Waterproof Coats... For Dogs!

Welcome to my first blog post. I thought I would share my latest project with you which is making waterproof coats for the family's dogs (we have 4!)

Molly, my daughter's dog (by the way my is daughter is called Rachel but I call her Pea, in case you wonder what I am talking about) was first in line to get her new winter coat.

After deciding which dog was to receive their coat first - which can be a tricky task when you have multiple pets - the first step after drawing my own pattern onto poster paper (found online) was to cut out the pattern for the outside of the coat. In this case a lovely blue, lightweight, waterproof fabric, which I found online. The reason I chose blue fabric despite being made for a girl dog, is due to my daughter's favourite colour being blue.

The below picture is the piece of fabric after being cut. Note the neck of the coat is top left.

The next step was to cut the underside of the coat. To do this I laid out my pre-cut pattern from before and trimmed around the edges to create an identical shape as the material. This, believe it or not was cut from a fleece underblanket for a mattress (which I was also able to find online). The two pieces were then pinned together.

The final stage, was putting the two pieces. To do this I matched the wrong sides together and pinned it to hold in place. The wrong sides were matched together so that the stitching I was about to do would be on the inside of the coat rather than the outside, giving a more professional and neater finish. I then stitched the sides on my sewing machine, removing the pins as I went along, eventually, leaving about a 3" gap along one side to allow for turning out the right way. This gap is then  hand stitched.

It was then necessary to create a join to attach the two side pieces for the neck together. This piece was measured and subsequently made from two strips of the materials. Again sewn inside out and turned using 2" gap at one end. This was hand sewn to either side of the coat neck, as can be seen from the picture below. I then felt as an extra little touch it would be appropriate to add two blue buttons.

The fastening that I chose for the coat was simply Velcro, as I thought that it would be easy to get on and off (although I have used buttons in the past). The Velcro size is cut according to size of dog, in this case about 4". These were then sewn on to either side of the underbelly of the coat where it would be fastened on Molly (this can be stiff but persevere!)

Done & Dusted

So there we have it - how simple was that! Molly now has her handmade winter coat for those wet and windy days which we know all to well here in the North of Ireland. Below is a picture of the little lady, looking beautiful I might add.

Measurements

Just a note, Molly is a small Springer- Spaniel cross and her particular measurements were, Waist (taken from centre of her back, under the belly and then up to meet other side of back) 26". Base of neck  to top of tail , 22". 

I hope you enjoyed reading my first blog post and liked my finished coat. I think Molly does as she gets really excited when she is shown it and can't wait to get it on.

I hope you re-create this yourself and if you do I would love to hear about how you get on!