I know it's been a while, all my stuff was packed up for the 1st half of the year because of being given notice to quit my accommodation. The new place fell through on our move out date and we eventually got a place in July. The rest of the year has flown by.
So back to the task at hand, I rescued a pooch and he's been the light of our lives, as well as a huge handful in the beginning. Thankfully he's less like a wild dog and more a cuddly ball of fluff now.
I wanted to make a quick and easy coat for our winter walks. I had a hi-visibility bag (which I think might be waterproof too), it was meant for shoes or gym kit, you know, the kind with drawstrings.
Basically I unpicked the stitches and removed one of the reflector strips, then cut it in half. I drafted a basic pattern, by using a paper rectangle and putting in over the dog (much fun he thought). I folded it in half lengthwise, cut out a U shape for the neck. Tried it on again to see if the tips overlapped at the front. Marked the tailed length and the depth. Then laid the folded sheet on the floor, to draw another U shape from the tail to the front. Tested it on the pooch to see if it was ok.
All looking good I cut out a piece of the bag and pinned cotton twill tape all the way around the edge. As seen in the photo below.
As you can see it looks just like a bib vest. After carefully sewing the tape, I added Velcro to the front closure. At this point I fitted onto the pooch (who still wasn't fed up) to locate the best place for the strap. Using the cotton twill tape, I pinned it to one side and measured it under the belly until it overlapped the hem on the other side by 2cm, I gave it an extra 2cm to fold over and sew on another bit of Velcro.
Ta-Da!! Here's the little rascal modelling his new vest. Note the bits of paper he was shredding while he was waiting.
