Items posted on the main page are available for purchase unless otherwise indicated. If you'd like to purchase an item shown, send me a message indicating which country you live in and I'll quote you a shipping price. All payments are processed through Paypal only. If you're looking for a custom item, let me know the specifics and I'll quote you a total price. Custom items typically take 6 weeks to produce after payment is received. Keep this in mind when asking for custom orders.

Friday, December 26, 2014

Making Dog Sweaters or Cat Sweaters

Well, winter has set in around here. It's not going to let us go until at least March (though May has become more common in recent years), so it's coats for everyone. That includes our four-legged friends. In our house, that means the dogs and cats.

We have poodles, toy poodles to be exact, so it's important that the little guys (and girls) and warm enough. Since it routinely gets to forty below in the winter, "warm enough" is a relative term. Still, we have to try, so this time every year I break out the fleece and get to work.

If you want to make a dog sweater (or a cat sweater) yourself, it's actually not all that hard. You don't even need a pattern, though patterns for pet sweaters can be found at most fabric stores. At home, however, I don't bother with a pattern. I simply get out the fabric I'm looking for and have the dog (or cat) in question lie still on the flat fabric. I can then trace the pet, making sure to leave enough ease so the sweater fits when I'm finished. I even add a hood, though since the animals hate hoods, this step is only for my own entertainment.

Once I have two pieces cut (because all pets have two sides, let's remember), The rest is easy. Sew it all together, making sure to leave enough room in the belly to get the sweater on the dog (I don't do Velcro or elastic for pet sweaters because the cat eats both).

I really wish I had a picture of one of the cats in a sweater, but they seem camera shy. Or maybe they're embarrassed. I did use pink bunny fleece for both of them...and they're boys.