The Doggie Sweatshirt Refashion

 Hello Readers. Christmas has passed but one of the gifts I gave my daughter was a sweatshirt from sparkpaws.com (Not an ad. I just liked the shirts.) I loved that they made sweatshirts for dogs that matched their human. But I miss judged the size of little Gordon. And he couldn't get his front legs into the shirt.

I added the dark blue strip of fabric on each side of the doggie sweatshirt so that Gordon would have more breathing room. 

Gordon did not really understand why I was taking photos but he was too big to get his sweatshirt on. This photo is from Christmas morning and I knew I could send the shirt back to the company and get a different sweatshirt. But I really wanted to try and fix it myself.

 

I have already used this sweatshirt dress in other projects so I cut some of it off for this dog refashion.

 

I cut 2 narrow strips of fabric. 

 

I sewed the strips into each side. I had cut the seam open under each sleeve and then stitched the blue fabric in using my serger. A zigzag stitch would work for this too. 

 

Here is a look inside at the seams. It was pretty easy sewing. I tried to follow the angle of the shirt where it curved around the belly area. 

 

Gordon wasn't thrilled with being photographed but I wanted to show how cute the sweatshirts are together.

 

Once Gordon was allowed to relax on the sofa you could really see how much he liked the sweatshirt. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. Or your dog!

 

 ***Year End Update- Gordon is still wearing this sweatshirt. He has short fur and gets chilly.
 

 

 

 

 

My Dog Needs A Safety Vest

Hello Readers. If you read the title you are probably wondering why my dog needs a safety vest. What is he up to that is putting him in danger? Well, I like to walk everyday and he needs a daily walk but he can't take the heat. It is really hot this time of year and so we walk him at night. It is dark and his fur is black so he is hard to see. There aren't a lot of street lights where I live. I thought if he wore this reflective vest he would be more visible.

The vest is man-shaped and I need it to be dog-shaped. You can see here it is too big on K.C. He is a big dog but this vest isn't going to work like this. It also needs to be out of the way in the belly so he can do his business.

I opened up the lower front of the vest. I just folded the lower front corners in and sewed them inside. 

I also took out about 6 inches from the back. I just sewed a new seam down the middle of the back of the vest and cut away the excess. It is sort of plastic-like, so it wont fray.

 I also made some darts in the back, shoulder blade area (Do dogs have shoulder blades?) because the arm holes were too big and loose.

Here is K.C. in the finished jacket. It is still loose enough so he in comfortable. It took a lot of treats to get this picture because I woke him up and he was enjoying his nap.

Here is the vest in the dark. It is not a great picture but you can see it is very reflective and that's what I wanted. The vest is so much easier to see than his black fur.

That's it for now. Now go make something fun for you or your dog.