Made custom cage covers today

[Betrisher]

I'm sorry I don't have photos. My cages are in an area where I can't get far away enough from them to take meaningful photos. All you'd see would be a frame filled with Teddy Bear flavoured fabric.

I had an amount of canvas lying idly by and when the Beaks first moved into their spacious well-appointed condominium, I just tossed it over the cage for a cover. It wasn't perfect, as the light from our kitchen shone into the cage, so I needed to add a few more layers to keep it out. This made for a bulky mess of a cage cover.

A while back, I made a nappy bag for my niece when she had her baby. I was lucky enough to find a huge piece of suède-backed curtain fabric at a thrift shop and so that made a lovely bag and left plenty over for my cage covers. The fabric is 100% blockout (or near as can be), so is perfect for my requirements.

The cage is very large with rounded top corners. I cut a long rectangle of canvas and then stitched on round-cornered pieces of the curtain fabric back and front at one end. This gives the Beakies a dark boudoir to sleep and be private in overnight while the other end is open for ventilation. Yay! There was still plenty of fabric left over, so I made a matching cover for Dommie's cage. His has a rounded opening top, so I had to cut two pieces rounded to fit the shape of the cage and overlapping to make a slit doorway. Yay again!

The Lovies have a gabled roofed flight cage, so all I did there was to make a capacious hem matching the topline of the cage. I inserted neodymium magnets into the hem and stitched them in place. All I have to do is stick the cover to the cage and the Lovies have instant privacy. Yay Three!

So all my birds are sleeping tight tonight under their pretty Teddy Bear flavoured cage covers. I'm hugging myself that I got that job done and it all looks neat and tidy.

 

[Dinosrawr]

I wish I could manage something like this! I have an intricate system of old bed sheets, layering of towels, and specific positioning of each layer... it's an absolute hassle! But I just can't justify spending $50 on a cage cover that doesn't even properly fit, let alone the fact that I could get a blanket to do the job for cheaper... I'm just concerned about breathability and darkness. If you even can, I'd love to see photos, even if they're just small images

 

[Kiwibird]

I'm glad to here the project went well! You should definitely share photos, even if it's just of the cover laid out on the floor. I'm betting your "beaks" will appreciate a darker home at night.

 

[MomtoPercy]

Oh I wish I could make a cover like that for Percy! Jackie is easy because his cage. Is small enough to cover under a 'knee blanket'. But his green majesty's cage is large and domed at the top. So, each night I have to adjust and pull and fiddle to get it covered

 

[MikeyTN]

Trish, we need pictures!!!!

 

[RavensGryf]

Yeah, I was expecting pics Trish! They really sound great... now we need to see them

 

[Betrisher]

OK. Here goes. My best efforts. First of all, I shall add a preliminary pic of Seamus, who was carefully watching the Crested Pigeons through the clear panel in the roof.

 

[MikeyTN]

What a pretty kitty Seamus is!!!!

 

[Betrisher]

OK. That worked. Here goes again.

Here's Dommie's cage:

And the Beakies' cage (with Maggi peeking out):

 

[MikeyTN]

Those are some cute cage covers!!! I stopped covering years ago cause my birds hated to be covered so they would chew holes through the covers and ripping the whole thing to shreds. I keep blankets on hand just in case I need to use them during winter time as we've lost power one year while it was blowing snow outside. Good thing the power company fixed the issue within 5 hrs otherwise I was fixing to pack up all my birds to go to my grandma's or my boss' house where there's power and heat. I covered all their cages in the mean time while waiting for power to come back on.

 

[RavensGryf]

Trish I LOVE them!! Those are super cute. Seamus is a doll too
I just use old sheets and blankets. Doesn't look the best, but who's looking? I aspire to one day have 'nice' cage covers lol.

 

[Kiwibird]

I just *LOVE* those bears. So cute, and expertly crafted too those lucky birds. I personally think Seamus is jealous his mommy did not make him anything special. Did you say there was some left over fabric for a possible cat bed? Thats what I thought

 

[Betrisher]

Cat bed!? Hah! I've made that darned cat so many lovely beds it's not funny! But will he sleep in them? NO! Instead, he parks his butt on the custom ironing surface on my sewing table and leaves his ginger hairs all over it. How many people do you know who have to vacuum their ironing boards? His sister, Genny, is worse. If I have occasion to get up in the night, by the time I get back to bed, there's a little calico cat curled up in my warm spot! When I gently try to move her along, she snarls at me! Rude cats!

 

[Allee]

Seamus may be rude but gosh he's cute!! I love those covers. I have a clean but ragged collection of towels, throws and blankets. My birds are in the habit of being covered after the winter. I'm not about to tell them how cute their cage covers could be.

 

[Terry57]

Those covers are awesome! We only cover Talli and Xander and they just have old blankets..I cannot let them see your covers or they will be so jealous!
And Seamus is adorable

 

[Betrisher]

For those of you who admired Seamus:

Seamus and his sister, Genevieve, ready for school.

Seamus sleeping off a bad case of dishpan hands

Seamus prefers that I do not make a cake.

 

[RavensGryf]

Oh! They're BOTH so cute! I've never had a cat, since growing up my parents didn't like them, and as an adult I just never became familiar with them. I think that those two are absolutely adorable Trish!!

My experience with cats was with an old roommate once... had a 20 lb muscular cat aptly named Beast. He hated me. Need I say more.

 

[getwozzy]

Those are some awesome cage covers Trish!!

 

[Betrisher]

Thing is, I'm not a cat person. I do birds and I do dogs. I think cats are rude and arrogant and sneaky (NB. they keep leaving me nasty little parcels of stinkiness in my rose garden). It just happened that my kids both had a rather dreadful year in 2010. Both were miserable and there was not much I could do to improve either of their circumstances. At the same time, my second-eldest niece's cat had kittens, including Seamus and Genny. She (my niece) begged me to take a kitten, so I outdid myself and took two! How's that for being a Good Auntie? Seamus and Genny did a LOT to help the kids bounce back from that horrible year and so they're both extra precious in our household. Except for the nasty little parcels of stench. And the hair. And the wicked appropriation of my warm spot in bed.