Canine Couture

     Gone are the days when I used to dress my dog for every holiday - no more green and red vests with jingle bells for Christmas or black capes for Halloween.  Now it's just sensible garments to protect my doggie from inclement weather.  Mardi's sweater, knitted when she hadn't reached her full growth, was too tight.  It was time to drag out the sewing machine and my collection of scrap fabrics.  Check out the latest in rainwear:

I had a dog coat that was too small.  I laid it out on some brown paper and traced the parts, enlarging it a bit.  Since it was a completed garment, I had to add back the seam allowances.  I made a sample in some old curtain lining.  I had to wing it for the hood.  It took a few fittings (yes, dogs can have fittings) to get things just right.  I took the sample apart and used the hood pieces as a  pattern along with the brown paper pieces.

I used some flowered cotton for the lining.

Here's the hood.  I had some light weight, fabric backed vinyl that I used for the waterproof outer layer.  I was able to press a little bit by setting the iron low and ironing on the fabric side. 

I made the hood, front fastener, and under body fasteners and top-stitched them.  I sewed them to the main piece, all pointing inward as shown.  I took the main lining piece and laid it over this like a sandwich (keep the right sides of the fabric together, facing each other).  I sewed all around the edges, leaving an open section along the back for turning.  After turning right-side-out, I top-stitched all around the main pattern piece.  The last step was to add velcro closures to the tabs.

This is an outside view.

Here is another view showing the lining and the closures.

Now the pooch will be protected from precipitation. 

She also got a winter coat.  If Happy in Hainesport readers recognize the fabric, that's because it was left over from making my ironing board cover (blog entry from 9/28/12).