This is a sponsored post from BurlapFabric.com. All opinions are 100% mine. BurlapFabric.com is an online fabric resource, and they have lots of awesome jute fabric options! You can find them on their website, on Facebook, and on Pinterest.

I love crafting with burlap. It gives your finished project a lovely shabby-chic feel, it's fun to sew, and it's an eco-friendly fabric to boot!

Burlap, also known as jute, is a natural fiber, and even conventional burlap is worlds better than conventional cotton. It grows fast with few pesticides and not much water, and unlike conventional cotton, jute is not genetically modified. Hurrah!

The folks at BurlapFabric.com sent me a bit box of their burlap to craft with, and it sat, open, on my desk for a few days before I was able to get to it. In that time, I had to shoo one of my cats away from the thing countless time. I mean, she was obsessed! When I was working on making a beachy DIY tote bag from one of the burlap sacks, she kept trying to nap on the pieces when I turned my back. That is when inspiration struck: clearly, I needed to make her a cat bag from one of the other reclaimed coffee sacks that they sent.

Their reclaimed coffee bags are for real. I can tell, because when I was unpacking the box a green coffee bean fell right out of one of the bags!

You can find reclaimed coffee bags like this on BurlapFabric.com or you can try asking at your local coffee shop. If they roast their own beans, they may have some handy.

How to Make a Cat Bed from a Burlap Sack

Materials

• burlap sack
• stuffing of your choice - I had reclaimed polyfill on hand that someone gave me, but you can find polyfill that's made from bamboo instead. Bamboo is controversial, but at least it's not a petroleum product! My favorite eco stuffing - though it is a little pricey - is this organic cotton stuffing from Near Sea Naturals
• sewing machine, thread, scissors, pins, and an iron

Directions

1. Cut your coffee sack down so that it's 24" long X 34" wide. Depending on the size of your coffee sack, you may only have to trim off the top, or you may need to trim the top and one side.

2. Turn the bag inside out, iron it, and if you had to trim the top and the side, sew the side back together with a 1/4" inseam using your machine's zig zag stitch.

3. Fold the unfinished top of the bag in, iron and pin it. Put the bag into your sewing machine and use your zig zag stitch to sew that top part closed, leaving a 3" opening so that you can stuff your cat bed.

4. Grab your stuffing and get to work! You may need a ruler or a wooden dowel to help get the stuffing in there. You don't want to stuff this as densely as a pillow, because you want it to be nice and squishy for your kitty to lay on.

5. When you've got your bed stuffed, sew your opening closed and present your kitty with her new favorite napping spot.