Operation: DIY Doggie Coats

As you can tell from the ‘Dog Chronicles’ included in a lot of my posts, Ivy the Dane plays a big role in my life.  I swear I know all her quirks, likes, and dislikes….regardless of how crazy my husband thinks I am for thinking  that way.  She is a welcomed distraction in my life.

With that said, she doesn’t like being cold. I swear.  She told me.  Ok no really, she’s a Great Dane and the breed has a thin coat and no under coat.  Plus they are extremely lean with not a lot to keep them warm.  I’ve started tucking her in during her naps and covering her up with blankets.  She loves it.

We have a trip coming up to Lake Tahoe and I am making it my mission to make sure she stays warm while we are there.  I wanna see her run around in the snow with her doggy friends but in order to do that without me being the worried dog parent, she needs a sweater!  A coat, or jacket, or something!  Begin operation doggie coat…..

I am fortunate to have a crafty friend (also dog parent) who I am not embarrassed to share my doggie obsessions with.  We made a perfect design team for this project.   First things first tho, we had to let the dogs have their playtime.

Once they were tired of running around, we headed in to get started.  We  grabbed some soft fleece fabrics from my stash and scrounged up some left over velcro. (Yay for free projects!)  Drafting a pattern for a giant dog proved to be a lot more difficult than I anticipated.  Plus its hard to get measurements or a good fitting from a 120lb moving model.

We kept at it.  Took a dinner break in between troubleshooting the machines and separating the dogs from wrestling matches in the house.  Whadayaknow it totally worked!

Ivy’s coat has two layers of super soft warm fleece, adjustable velco closure in the front and around the chest.

After I got it on her, she was happy as could be and laid down for a nap!

Heather (my doggy parent friend) then moved onto Olive’s coat.  Which proved to be a WHOLE  lot easier than the giant snuggy we spent hours designing.  But we’re not too sure she liked it as much as Ivy did.

Im already working on another design (in my head) for 1 single layer sweater without the velcro straps.  Hoping to get to it within the next week!