Upcycled Sweater Kitty Beds

As promised, I'm going to post a few entries of past projects. First are my kitty beds made from old sweaters. This was a project I found on Pinterest, and initially tried with a very thin V-neck sweater stuffed with a pillow. It was not the most attractive, especially on the reverse side, but my Lily loved it:

From there I branched out into making some out of old sweaters that were donated to me by my parents, and some inexpensive thrift store finds. They were stuffed with a variety of fabrics - scrap pieces of fleece, yarn, whatever stuffing material I could find. The idea is to upcycle the fabrics into something beautiful and useful - so I avoided buying any brand new materials. Here are some of my favorites:

I had so much fun creating these that I joined a few craft shows to attempt selling them. I have to say I did pretty well! But I still have a closet full of cat beds for future shows. 

Once we entered spring and thift stores stopped selling sweaters, I started hunting garage sales and estate sales. I've been getting some pretty good deals in those venues! Such as this yellow and gray 100% cashmere sweater I acquired for $1.00... I felt guilty about turning cashmere into a cat bed, but decided as long as it was made for Lily, it was totally acceptable. After all, she had watched me making bed after bed that weren't for her and was getting jealous. 

So for the moment, cat bed creation is on hold while I enjoy sprucing up my apartment. I have a few sweaters waiting in the wings, but I'll pick them back up when craft show season gets busy. Next time I make one, I'll show some step by step photos.