Harsh winter ahead? How to make an easy upcycled dog sweater to keep your dog warm

Read on for a descriptive tutorial on how I made these 2 dog sweaters from one upcycled sweater!

Winter is soon coming, and if we heed the prediction of the Farmer's Almanac, I am told we are in for a pretty fierce winter.

Before I go further, I think it only fair to give credit to Benjamin Franklin, who first published Poor Richard's Almanack (sometimes Almanac) in 1732. Franklin adopted the pseudonym of "Poor Richard" or "Richard Saunders" for the purpose of publishing the almanac until 1758. This was no shabby publication in the American colonies as it reach upward of 10,000 per year. Quite an impressive accomplishment, to be sure!

The very popular Almanack offered up a calendar, seasonal weather forecasts, practical household hints and tips, word play, witty phrases, puzzles, proverbs, astrological information, on going stories and much more. The Almanack also served as a reflection of the norms and social mores of American colonial times. There is much to learn from studying that era in time. If you have not read about it, I would encourage you to do so. It is quite interesting. It is a great homeschool lesson and there is almost no end to the avenues of study one might embark upon as a spin off from this lesson.

Poor Richard's Almanack influenced other almanac publications. Today, we have the Farmers' Almanac. It contains a wealth of interesting information. Many people hold fast to the advice printed within the Farmers' Almanac, while others take the weather predictions with a grain of salt or deny the validity of any statements within altogether. This year's Farmers' Almanac predicts the following weather in the United States for winter:
   According to the 2015 edition of the Farmers’ Almanac, the winter of 2014–15 will see below-normal temperatures for about three-quarters of the nation. A large zone of very cold temperatures will be found from east of the Continental Divide east to the Appalachians. The most frigid temperatures will be found from the Northern Plains into the Great Lakes. The coldest outbreak of the season will come during the final week of January into the beginning of February, when frigid arctic air drops temperatures across the Northern Plains to perhaps 40 below zero. As the frigid air blows across the Great Lakes, snow showers and squalls will drop heavy amounts of snow to the lee of the Lakes.
 (source: http://farmersalmanac.com/weather/2014/08/24/2015-us-winter-forecast/)

Dogs and Winter Weather:

Wherever you stand on your belief of the weather forecast in the current almanac, should the predictions prove true, your pets might thank you when going outside if they have some sort of sweater or covering to help keep them warm and the snow off their bodies. Now before I go on, I will say, "Yes! I know they have fur," but if your dog spends a lot of time outside in the elements, or, if your dogs are like mine and go out only to relieve themselves, they might need a sweater for extra warmth. Seeing a dog shiver in the snow, ice or cold weather is not a pretty sight. My small dogs are not used to staying out in the cold. When I take them outside, even if for a short while, they shiver quite a bit. A sweater seems quite a good idea for helping to keep them warm. (While I am on the subject, dog boots are a fantastic idea for protecting your dog's feet from damage or injury related to snow and ice exposure.)

I looked around at dog sweaters in various stores and was not pleased with the ones that I found. Many seemed to be made of inferior fabric, had poor quality workmanship or were priced outrageously. I looked high and low and found nothing that was made well or was within my budget. I decided that I might try to fashion a few dog sweaters by up-cycling a pretty sweater that a member of my family had outgrown. My thought was that if I failed, I had lost nothing, but if I succeeded, my dogs would have lovely, handmade, one of a kind, matching sweaters and I would have saved a bundle by upcycling. It also felt pretty good knowing that I would be doing something nice for our planet. Seemed like a win / win situation to me.

Here are the sweaters I made for my dogs. Please excuse their disheveled hair. The poor things had tried on the sweaters more than a half dozen times as I was making these .

How I made my dog sweaters:

I am going to attempt to give a brief, though not extensive, descriptive tutorial here (you can find many tutorials on the internet for making upcycled dog sweaters). I had no pattern to make these sweaters. Mine were fashioned by trial and error. I will do my best to explain to you how I made them. If you intend to attempt to make an upcycled sweater for your dog, I encourage you to measure your dog, and then remeasure before cutting. Your sweater must be large enough to get on and off your dog fairly easily but snug enough so as not to be sloppy or become easily soiled or snagged when your dog is outside.

This first thing I did was to search for a sweater that was large enough to fashion a matching sweater for both my dogs. I began with a child size colorful acrylic sweater that I retrieved from our intended donation bin. Acrylic is ideal for tossing in the washer and dryer when time to launder. (Another savings! No dry cleaning cost!) I neglected to take a photograph of the sweater before I started. I did, however, take one after laying the sweater flat and making my first cut.

Note: If you intend to try this at home (and I hope you do) be forewarned that this can be a bit messy as lots of little pieces "come out" of the sweater when cut.

As you can see, the sweater had a large fold down neck that one might almost call a turtle neck, though not quite. I did not bother this neck as it seemed perfect for the larger of my dogs.  The sweater had an inside out sort of look to the fabric which lent itself well to dog sweaters, or so I believe.
The main portion, or body of the sweater, would be used for my larger dog and the sleeves for my smaller dog. The waist band would be removed and used for arm holes for both sweaters. ( I just smoothed the sweater flat and cut the waist band straight off, leaving enough sweater to use for seam allowance. This was minimal. I then cut the band into 4 carefully measured pieces which I used for sleeves.) The arm cuff of the sleeve was left on for use as a neck for my smaller dog. My smallest dog weighs just over 5 pounds, so I altered the neck by tapering it just a little so as to fit her well.

