition to our Flickr Group.

Diana, posted this wonderful write up on her blog about my dog coat. I am speechless... I simply can't thank her enough for making it so easy to make this coat.

Technorati Tags: Dog Coat,Halloween,quilt block pattern,tutorial,pumpkins,candy corn,pets