This is a pattern that I first made about 5 years ago. I only know this because I had to go back that far to find pictures of my pups in the first iteration of the coat!
The first time I made the coat, it was out of this cute houndstooth fabric lined with a fleece. It was way too big for my pups, even though I made it in size small. I ended up giving that coat to my dog's acupuncturist, who put it to good use.
The second time around, I cut the coat to an extra small, and that worked perfectly for the pups! Lesson Learned: If you plan to reuse patterns, trace them onto other paper (I use this) instead of cutting into them. Makes life easier when you need a different size. I learned this the hard way on this pattern.
The first time I made the coat, it was out of this cute houndstooth fabric lined with a fleece. It was way too big for my pups, even though I made it in size small. I ended up giving that coat to my dog's acupuncturist, who put it to good use.
The second time around, I cut the coat to an extra small, and that worked perfectly for the pups! Lesson Learned: If you plan to reuse patterns, trace them onto other paper (I use this) instead of cutting into them. Makes life easier when you need a different size. I learned this the hard way on this pattern.
Dudley and Sparkle hanging out together. Her brown coat is the one I made with this pattern. He had to suffer with ready-to-wear because I messed up the sizing on his!
While I mostly followed the directions for View C, I didn't follow the pattern exactly. I didn't want to make pockets, but that was the view I liked best, so I just did that sans pockets. Instead, I bought iron-on patches and sewed them on.
I like the design better. The other issue with this pattern is that there's no hole for dogs who wear harnesses. On Sparky's coat, I jimmied up a place to attach a leash. It isn't pretty because I used a D-ring and strapping that didn't match the fabric. This is not an approach I'd recommend if your dog is a puller; it's not strong enough. Sparky is a gentle soul, so it's not a problem for her. (I'll talk more about this in the second Doggie Coat post, because my new guy is a puller!)
What I recall from the first two times of making the pattern is that it took me forever, because I was still relatively new to sewing. But it also wasn't bad. You can't see it in the picture, but I made several pretty big mistakes in Sparky's coat. The band that goes around her waist was sewn on upside down so the fleece is on the outside. Oops! The velcro and leash bit are black, so they do not match the coat and kinda detract from the look.
Lesson Learned #2: Double check how things will appear when sewn together. You'd think I would have learned this lesson already, but nope. Just did it again last week. Hello, seam ripper!
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