Recycle Crafting: Toy Horse Bedding

Princess Fierce loves horses right now. For her recent fifth birthday she received some toy horses and was using an old shoe box as their bed. Great imagination muscle but not the most durable bed nor could all the horses lie down together in the small box. Her older brother told me I needed to buy her a toy barn. I had a better idea that would cost me no money, look pretty in her colorful room and give me more much needed practice on my sewing machine.

I bought a set of Melissa and Doug wooden food for two dollars at a yard sale a few years back and knew one day the crate it all came in could be repurposed.

I rescued it from the basement and added a fresh coat of gloss red spray paint left over from another project.

Next I sewed "straw bed" pillows. Confession time: the original plan was just one large pillow in the box. But my measurements were off and it was too small. So I cut it into smaller pillows to not make waste. The pillows are a golden leaf pattern on one side made from a fat quarter I bought out of the Michael's clearance bin for 25¢ for some future use. The back side is a soft cotton yellow from an old sheet I bought for $1 at the thrift store, expressly for fabric use. They are all just lightly stuffed with fiber fill so they can be very flat and squishy.

Princess Fierce likes to use the smaller straw pillows for feeding her horse.

Everyone checking out their new crib.

Princess Fierce is happy her horses can now rest together.