A place for a fuzzy puppy

I realize I’ve yet to mention my dog, Jasmine, on here. Well, she’s the cutest. I started letting her sleep in my bed a couple months after I got her, way back in ’05, and it really calmed her down immensely. Just spending those eight hours next to me, even without interaction, made up for the hours away from her while I was at work.

Since A moved in, sometimes it gets a little crowded (she only weighs 10 pounds, but like her mom, she likes to position herself in the middle of the bed and lie diagonally). So she jumps down and stretches on the floor. Then she wants to come back up, but she forgets that she can jump. She cries. I pick her up.

This is all a very long intro to talk about making a bed for her. If I put it right next to the bed, she might just sleep there all night (or once A gets into bed a few hours after I do). She had one at one point that she quite liked—it was velour and had a raised edge, which hid chew toys in.

Replicating the material is easy, but since my sewing skills are limited, I’m not sure how to put the edge on it. I’d also like to find some way to affix a T-shirt of mine, so the whole business smells like me. I’m thinking the easiest think to do is take a a flat fleece bed I bought for $3 some months pack, glue some pillow form around the edge, and make a new cover for the whole thing. Then I can attach a strap to hold the shirt in place so that Beatrice the Beautiful Psycho Cat doesn’t pull it out, shred it and scatter it around the apartment.

If any of you have any ideas/sewing tips for how to do this, they’re much appreciated. If not, I’ll proceed as planned and let y’all know how it goes.