DIY PET TIPI

Our Jack Russell Bo is spoiled. She’s had about 20 kongs in her lifetime, and she’s destroyed them all within minutes. She has several outfits, including a sweater bought in Paris, a collar bought in Palm Springs, not to mention a traditional Norwegian Marius sweater my mom has knitted for her. She has several beds located around the house, yet she’s allowed up on the furniture anyway and prefers to spend her days lying about there. She complains if she doesn't get tucked in at night. She refuses to go outside if it’s raining and has to be the center of attention at all times. She requires special food, scientifically developed by Scottish veterinarians. She’s a complete diva, and if it wasn't for the fact that she’s so cute she would not get away with it. But every time she snuggles up and falls asleep on our laps, we melt and forget everything. And now she also has a tipi to hide in. Why? Why the hell not. To be fair, if I felt I could justify it I’d be making a tipi for myself (why am I not an auntie yet?).

And if you’d like to spoil your pet and make a tipi for them as well, you will need approximately 2 meters fabric, 5 bamboo sticks, some string (not pictured) and some twine. This tipi will fit a small dog, so if your pet is smaller/bigger, you will obviously need to adjust. I bought my bamboo sticks at a gardening center for 3 kroner each. They measured 107 cm, but I cut them down to about 95 cm to fit the tipi better. If you’d like to decorate the tipi as well like I did, you will need some sort of stamp. I used a simple triangle lino stamp I made to decorate mine.

Directions:

Cut your pattern out of some paper/newspaper. The pattern is based on a single right triangle that measures 22.5 cm by 83 cm, so you will only need to cut one. Using this pattern, cut two right triangles of fabric, and four isosceles triangles of fabric by folding the fabric and lining the fold against the edge of the triangle pattern. Remember to add about 2 cm for seam allowance. You will end up with the following pieces of fabric, where the two right triangles will end up being the entry to the tipi,  and the four isosceles triangles will be the four walls.

Now for some sewing. Start by hemming the bottom edges of all the pieces. Hemming done, take your two right triangles, line them up with the right sides facing each other and sew the top third of the second longest side (i.e. not the hypotenuse and not the bottom bit you've just hemmed). Hem the rest of the sides. This will be the entrance to the tipi and should now roughly be the same size as your other sides.

Sew all the sides together. Leave about 5 cm at the top to make room for the bamboo sticks to come out, and sew approximately 10 cm of string into each side at the bottom, top and in the middle. (These will be to tie the tipi to the bamboo sticks later to make it a bit more stable.) It's an advantage if you sew a bit straighter than I did, though I'm sure your pet won't mind.

Hem the tops of your sides, and stamp your tipi!

Assemble by tying each bamboo stick to the string you sewed in when you were joining the sides, and use the twine to tie the top together. Finally, add a blanket and your pet.

As Bo is a big fan of hidey-holes (she loves cat beds), it didn't take long for Bo to start using her tipi. Even before I had finished it and put it up just to see what it would look like, she was eagerly trying it out and posing for the camera. Such a little poser.