DIY'ing a Doggy Hammock

After my four-hour vacuum session to clean out our truck following our last camping trip, I desperately searched for an idea to guard the back seat from the piles of dog hair that had accumulated. I decided on a hammock style blanket. While there are some cute patterns on-line, I opted to wing it.

Before cruising over to JoAnn Fabrics for supplies, I swung into our local Salvation Army to see what was hanging out there. The local thrift stores are my bank account’s best friend…and worst enemy all at the same time.

I needed something that would get me a 60 x 90 inch rectangle in the end. Like a miracle, a 60 x 80 piece of fleece (with cute little paw prints all over it) appeared before my eyes. I also found a Twin size navy blue sheet that was large enough to make up the 10 inches the fleece was lacking and provide a back for my hammock.

I washed and dried both pieces before working with them. I started by lining up the fleece in the middle of the sheet length-wise with right sides together and then sewed along one side.

I pressed a five inch border into the top of the sheet and the bottom of the sheet to make up the 10 inch difference and then sewed along those sides. I had some extra sheet material along the remaining long edge, but I can’t cut a straight line to save my life so I folded the sheet over on itself to create a binding of sorts and sewed up the long side kind of haphazardly.

To attach the blanket in the back seat, I decided to use some nylon cording that I picked up at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon.

A lot of the patterns I found on-line used buckles with the cording, but to save myself some expense and possible frustration, I figured I could just tie the nylon straps around each of our four headrests.

I cut the nylon to length and carefully melted the edges with a lighter so they wouldn’t fray. There may be a more civilized way to do that, but I'm certain it's not as fun!

I took the blanket out to the truck and marked where each strap needed to go. Then I attached each strap by sewing them onto the hammock with an x pattern to reinforce them.

The blanket lies flat on the bottom of the floor in the back seat and ties easily onto the head rests.

Since piecing together this contraption, we have had a chance to test it out and it worked really well.

It’s machine washable, so I just tossed it in the wash when we got home and spent only about half an hour vacuuming up the random dog hair that blew around the vehicle while we were traveling.

Here is a picture of the truck floor without the blanket...

And here is the floor after using the blanket...

Here is the seat without the blanket...

Here is the seat after using the blanket...

Thanks to a tip from my brother, who was once a car detailer, I sprayed all of the fabric surfaces in the truck with static guard and let it sit for about 15 minutes before vacuuming. The dog hair released from the carpet and seats so much easier!

Let’s face it though, the real test of whether this hammock works is whether Mando liked it or not.
I’d say he found it rather comfy.

I actually considered sleeping back there on our way home and giving the dog the front seat… 

All in all, I spent less than $10 and saved myself 3 hours of vacuuming after each trip with our furry kid. That makes me us smile.

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