Suitcase Cat Bed

More crafting!

When my dad came to this country in 1956 he carried a hard sided brown Samsonite suitcase.  It's been sitting in Mom's attic for years.  I've always wanted to do... something... with it.  My plan was a cat bed and I had some vague ideas on how to do it, but it never amounted to much.  The suitcase moved from Mom's attic to my spare closet for 2 years.

Until recently!

This is what the suitcase looked like before I started. (This isn't the exact suitcase, but one that looks just like it)


First step was to rip out all the old stained lining.   All the smells on it kept the cats busy for hours and bought me time to work undisturbed for a while.

I cleaned it off really well with Murphy's soap.  Then I used a gold Sharpie pen to color the hardware.

Next, I bought myself a cordless drill (Rawr!) and drilled holes in the one side (the more scuffed side so it would face down) for 4 legs.

Now I wanted to see if a regular bed pillow fit in it or if I had to make a specially sized 'bed' for it.  Woohoo, the pillow fit!  Less work for me!

At this point MowMow had to investigate and made himself at home on the pillow...for the rest of the afternoon.


While MowMow was test driving my project with a marathon nap I was off to Joann's for some fabric to reline it.  I wanted cheap and I found the perfect one in the discount bin for 3.00 (as least I thought it was perfect).

I wanted ribbon or piping around the outside so I didn't have to tuck in all that fabric.  I dug around Joann's but it was all pricey and then I remembered that I have YARDS of lace in my crafting room.

15">
(I didn't finish until late at night, sorry for the dark dreary pic)

Legs were stained, lining put in, piping(lace) added and the only thing it was missing was.... a cat.

Luckly, I have the perfect one who snooze in his bed every single morning when the sun shines in that window.