Sound good? Great.
Several years ago, Margot received a few sweaters for Christmas. If you're scoffing at a dog receiving Christmas presents, then we can't be friends. Dogs are family. Plain and simple. We tried to make Margot wear the sweaters, as she's always either shaking, curled up in front of the heating vents, or wrapped in a blanket during winter. Unfortunately, she thought the sweaters meant playtime, and ran in circles, jumping and writhing to bite and get them off. So disappointing.
UNTIL.....this fall. Margot has accrued some wisdom in her advancing age. Those silvery whiskers under her chinny chin chin must have caused a revelation, because I attempted the sweaters once more, and Margot was suddenly digging them. It's like a light bulb clicked in her little doggy brain that realized, Hey, if I keep this on, I won't be so cold!
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| Sitting regally in a warm sweater on top of warm laundry. |
While Margot likes the comfort of the sweaters she has, she wasn't digging the pink paw print one. She's not a pink paw print girl, apparently. So, I decided to make a pit stop at my local thrift shop to pick up something to fashion into a doggy sweater. Bingo! Half off day, which means I got this lovely little sleeveless sweater for $1.
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| Cute, right? Maybe I should have just saved it for myself... |
I started out by measuring the pieces of the current doggy sweaters I have- there are only three distinct pieces of fabric used, so it can't be that hard to make a similar one, right? I cut the first/largest piece from the bottom of the original sweater (which will henceforth be called the OS), and made sure to keep the original hem at the bottom- use what you've got, right?
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| Roughly the same height, and then further cut to mimic the width of the pink sweater. |
I then cut a piece for the neck portion of the sweater, and used the cowl neck of the OS. Last, I used the armhole hem to cut a portion for the underneath part of my new doggie sweater. Now, because the OS was already stretchy, I didn't worry too much about using the same exact measurements as the prototype sweater. I figured that if that sweater fit, so would mine.
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| The smallest piece for the neck is folded over in this picture. |
For the sewing portion, I sewed the largest portion of the sweater to the neck part. What I forgot to do was leave an allowance at the end of each neck piece to attach the bottom portion of the sweater, which would have created a full turtleneck effect. Whoops. It was 8pm, give me a break- I was working without directions here.
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| Yep, that's a placemat. My sewing machine has been sitting on the dining room table for about 4 months now. |
Next, I used a zigzag stitch on all of the remaining cut fabric edges to prevent fraying. If I had a serger, I would have used one, but alas, my craft corner does not have that piece of machinery (yet).
Then, I attached the bottom portion to the sides of the large piece of fabric. I left several inch slits open to allow for Ms. Margot's front legs to slip through. All this sewing took 10 minutes, tops. I then tried the sweater on Margot, and realized that instead of leaving my whoops! mistake top collar portion open, I could sew two lines to my bottom fabric piece in order to cinch it together a little bit more. Done.
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| Sorry, I get sewing and forget to stop for pictures along the way during the process! |
Margot then barked at me to let me know that she thought the sweater needed some bling, so I dug into my button bin and found three flashy little gems, which were promptly sewn onto the back of the sweater. Don't worry, I checked to make sure they were in a location that she couldn't twist herself into a pretzel and bite them off.
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| A luxurious stretch in her new sweater. |
With that, Margot's chic new sweater was finished. Twenty minutes, and $1 spent. Margot is now on the prowl and looking for dates. Any takers?
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| A VERY unclassy pose in a classy sweater. I don't know what kind of mutt she's trying to pick up with this pose. |
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| MUCH better, Margot. |
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