Chilly Dogs

We’ve had below-freezing temperatures five nights in a row, and it has not been nice. Maybe the heating and plumbing contractors are pleased, but the rest of us are just trying to thaw out as we view the gruesome carnage that used to be our gardens. When I’ve had a chance to uncover everything and fully survey it, I’ll post a picture of my plants so we can all remember the Great Freeze of 2013.

In the meantime, let’s look at what the dogs got to keep them warm during those freezing nights.

My sewing mojo went missing somewhere around the time of my hand injury, but now that my hand is fine, I still don’t feel like sewing! But my poor pups were really cold! So I got over my inertia, grabbed some small pieces of fleece I’d picked up at Joann’s for this very purpose, and made two little coats.

At first I thought I could design one, but the muslin fitting process was not popular with the dogs.

So the coats are loosely based on B5126, View B.

It’s lucky that the pattern was multi-sized, because I used size Extra-small at the neck, Small in the torso, and Medium in the length.

As usual, I followed exactly none of the instructions.

Instead of a separate belt, I simply cut the waistband as part of the single coat piece. I made a hem all around the edge to limit the stretching.

The neck is held together with a 2” length of sewn-on Velcro, and the belly band with a 3” length.

I originally thought they should have hoods, but after making Dolly’s coat, I realized the hood didn’t make much sense.

The coat fit perfectly, but the hood was flopping all over the place.

I’d started out with a small, square hood, gathering the base to fit the neck. It looked like this.

 

I cut it down, and it fits better, but still slips off pretty easily.

I could make it much smaller, but that would squash her gigantic ears!

Manny’s coat is the same pattern, but with no hood.

I gave Manny a fancy belt, just because.

They LOVE these coats. They wore them all day, inside and outside. It's nice to make something that fits perfectly, is useful, and it was finished in the right season!

Katrina