A Bed For Ooga

December 20, 2025

From the minute Emily said that Miss A might like a doll bed for Christmas, I was on it.

I found two spindles, two off-cuts of wood from the sewing room door jambs, and some scrap plywood in the basement and I got to work. I cut the spindles each into two pieces. The taller parts for the head of the bed and the shorter parts for the foot. I made the sides and supports out of the door jamb off-cuts and attached them with pocket holes. I cut the plywood to fit, added some paint and the bed frame was done.

But a bed is not a bed without some cozy sheets and a fluffy mattress and pillow. Using some old sheets that were used for garment testing, I made a pillowcase, a sheet and a mattress cover (basically an envelope-style pillow cover).

I thought I had the perfect blanket, too. It was one I had crocheted for Reese when she was a puppy. The colours were pastel pink, blue, green and cream. And it was the perfect size. But I couldn’t find it. While I was looking for it, I found something even better. Geneva had made a quilt when she was about 10 or 12. It was her first quilt and also her last but she was happy to donate it to the cause. The size was perfect and so were the colours, I just needed to add a binding.

I used fabric scraps to stuff the pillow and the mattress and I have to say that I had absolutely no idea that cutting enough scraps to fill those things was the part of the project that would take the longest… by far. I was stuffing that thing right down to the wire.

Miss A has a stuffed beluga whale that goes everywhere with her: Ooga. I’m happy to report that Ooga was safely tucked into bed before all the gifts were unwrapped.