Measure your dog from the base of his or her neck to base of tail. Allow for seam allowance. This piece will be the piece that lays on top of your dog's back. It should be cute from the front of the sweater if you plan to include the sweaters existing neck, as I did. Make sure to get your top piece long enough to come to the base of the tail with a little extra for seam allowance. The piece will be wide at this point. You can determine how wide you need the piece to be later.




Next, measure from base of neck down belly, stopping a few inches before rear legs. Again, allow for a small seam allowance. Measure around your dog at the widest part. Make sure the width of both top and bottom piece will allow enough room to go around your dog's body. Again, don't forget seam allowance. Your second piece will be fashioned by the back of the sweater. Seam allowance should be about 1/2 inch at the sides. You will need to determine how wide your pieces need to be according to the measurements of your own dog. Once you have determined how wide the top and bottom pieces need to be in order to establish needed width, can cut pieces accordingly. Place right sides of both pieces together or in other words, turn your item inside out.  Pin both pieces in place to prepare for sewing. Leave small opening where the sleeves will go. You can determine how far down to leave sleeve hole openings by measuring from neck to base of leg. Sew up the sides all but the opening for the sleeves or leg holes.
OR:
1. measure dog 
a) length of dog from the top of the front leg over the back to the top of the other front leg 
b) length from base of the neck (where the collar would sit) to the base of the tail 
c) distance around thickest part of the body 
d) length from the neck to where you want the sweater to end underneath (shorter length for boys) 



I used the waist band to fashion the sleeves. In this case, I measured them for circumference and sewed them in a circle first and then put them in the opening I left in the side seam for their insertion. This is best established by pinning them in place before sewing. I also found that it was easier for me to sew the entire sweater by hand before heading to the sewing machine. I basted all seams first and then tried the sweaters on my dogs for fit. The trying on was done far more than I might have hoped. ( I think my dogs were getting tired of me trying the sweaters on them and they finally went to hide. I can't blame them. I would have grown weary too.) The basting worked out well since I had to make quite a few alterations as I went along. It is much easier to remove a basted seam than one that has been securely sewn on the sewing machine. The seam ripper tends to damage the sweater fiber, so I suggest you do as I did and baste by hand first.



Because I put the sleeves in the side seam of the sweaters, I had to take a couple darts in the excess chest material. Depending on the fullness of your dogs chest, you may not have to do this. It was necessary for mine. I turned the sweaters inside out and made a tiny dart just to the inside of each sleeve in the chest area. This is made like a "v" shape. I didn't take a picture of this, but I am sure you can find simple directions on either You Tube, by internet search or in most any sewing manual. I could have made my chest darts deeper, but I elected no to do so because I wanted to allow room for winter hair growth and the size of the tags that hang from the collars of my dogs. When making your sweater, if you make darts, you will have to determine the size according to your dog. If they are not deep enough initially, they are simple to redo. (Again, I recommend basting first before heading to the sewing machine.)

The above photograph shows the finished sweaters as you would see them when viewing the dogs back. As you can see, the end of the sweater (the part near the dog's tail) ends just above where the tail begins. (I allowed about 3/4 to 1 inch seam allowance here to accomplish the rolled hem look.) If you look closely here, you can see that the tail region on top has a hand rolled hem. To achieve this, I simply rolled the sweater material to the inside a bit, giving it a rounded appearance. I basted it in place. I saw this look on a very expensive dog sweater on line. I love the look and was thrilled to find that it could be quite easily accomplished.

The underside, or belly area stops a few inches before the legs (see the red arrows).
I made a rolled hem here as well simply by rolling the sweater fabric to the inside and basting across. The sweater needs to end several inches before the business area of your dog so they do not soil their sweater when urinating. (If your dog is a male, you may want to end the belly area just a bit higher and refrain from allowing too much sweater to hang down.) No two dogs are exactly the same, so you will need to try your sweater on your dog and use your dog's measurements when making a sweater. I used a child's sweater to fashion my two dog sweaters. If your dog is larger, you will, of course, need to use a larger sweater.

Note: you could easily fashion rear leg straps on the sweater. I have seen many sweaters made with them. I did not elect to put them on my sweaters but it could be achieved quite easily.

Once your sweater has been basted and you have tried your sweater on your dog for a final fitting, you are ready to head to the sewing machine to sew over all basted hems.

These two sweaters took me a bit of time to make but in the end, I feel it was worth my effort. I learned a bit, as did my daughter, who is learning to sew. I will likely try upcycling a sweater to make my dogs another sweater / coat at some point in the future. These will do nicely for the winter. Just think....they didn't cost me anything to make!

After reading my tutorial, I hope you are inspired to try upcycling a sweater to make a winter sweater / coat for your dog too. If you don't have a dog, perhaps your cat would like one. If you have no pet, perhaps you could make one for the pet of a friend or neighbor or maybe even make a few to donate to your local animal shelter or rescue.
If you have questions, feel free to contact me. I will do my best to help you.
Happy upcycling!
Thanks for visiting my blog today,
Kassie